34th Street (Manhattan)

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The Empire State building, dominating the skyline.

34th Street is a major cross-town street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, connecting the Lincoln Tunnel and Queens-Midtown Tunnel. Like many of New York City's major crosstown streets, it has its own bus lines (M16 and M34) and four subway stops serving the A, C and E trains at Eighth Avenue, the 1, 2 and 3 trains at Seventh Avenue, the B, D, F, V, N, Q, R, W and PATH trains at Herald Square, and the 6 train at Park Avenue.

[edit] A walk down 34th Street, west to east

Between 7th Ave. and Broadway you will find Macy's. It claims to be the "world's largest store."

At the west end of the street one finds the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City's main convention center. On the West Side 34th Street is in the neighborhood Hell's Kitchen. On Tenth Avenue is a McDonald's with a drive through. Later on Eighth, the Post Office and the new Penn Station dominate on the west side and one may catch Amtrak trains to destinations all over the United States and Canada. Above Penn Station sits Madison Square Garden, which calls itself "the world's most famous arena". The steps of James Farley Post Office are grand. Built on the scale of the old (and much missed) Penn Station, the architecture of the post office gives one a flavor of what the area was like in the height of the railroad era.

34th Street is a self-styled shopping street. Though it endured some decline in the 1970s, it has rebounded with new stores and new energy. A giant video board and light display at 34th and Broadway is like a mini Times Square. Between Seventh Avenue and Broadway, one will find Macy's, the famous department store immortalized in the Christmas movie Miracle on 34th Street. It claims to be the "world's largest store." At Sixth Avenue is the Manhattan Mall, an indoor shopping mall built inside what had been the flagship location of the Gimbel's department store.

After the chaos of the shopping district, the influence of the East Side and the sedate corporate office towers of the neighborhoods Kips Bay and Murray Hill starts to take hold. On Fifth Avenue one finds the Empire State Building. The tallest building in the city, it stands on a rare ledge of solid Manhattan schist dominating the skyline. At the far end one finds bulky luxury residential buildings and a great number of dogs patronizing the pet care parlors that serve the pure-bred loving populations of Kips Bay.

[edit] Places along 34th Street

Places located along 34th Street include (from west to east):

• Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
• Manhattan Center
• Hammerstein Ballroom
• Macy's
• Manhattan Mall
• Herald Square
• One Penn Plaza
• Empire State Building
• H&M
• Victoria's Secret
• Forever 21

[edit] Intersections from east to west

• FDR Drive
• First Avenue
• Second Avenue
• Third Avenue
• Lexington Avenue
• Park Avenue
• Madison Avenue
• Fifth Avenue - East 34th Street becomes West 34th Street
• Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas)
• Broadway
• Seventh Avenue
• Eighth Avenue
• Ninth Avenue
• Dyer Avenue - Lincoln Tunnel access
• Tenth Avenue
• Eleventh Avenue
• West Side Highway

[edit] Subway stations

• 34th Street–Herald Square (New York City Subway)
• 34th Street–Penn Station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
• 34th Street–Penn Station (IND Eighth Avenue Line)

[edit] See also

• Manhattan streets, 23-42
• Miracle on 34th Street
• Koreatown
• Kips Bay

[edit] External links

• http://www.34thstreet.org/