Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square. Midtown Manhattan is home to the city's tallest and most famous buildings such as the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building.
Midtown, along with "Uptown" and "Downtown", is one of the three major subdivisions of Manhattan (though "Uptown" and "Downtown" can also be used as adjectives or adverbs, and can take on completely different meanings in the other boroughs, whereas the term "Midtown" cannot) and can be understood as those parts of Manhattan in neither of these two other regions - that is, all areas between 14th Street and 59th Street, from the Hudson River to the East River, about five square miles or 12 km2. The core of Midtown Manhattan is from about 31st Street to 59th Street between Third and Ninth avenues, about two square miles (this is the area most commonly referred to as "Midtown.") The "Plaza District", a term used by Manhattan real estate professionals to denote the most expensive area of midtown from a commercial real estate perspective, lies between 42nd Street and 59th Street, from Third Avenue to Seventh Avenue, about a square kilometer or half a square mile.
As New York's largest central business district, Midtown Manhattan is indisputably the busiest single commercial district in the United States, and among the most intensely and diversely used pieces of real estate in the world. The great majority of New York City's skyscrapers, including its tallest hotels and apartment towers, lie within Midtown. More than 700,000 commuters work in its offices, hotels, and retail establishments; the area also hosts many tourists, visiting residents, and students. Some areas, especially Times Square and Fifth Avenue, have massive clusters of retail establishments. Sixth Avenue in Midtown holds the headquarters of three of the four major television networks, and is one of a few global centers of news and entertainment. It is also a growing center of finance, second in importance within the United States only to Downtown Manhattan's Financial District. Times Square is also the epicenter of American theater.
Road congestion is perennial, especially for crosstown traffic. In 2011 a new system of traffic light control, known as "Midtown in Motion" was announced.
Midtown encompasses many neighborhoods including Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea on the West Side, and Murray Hill, Kips Bay, Turtle Bay, and Gramercy on the East Side. It is also sometimes broken into "Midtown East" and "Midtown West", or north and south as in the New York City Police Department's Midtown North and Midtown South precincts. A simplistic and by no means comprehensive list of the neighborhoods in the Midtown area is as follows:
- Between 59th Street to the north and 42nd Street to the south, from west to east:
- Hell's Kitchen from the Hudson River to 8th Avenue, including
- Theatre Row on West 42nd Street between 11th Avenue and 9th Avenue.
- where Hell's Kitchen meets Central Park and the Upper West Side at West 59th Street and 8th Avenue, Columbus Circle
- Times Square and the Theatre District from West 42nd Street to around West 53rd Street (according to some until Central Park at Central Park South/59th Street), and from 8th Avenue to Sixth Avenue
- The Diamond District on West 47th Street between 6th Avenue and 5th Avenue
- Midtown East from around 6th Avenue to the East River, including (going from west to east, and north to south):
- Sutton Place near the East River between East 53rd Street and East 59th Street
- Turtle Bay from 53rd Street to 42nd Street and from Lexington Avenue to the East River
- Tudor City from 1st Avenue to 2nd Avenue and East 40th Street to East 43rd Street
- Between 42nd Street north and around 34th Street, from west to east, and north to south:
- Hell's Kitchen from the Hudson River to 8th Avenue
- The Garment District from West 42nd Street and West 34th Street and 9th Avenue to 5th Avenue
- Herald Square around the intersection of Broadway, 6th Avenue and West 34th Street
- Murray Hill from East 42nd Street to East 34th Street and 5th Avenue to 2nd Avenue
- Between 34th Street and 23rd Street, from west to east:
- Chelsea between the Hudson River and Sixth Avenue
- Koreatown from 36th Street to 31st Street and 5th and 6th Avenues, centered on "Korea Way" on 32nd Street between 5th Avenue and Broadway
- Rose Hill or Curry Hill between Madison Avenue and 1st Avenue
- Kips Bay from 3rd Avenue to the East River
- Between 23rd Street and 14th Street, going west to east and north to south:
- Chelsea between the Hudson River and Sixth Avenue
- The Meatpacking District in the southwesternmost corner of Midtown, to the south of West 15th Street
- Madison Square and the Flatiron District, the area surround the intersection of Broadway, 5th Avenue and 23rd Street.
- Union Square, to the northeast of the intersection of Broadway, East 14th Street and Park Avenue South
- Gramercy from East 23rd Street to East 14th Street and Lexington Avenue to 1st Avenue
- Peter Cooper Village from East 23rd Street to East 20th Street and 1st Avenue to Avenue C (parallel the East River)
- Stuyvesant Town from East 20th street to East 14th Street and 1st Avenue to Avenue C
Midtown is the original district in the United States to bear the name and included historical but now defunct neighborhoods such as the Ladies' Mile, along Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 23rd Street and the Tenderloin, from 23rd Street to 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue.
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