Jaffa Road

Jaffa Road, also called Jaffa Street (

pedestrian mall served by the Jerusalem Light Rail, as well as by the Jerusalem–Yitzhak Navon railway station

directly adjacent to the Central Bus Station.

History

Originally paved in 1861 as part of the highway to

German Colony

, first began a regular carriage service along the road to Jaffa.

During the period of the

1948 Arab-Israeli War

, which separated the Old City from much of modern Jerusalem, Jaffa Road's primacy as the city-centre was unchallenged.

The

Jerusalem Municipality, Jerusalem's main post office, the Mahane Yehuda Market are located on Jaffa Road. As a bustling thoroughfare, it has been targeted by terrorist groups and some of the most devastating terrorist attacks from the late 1960s onward have been carried out on this street,^[2] among them the Zion Square refrigerator bombing (1975), the 1984 Jaffa Road attack, the Jaffa Road bus bombings (1996), the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing (2001), and the Jaffa Street bombing

(2002).

For much of its hundred-year existence, Jaffa Road has served as Jerusalem's central artery. The municipality responded to problems in the struggling city-centre through focused efforts to redevelop the street; Jaffa Road was limited to public transit (buses and taxis) in an attempt to divert

central north-south route to bypass it.^[3]

In order to accommodate the new system, new utility lines were laid under one side of the road, which was also widened. 180 properties were evacuated to allow for the road's improvement.

The

Central Bus Station, it passes over Jaffa Road via Santiago Calatrava's Chords Bridge, which serves as an architectural beacon for the area.^[4]

Significant buildings and landmarks

East to west on historical Jaffa Road:

Jaffa Gate
Jerusalem Old Town Hall
Safra Square with the Jerusalem Municipality complex
Bank Leumi (former Anglo-Palestine Bank) main branch building, by architect Erich Mendelsohn
Central Post Office Building (Jerusalem), by architects Austen Harrison and Percy Harold Winter
Generali Building, by leading Fascist architect Marcello Piacentini
Russian Compound borders to the south on Jaffa Road
Zion Square
Mashiach Borochoff House, 1908 villa
Davidka Square
Mahane Yehuda Market
Ohel Shlomo, former courtyard neighborhood, partially demolished
Sha'arei Yerushalayim, former courtyard neighborhood (demolished)
Batei Saidoff (Saidoff Houses)
Shaare Zedek hospital (old building, 1902–1980, aka "Wallach" or "Amsterdam Hospital")
Jerusalem Central Bus Station and the adjacent Jerusalem–Yitzhak Navon railway station

Chords Bridge (2008) by architect Santiago Calatrava

Gallery

A mural on Jaffa Road depicting artist's vision of the Jerusalem Light Rail in operation.
Jaffa road Jerusalem
Jaffa Road in the rain
Interior of Jaffa Gate in 1856
Visit of
Wilhelm II
of Germany, 1898
Gate of the school of
Alliance israélite universelle
(1882), on Jaffa Road
Original Shaare Zedek hospital building on Jaffa Road, now headquarters of the Israel Broadcasting Authority

References

^ The life and death of Jaffa Road The Jerusalem Post Retrieved 2019-09-03
^ Noga Tarnopolsky (August 4, 2012). "Terror tourism in Israel". According to Yossi Atia, Jaffa Road in Jerusalem is the most terror stricken street in the world. That may well be the case. At least a dozen major attacks have taken place along the road since the 1960s.
^ "Tzahal Square Tunnel Inaugurated". The Jerusalem Post. September 24, 2004. Archived from the original on May 16, 2011.
^ "Jerusalem Light Rail Project". Railway-technology.com. Retrieved 2013-07-20.