at West
57th Street and Eighth Avenue Eighth Avenue begins in the
West Village neighborhood at
Abingdon Square (where
Hudson Street becomes Eighth Avenue at an intersection with
Bleecker Street) and runs north for 44 blocks through
Chelsea, the
Garment District,
Hell's Kitchen's east end,
Midtown and the
Theater District, before it finally enters
Columbus Circle at 59th Street and becomes Central Park West. North of
Frederick Douglass Circle, it resumes its Eighth Avenue designation, but is also known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard. The avenue ends north of
155th Street, and merges into the
Harlem River Drive. The
New York City Subway's
IND Eighth Avenue Line, serving the in Lower Manhattan and the on the Upper West Side, runs under Eighth Avenue.
MTA Regional Bus Operations primarily operates the following bus routes on the avenue. All routes are uptown unless specified below: • The serves Eighth Avenue south of West 66th Street, along with the from West 41st Street to Columbus Circle. • The serves the length of Eighth Avenue north of West 57th Street in its entirety, running in both directions north of West 63rd Street. • The and eastbound
M14A SBS begin Columbus Circle and FDR Drive service at West 12th and Bleecker Streets, and run south of West 14th Street where they head west and east, respectively. • The M12 also runs from West 57th to West 58th Streets before terminating at Broadway. • The runs from West 34th to West 43rd Streets. • The runs between West 72nd Street and either West 65th Street (downtown) or West 66th Street (uptown). • The downtown run from West 97th to West 96th Streets.
Southernmost section The southernmost section is known solely as Eighth Avenue between Abingdon Square and Columbus Circle. This portion of Eighth Avenue has carried traffic one-way northbound since June 6, 1954. Since the 1990s, the stretch of Eighth Avenue that runs through
Greenwich Village and its adjacent Chelsea neighborhood has been a center of the city's
gay community, with bars and restaurants catering to gay men. New York City's annual
gay pride parade takes place along the Greenwich Village section of Eighth Avenue. Also, along with
Times Square, the portion of Eighth Avenue from
42nd Street to
50th Street was an informal
red-light district in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s before it was controversially renovated into a more
family friendly environment under the first mayoral administration of
Rudolph Giuliani. The Midtown section of Eighth Avenue was frequented by tourists by the 21st century, and the sidewalks in Midtown were widened to accommodate increased crowds. However, that section of the avenue also experienced cleanliness issues, and homeless and mentally ill people were prevalent. In addition, due to the sidewalk-widening projects, parts of Eighth Avenue narrow to two lanes in Midtown.
Central Park West at 200 Central Park West s on Central Park West:
The Majestic (far left),
The Dakota (center-left),
The Langham (center-right), and
The San Remo (far right). North of Columbus Circle, the roadway becomes
Central Park West (abbreviated to
CPW). Unlike many Manhattan avenues, CPW has traffic running in two directions, and its address numbering system is different from that of the rest of Eighth Avenue. As its name indicates, CPW forms the western edge of
Central Park. It also forms the eastern boundary of the
Upper West Side. It runs 51 blocks from
Columbus Circle (at
59th Street, or
Central Park South) to
Frederick Douglass Circle (at
110th Street, or Cathedral Parkway). The gates into Central Park along its western edge are: Merchants Gate at 59th Street, Women's Gate at 72nd, Naturalists Gate at 77th, Hunters Gate at 81st, Mariners Gate at 85th, Gate of All Saints at 96th, Boys Gate at 100th, and Strangers Gate at 106th. Central Park West's expensive housing rivals that of
Fifth Avenue on the
Upper East Side. Several notable residences on Central Park West include: •
The Dakota, where
John Lennon lived with current resident
Yoko Ono, and outside of which he was
murdered in 1980 •
The San Remo, home to
Demi Moore,
Diane Keaton,
Steve Martin, and
U2's
Bono •
The El Dorado •
The Beresford, home to
Jerry Seinfeld and
Diana Ross and
Ekaterina Rybolovleva •
41 Central Park West, home to
Madonna •
455 Central Park West • The St. Urban •
The Majestic, home to some of the former heads of the
Genovese crime family, including
Meyer Lansky,
Lucky Luciano and
Frank Costello. In 1957,
Vincent "The Chin" Gigante shot Frank Costello in the lobby of The Majestic in a failed assassination attempt According to
The New York Timess architecture critic
Paul Goldberger, the street's buildings, both the new ones like
15 Central Park West and the old ones such as
The Century, "fit together the same way the ones in that hypothetical Main Street do, and for the same reason. For more than a hundred years, their architects honor the unspoken agreement to work together, to line their buildings up with each other and to work in a consistent scale with materials that are compatible." Most of these
housing cooperatives were built around 1930, replacing late-19th century hotels with the same names. Some, including The Century, The San Remo, The Majestic, and The El Dorado, are twin towers. Other landmarks and institutions along its length include the
New-York Historical Society and the
American Museum of Natural History. The area from 61st to 97th Streets is included in the
Central Park West Historic District. The building located at
55 Central Park West is the infamous "Spook Central" from the movie
Ghostbusters. The famed New York City restaurant
Tavern on the Green is located off Central Park West, at
66th Street, within the grounds of Central Park. In 1899, while exiting a streetcar,
Henry Bliss was run over by a taxi at CPW and
West 74th Street, becoming the first person to be run down and killed by a motor car in the Americas.
Frederick Douglass Boulevard North of
Frederick Douglass Circle at
110th Street in
Harlem, it is
Frederick Douglass Boulevard, though sometimes still unofficially referred to as Eighth Avenue. The stretch was renamed in 1977. Frederick Douglass Boulevard eventually terminates near the
Harlem River at the
Harlem River Drive around West 159th Street. While Central Park West has
its own address system, address numbers on Frederick Douglass Boulevard continue as if Central Park West had used Eighth Avenue's numbering system. The corridor along Frederick Douglass Boulevard was
rezoned in 2003, allowing for larger residential buildings of greater density, and resulting in the construction of condominiums, rental buildings, restaurants, and cafes. Formerly described as having
urban blight, it is now
gentrified, especially in the restaurants along its route, giving it the nickname "Restaurant Row". This gentrification is partly due to massive city investment. According to
The New York Times the demographic too has changed: ==Points of interest==