Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along its 5.5-mile (8.9-kilometer), 110-block route, Lexington Avenue runs through Harlem, Carnegie Hill, the Upper East Side, Midtown, and Murray Hill to a point of origin that is centered on Gramercy Park. South of Gramercy Park, the axis continues as Irving Place from 20th Street to East 14th Street.
For other uses, see Lexington Avenue (disambiguation).Namesake
Lexington Avenue was not one of the streets included in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 street grid, so the addresses for cross streets do not start at an even hundred number, as they do with avenues that were originally part of the plan.
Description[edit]
Lexington Avenue[edit]
Lexington Avenue runs one-way southbound for its entire length from 131st Street to 21st Street. Parallel to Lexington Avenue lies Park Avenue to its west and Third Avenue to its east. The avenue is largely commercial at ground level, with offices above. There are clusters of hotels in the 30s and 40s, roughly from the avenue's intersection with 30th Street through to its intersection with 49th Street, and apartment buildings farther north.
There are numerous structures designated as New York City Landmarks (NYCL), National Historic Landmarks (NHL), and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on Lexington Avenue. From south to north (in increasing address order), they include:[10][11]
The following buses use Lexington Avenue between the following streets (northbound buses run along Third Avenue):[13][14][15]
The IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4, 5, 6, and <6> trains) of the New York City Subway runs under Lexington Avenue north of 42nd Street (at Grand Central–42nd Street station) to 125th Street. South of Grand Central, this subway line runs under Park Avenue, Park Avenue South, and Fourth Avenue until Astor Place. The line interchanges with the IND Queens Boulevard Line (E and M trains) at Lexington Avenue/51st Street station and with the BMT Broadway Line (N, R, and W trains) at Lexington Avenue/59th Street station. The Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station of the IND and BMT 63rd Street Lines (F and <F> and Q trains) is also located at Lexington Avenue, but it does not have a direct interchange with the Lexington Avenue Line.[16]
In popular culture[edit]
Lexington Avenue became part of a classic American cinematic moment in the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch in which Marilyn Monroe shot what would become her most famous scene. While standing on a subway grating outside the Loew's Lexington Theatre, her skirt billowed up from the wind underneath. While the footage showing the theatre in the background appeared in the finished film, the footage featuring the subway grate shot on September 15, 1954, on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, was more of a publicity stunt; retakes were shot on a studio soundstage, and shots from both are seen in the film.[17]
This street was also featured in the film 1408.
The street is referenced in the Elton John song "Island Girl", the first single from the album Rock of the Westies in 1976.
Notes
Further reading