Numbered street

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Not to be confused with Route number.
Philadelphia's 10th Street written in English and Chinese

A numbered street is a street whose name is an

ordinal number, as in Second Street or Tenth Avenue. Such forms are among the most common street names in North America, but also exist in other parts of the world, especially in Colombia, which takes the system to an extreme, and the Middle East. Numbered streets were first used in Philadelphia[1] and now exist in many major cities and small towns. Grid-based naming systems usually start at 1 (but sometimes at a higher number or even at zero), and then proceed in numerical order. In the United States, seven out of the top ten most common street names are numbers, with the top three names being "2nd," "3rd," and "1st" respectively.[2] Streets named "0th" are quite uncommon, however, but do exist (sometimes spelled out "Zero Street") (like 0 Avenue in BC, Canada), and negative numbered streets (i.e, "−1st", "−2nd", etc.) are extraordinarily rare. Fractional numbered streets exist in some places, such as 10+1⁄2 Street in Springfield, Illinois
.

Some cities also have lettered street names. For example,

Pierre Charles L’Enfant
, who devised the system for Washington.

The numbered street system is criticized for taking away the individuality from a community that a named street would provide.[3]

North America

United States

Baltimore

See also:
List of streets in Baltimore, Maryland § Numbered streets
34th Street in Baltimore

The city of

Charles Street
the block is located.

Some of Baltimore's numbered streets are well known for various reasons. 28th and 29th streets, a

Television Hill
and is the only numbered street in the city west of I-83.

Chicago

Main article: Roads and expressways in Chicago

The City of Chicago is set on a grid with eight "standard" city blocks per mile. Some blocks are further divided in half. A standard block has 100 address numbers, meaning there are 800 numbers per mile. Chicago address numbering begins downtown at State Street and Madison Street; State Street is 0 east and west, and Madison Street is 0 north and south. Major streets a mile apart have address numbers that, for the most part, are multiples of 800.

The south side of the city uses numbered east–west streets, although older streets that were already named retained their names, particularly in the Loop. As stated above, Chicago house numbers are generally assigned at the rate of 8 blocks to a mile. The only exceptions are from Madison to 31st Street, just south of downtown.

The first two main numbered roads in the system were renamed for historical figures after the numbering system was adopted. Roosevelt Road (previously 12th Street and renamed for Theodore Roosevelt) is one mile south of Madison with 12 blocks to the mile, Cermak Road (previously 22nd Street and renamed in memory of assassinated mayor Anton Cermak) is two miles south of Madison with 10 blocks to the mile, and 31st Street (3100 S) is three miles south of Madison with 9 blocks to the mile. South of 31st Street, the pattern of 8 blocks to the mile resumes, with 39th Street the next major street, 47th after that, and so on.

The numbering within Chicago is continued in many suburbs south of the city proper. For instance, Chicago Heights has a 185th Street, set on the same numbering scheme.

Chicago's numbered street system was established in 1911 by legislation that made Madison Street the base for the numbering of east–west streets, and State Street for north–south streets.[4]

Cleveland

Map
  Streets
  Courts
  Ontario Street (East–West dividing line)
 
Martin Luther King Junior Drive

As a general rule, the only numbered streets in

North Olmsted to East 367th in Eastlake, adjacent to the Willoughby
municipal line.

Denver

Main article: Street system of Denver

Denver has two systems in place in two distinct areas of the city. Downtown Denver's diagonal street system technically begins with 4th Street near Auraria Campus, underneath the Colfax Avenue viaduct. The system then counts up northeastward from 4th Street to 40th Street. The diagonal system meets the normal numbered grid at various points, with the termination of the downtown system at 40th Avenue and 40th Street in the Five Points neighborhood.

The second system is a typical East/West layout, with directional indicators. First Avenue is adjacent to Ellsworth Avenue in Central Denver; the series extends to 168th Avenue in unincorporated Adams County. Exceptions include Colfax Avenue, which takes the place of 15th Avenue, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which generally takes the place of East 32nd Avenue. The designations East and North are generally not used unless needed. Building numbers on cross-streets reflect the street numbering; for example, 1800 Colorado Boulevard would be at the corner of 18th Avenue. (1800 South Colorado Boulevard is outside the area of numbered streets.)

Detroit

Main article:
Mile Road System (Detroit)
8 Mile Road overpass

In the northern suburbs of

8 Mile Road, which at one time was called "Baseline Road". The highest such numbered road is 38 Mile Road, which is mostly in Almont
.

The city of Detroit also has some conventional numbered streets within the city limits.

Los Angeles

Main articles: Los Angeles Avenues; Los Angeles streets, 1–10; Los Angeles streets, 11–40; and Los Angeles streets, 41–250

In the city of Los Angeles, all numbered streets begin from the historic corner of First and Main and are numbered according to the distance from there in their respective quadrants.[6]

Greater Miami

In Greater Miami, numbered streets go into the three digits, with varying, overlapping sets of numbered streets. The area has roads that are named as a number followed by "Street" that runs west–east, and a number followed by "Avenue" that runs north–south. All these streets start their names with NW, NE, SW, or SE, depending on where they are in relation to the center of Miami.

In the Miami suburbs, some numbered streets and avenues are paired with a parallel "Court", "Drive", "Place" or "Terrace"; while in the same area, other sets of numbered streets and avenues exist with lower numbers, such as in Hialeah, where W 68th St is also designated NW 122 St [1]. This is known to lead to confusion among some, especially non-locals.

Similar numbering systems are used throughout the state of Florida, such as in Gainesville, Ocala, Panama City, and Jacksonville.

New York City

Main article: List of numbered streets in Manhattan
Fifth Avenue and E. 57th Street in Manhattan

The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 laid out the grid that covers most of Manhattan today. Most east–west streets (which actually run southeast–northwest) are named "___th Street", and a few major north–south streets (which actually run northeast–southwest, roughly parallel to the island's long axis) are named "___th Avenue".

The highest-numbered

street on Manhattan Island
is 220th Street, and the highest-numbered street in the Borough of Manhattan is 228th Street.

The Manhattan numbered street grid continues north in The

Third Avenue
.

In Queens, the melding of various grids from pre-consolidation villages resulted in repeat numbers, for example, 31st Street, 31st Place, 31st Lane, and their perpendicular counterparts 31st Avenue, 31st Road, and 31st Drive. Streets, Places and Lanes run north to south, while Avenues, Roads, and Drives run east to west. Avenues run from 2nd Avenue in Whitestone to 165th Avenue in Howard Beach. Streets run from 1st Street in Astoria to 271st Street in Glen Oaks.

In

letter avenues up to Avenue Z. Manhattan's Alphabet City consists of Avenues A through D
.

The

Cross Bay Boulevard
.

The closest cross street to a given

building number in Manhattan can be estimated using the Manhattan address algorithm
.

The highest-numbered street in all of New York City is 271st Street, in

Thirteenth Avenue, on Gansevoort Peninsula in the Hudson River just north of Gansevoort Street. Currently, only one unmarked block remains, currently used as a garbage truck access behind the Bloomfield Street Sanitation Depot. The street was once longer, but much of the land it was built on was removed to provide longer piers for berthing larger ships, such as RMS Lusitania and RMS Titanic, without protruding further into the Hudson River. Twelfth Avenue
is the highest numbered avenue that is signed by the city and accessible to the public. Higher-numbered avenues exist in other boroughs.

Sixth and a Half Avenue, is the only numbered avenue in Manhattan involving fractions.[11][failed verification
]


Philadelphia

Original street plan of Center City Philadelphia

Front Street in place of First and Broad Street in place of Fourteenth; "Schuylkill Front Street" became 22nd when the streets west of Broad were renumbered. The highest numbered street is 90th Street.[13] In Southwest Philadelphia, the grid is oblique, with numbered streets running from northwest to southeast and meeting their West Philadelphia equivalents at Baltimore Avenue. In general, numbered streets northwest of the Schuylkill are not aligned with their counterparts across the river in South Philadelphia.[14]

The

West Oak Lane sections of the city contains east–west streets numbered from 64th Avenue to 80th Avenue, with the numbers correspondent with the block numbers north from Market Street.[15]

In the early 20th century, many of Chestnut Hill's previously numbered streets were renamed for Native American tribes.[16]


Phoenix

In Phoenix, Arizona, the north-south streets used a numbered system, with the center street being Central Avenue. Streets west of Central Avenue are named "avenue", thus, for example, 1st Avenue is the first street west of Central Avenue. Streets east of Central Avenue are named "street", thus, for example, 1st Street is the first street east of Central Avenue. These streets and avenues are further divided into, for example, "North 1st Avenue" and "South 1st Avenue", with the dividing line being a line extending from Washington Street. East-west streets are not named using a numbered system.[17] Adjacent municipalities, such as Glendale and Peoria, continue this grid system, although there are exceptional streets that do not follow the numbered street convention.[17][18]

Pittsburgh

In the city of Pittsburgh, the numbered street were originally named streets that were perpendicular to the Allegheny River. Sixth Street, for example was originally named St. Clair Street. The numbered streets were created by an ordinance passed in 1868. [19]

San Francisco

Main article: List of streets in San Francisco

San Francisco has two numbered series: streets, which run generally east–west, and avenues, which are north–south. The two series do not meet.

The numbered streets begin with 1st Street in

Noe Valley. Some of these streets are only nominally east–west, which causes anomalies such as 3rd Street meeting 26th Street in the Dogpatch
.

The numbered avenues are in the Richmond and Sunset Districts beginning with 2nd Avenue and continuing westward to 48th Avenue, which runs parallel to the Pacific Ocean shore.

St. Louis

Main article: Numbered streets of St. Louis

Number streets of St. Louis, Missouri, start at the Mississippi River and increase as they go west. Over time, the various municipalities took over and renamed most of the numbered streets with names. However, a few numbered streets remained.[20]

Washington, D.C.

Main article: Streets and highways of Washington, D.C.
7th St and H Street, N.W, in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Capitol building.[21]

Within the city, the quadrants are divided by three streets known as North, East, and South Capitol Streets, and by the National Mall, which takes the place of the non-existent West Capitol Street. Numbers start counting upward on either side of North and South Capitol Streets, and letters start counting upward on either side of East Capitol Street and the National Mall.[citation needed]

Canada

Calgary

The city of Calgary uses a quadrant system with a grid set. The east–west demarcation line separating the north and south is the Bow River west of Nose Creek, Centre Avenue directly east of Nose Creek, and Memorial Drive east of 36th Street. The north–south line is Centre Street north of Glenmore Trail and Macleod Trail south of Glenmore Trail. Streets run north–south and avenues run east–west; both are numbered beginning at the demarcation lines. Many older areas also have "A" and "B" streets interspersed between the numbered streets; for instance, in most older neighbourhoods the street directly west of Centre Street is 1st Street, but a Centre A Street runs for short distances in certain areas. Suburban neighbourhoods built since approximately 1971 tend to have named streets except in cases where numbered streets extend into the district. A typical (if fictional) street address in an older district would be "4214-19A Street SW". As a result, addresses of buildings on numbered streets are worthless unless the quadrant (SW, NW, NE, SE) is indicated.

The grid is based on the Dominion Land Survey, with many of the main roads in the older areas of town (such as Crowchild Trail SW and 17th Avenue SE) following the lines that separate one DLS section from another ("section lines").

Avenues in the

Municipal District of Foothills No. 31
south of Calgary are numbered as they would be if they were in the city (with quadrant omitted). However, the basis for numbered streets in the Municipal District of Foothills (the "zero" street) is the Fifth Meridian (114° west), approximately 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) east of Calgary's Centre Street. Streets are then numbered east and west with 16 streets for each one-mile grid road – or one street number per 100 m. This leads to situations at the south city limit where the street number changes (e.g. 85 Street SW changes to 144 Street W). The impetus for this came originally from emergency response groups, such as fire departments and police.

Rocky View County, which surrounds Calgary to the east, west and north, uses a different system of road numbers based on the Alberta Township System for land surveys. In Rocky View, range roads run north–south and are numbered in 1-mile (1.6 km) (the boundary of one survey section) increments west from the nearest survey range line (e.g. Range Road 51 is 1 mile west of the east edge of Range 5 west of the 5th Meridian). Township roads are east–west roads numbered in similar increments north of survey township lines (e.g. Township Road 264 is 4 miles north of the south edge of Township 26). Addressing is based on the distance west or north from the nearest crossroad (e.g. 264054 Range Road 51 would be north of Township Road 264). Roads ending in 0 are on their respective range or township lines. Suffixed roads (e.g. ending with an "A", "B", etc...) are between section lines (e.g. along "quarter" lines which split the 640-acre sections into smaller quarter-sections).

Edmonton

The city of Edmonton's grid system is similar in nature to Calgary's, except that the two roads designated at the "center" of Edmonton were numbered 101st (Jasper) Avenue and 101st (Main) Street. This was done to eliminate the possibility that the city would have quadrants as Calgary does.[citation needed] The gradual expansion of the city now extends it east and south of what is 1st (Meridian) Street and 1st (Quadrant) Avenue. As a result, most of the city is officially in the northwest quadrant, but common practice is to not refer to the quadrant unless the address being mentioned is not in the northwest quadrant. The city limits do not yet extend into where the southeast quadrant would be located, meaning addresses will be post-fixed with either NW, SW, or NE.

Metro Vancouver

A grid system of numbered streets and avenues is used south of the

Langley. Avenues run east–west and are numbered starting with 0 ("Zero") avenue next to the Canada–US border and going north, with the numbers incrementing each 1⁄8 mile (200 m). Streets run north–south and are numbered starting with zero lying in the Strait of Georgia and going east, with the numbers incrementing each 1⁄8 mile, just like the avenues. Minor streets named with a number followed by a letter (136A Street, 136B street) are situated between the numbers.[22]

The city of Vancouver proper uses its own road numbering system, numbering east–west avenues from first at False Creek and incrementing south. Avenues are further classified with an "East" or "West" prefix (e.g. E 41st Ave). Ontario Street (two blocks west of Main Street) demarcates the boundary for this prefix. The highest numbered street in the city is W 77th Avenue, in an industrial area of the Marpole neighbourhood.

Similarly, the city of New Westminster has its own numbering system with avenues northeast–southwest and streets northwest–southeast. This numbered grid continues into southeastern parts of neighbouring Burnaby.[citation needed]

Other Canadian cities and towns

See also:
Concession Road

Many small towns and cities in Western Canada use numbered streets. Some begin numbering at Centre or Main (0) as Calgary does, but others follow Edmonton's example and begin numbering at 1, 50, or 100. Examples include

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan only the streets, running east–west, are numbered (aside from avenues downtown, which is numbered from 1st to 10th); there are lettered avenues to the west of Idylwyld Drive, which was formerly known as Avenue A (a stub of Avenue A does remain south of 20th Street though). Streets in the Sutherland district in Saskatoon have numbered 101 St to 117 St. This was done when the town of Sutherland amalgamated with Saskatoon, to avoid confusion with Saskatoon's numbered streets, which run from 1 to 71.[citation needed
]

Numerous street numbering schemes were proposed for the various municipalities originally making up Greater

Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg
, but the street names within the base were chosen by the Department of National Defence and not by the city itself.

Numbered streets are less common in Eastern Canada, with some notable exceptions.

Owen Sound, Ontario, is one of the few cities that primarily use numbered streets and avenues. Saint-Georges, Quebec has a numbered system of streets/rues and avenues that extends into the surrounding Chaudière-Appalaches region. Many urban enclaves were established with numbered streets or avenues as part of their distinct character. Ottawa has several numbered roads, notably in The Glebe, with avenues numbered First to Fifth. New Toronto has numbered streets, running westward off of Lake Shore Boulevard, starting at 1st Street (just west of Royal York Road), to 43rd Street, excluding Eighteenth Street and Thirty-Fourth Street, as Kipling Avenue and the Long Branch Avenue replace them, respectively. The city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador has a single numbered street called 18th Street, in the Waterford Valley area; it is unclear how this name originated or whether this street was meant to form part of a larger grid system.[23]

Latin America

Argentina

Cities built on a grid plan in the interior of Argentina tend to use numbers for their streets, in the familiar even versus odd configuration, with the notable exception of La Plata, where the numbering is consecutive.

Brazil

Some cities (such as Goiânia and Rio Claro) use numbered streets, though main streets might receive different names.

Colombia

All 1,119

Bogota
the capital city.

Cuba

Havana has even-numbered streets running north–south, and odd-numbered streets running east–west on the west side of the city, with lettered streets from A through P running north–south beginning on the east side of Paseo Avenue. Some streets are named with a number followed by a letter (23 B Street).[citation needed]

Europe

Germany

Map of Mannheim's city center

A notable European example is the city center of Mannheim where blocks are numbered in a grid-like system since 1811, and streets actually do not have names anymore—for example the houses in "street" B7 are those in the block in grid B7. The houses on the other side of the street belong to other blocks and therefore have another street name.[citation needed]

Hungary

In the capital city Budapest there are some outer districts which have areas with numbered streets (and in one case, a numbered square), like Akadémiaújtelep. These areas are planned communities built in the 1950s.[citation needed]

Netherlands

In Lelystad some streets have a combination of names and numbers. The streets with the same name (but different number) are in the same area. In Botter the names are Botter and Tjalk, in Galjoen the names are Galjoen and Jol, in Schouw the names are Schouw and Gondel, although there are "normal" names there, etc. There are also other cities with similar numbering like Wijchen and Nijmegen.[citation needed]

Portugal

A notable example of a citywide numbered streets system in

odd numbers.[citation needed
]

Numbered streets are also occasionally used in other Portuguese cities, but only in specific areas within them and not as a citywide system. This happens mainly in newly built neighborhoods, especially those planned in a grid pattern.[citation needed]

Russia

Saint Petersburg

Main article: Lines of Vasilyevsky Island

United Kingdom

With the notable exception of Milton Keynes, numbered streets are uncommon in the United Kingdom because cities and towns are generally not laid out in grids. However, the Village, a small area of Trafford Park is laid out in a grid pattern. It has north–south streets numbered from First Avenue in the east to Fifth Avenue in the west, and west–east streets numbered from Fifth Street in the south to Eleventh Street in the north. Birmingham has First to Fourth Avenues, but these are not part of a logical sequence, and Fifth Avenue is in another part of the city. The former mining town of Newtongrange in Midlothian, Scotland has residential streets numbered from First Street to Tenth Street.[citation needed] Another former mining settlement, the village of Horden in County Durham, has a series of numbered streets which were built to house workers at the local colliery, but today suffer from extreme poverty and high levels of crime.[24]

Asia

Hong Kong

On Hong Kong Island, in the Sai Ying Pun neighbourhood, there are a series of streets named with numbers. They are part of a planned layout of the early development of Hong Kong. See First Street, Second Street and Third Street. In the Fairview Park development in the northwestern New Territories many streets are numbered, with sections named by alphabets.[25] A similar system is used in Hong Lok Yuen to the north of Tai Po New Town in northeastern New Territories.

Iran

In Tehran there are multiple sets of numbered streets running from west to east in various sections of the north side of town. In many such sections, the street numbers count upward by two, with even-numbered streets on one side of a neighborhood, and odd-numbered streets on the other. The highest numbered street is 304th Street. The city also has other series of streets with a name combining with a number.[citation needed]

Japan

Main article: Japanese addressing system § Sapporo

United Arab Emirates

In the United Arab Emirates, most streets and roads are numbered. Most commonly in smaller cities, they are identified with a 4-digit number followed by "way".[citation needed] Abu Dhabi has even-numbered streets running west–east, and odd-numbered streets running north–south.[citation needed] Dubai has numbered streets that simply have the number followed by "street" (e.g. 41st Street), as well as streets named with a number followed by a letter (23 B Street).[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ Rybczynski, Witold. "City Life". Simon & Schuster, 1995.
  2. ^ Census and You, February 1993 (United States Census Bureau, Geography Division), as reported in "Most common street names", National League of Cities. Archived August 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Burlingame, E.L.; Bridges, R.; Dashiell, A.; Logan, H. (1910). Scribner's Magazine ... Vol. 47. C. Scribner's sons. p. 577. Retrieved 2015-08-04.
  4. ^ Currey, J.S. (1912). Chicago: Its History and Its Builders, a Century of Marvelous Growth. Vol. 3. S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 299. Retrieved 2015-08-04.
  5. ^ "Street Names". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. 29 June 2018.
  6. ^ "For Street Addresses, It All Begins at 1st and Main". Los Angeles Times. 27 November 2000.
  7. ^ F.Y.I., NYTimes
  8. ^ Detroit Free Press. Page 136
  9. ^ The San Bernardino County Sun. Page 102
  10. ^ The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana. Page 212.
  11. ^ Officially Marking a New Manhattan Avenue, NYTimes - City Room, July 13, 2012 - accessed 2012-07-31.
  12. ^ "Planning Philadelphia". xroads.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2015-08-04.
  13. ^ Google (2010-12-15). "overview of 90th Street in Philadelphia" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 2010-12-15.
  14. ^ The London-Scottish Reformed Presbyterian magazine. 1869. p. 228. Retrieved 2015-08-04.
  15. ISBN 978-0-87530-777-0
    .
  16. ISBN 9780814205808
    . Retrieved 2015-08-04.
  17. ^ a b Google (2023-11-19). "Street Grid of Phoenix, Arizona" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
  18. ^ "How the grid system of the streets of Phoenix, Arizona works". History Adventuring. 2015-05-10. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
  19. ^ "Pittsburgh Streets".
  20. ^ "Curious Louis: the mystery of the vanishing numbered streets". 21 November 2016.
  21. ^ The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. Vol. 28. Encyclopedia Americana Corporation. 1920. p. 787. Retrieved 2015-08-04.
  22. ^ Jack Brown. "Surrey's Street Numbering System". Surrey History by Jack Brown. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
  23. ^ City of St. John's Archives. "Street Names, Monuments, Areas, Plaques" (PDF). City of St. John’s – Street Names, Areas, Monuments and Plaques. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  24. ^ "'People are starving': village life in Britain's blighted coalfields". The Guardian. 2017-08-26. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
  25. ^ http://hk.centamap.com/gc/centamaplocation.aspx?x=822691&y=837696&sx=822691.79728&sy=837696.03593&z=4&lg=b5
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