14th Street is a major crosstown street in the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, traveling between
Eleventh Avenue on Manhattan's
West Side and
Avenue C on Manhattan's
East Side. It forms a boundary between several neighborhoods and is sometimes considered the border between
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
and
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
.
At
Broadway, 14th Street forms the southern boundary of
Union Square. It is also considered the northern boundary of
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
,
Alphabet City, and the
East Village, and the southern boundary of
Chelsea,
Flatiron/Lower Midtown, and
Gramercy. West of
Third Avenue
Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Squ ...
, 14th Street marks the southern terminus of
western Manhattan's grid system. North of 14th Street, the streets make up a near-perfect
grid that runs in numerical order. South of 14th, the grid continues in the East Village almost perfectly, but not so in Greenwich Village, where an older and less uniform grid plan applies.
In the early history of New York City, 14th Street was an upscale location. However, it lost its glamour and status as the city grew northward and today it is primarily zoned as a commercial street. In October 2019, a
busway restriction was put in place between Third and Ninth Avenues, prohibiting most types of vehicles during the daytime.
History
The street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 as the southernmost of 15 east–west streets that would be in width (while other streets were designated as wide).
Description
West 14th Street begins at an interchange with
New York State Route 9A
New York State Route 9A (NY 9A) is a state highway in the vicinity of New York City in the United States. Its southern terminus is at Battery Place near the northern end of the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel in New York City, where it inte ...
northeast of
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
.
At the end of the interchange, it intersects with
10th Avenue. The street continues east, intersecting with
Washington Street,
Ninth Avenue/Hudson Street,
Eighth Avenue,
Seventh Avenue,
Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
, and Fifth Avenue.
After Fifth Avenue, West 14th Street becomes East 14th Street and goes on to form the southern border of
Union Square between
University Place and Fourth Avenue. East of Fourth Avenue, 14th Street forms the southern end of Irving Place, a north–south road that terminates at
Gramercy Park
Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park and the surrounding neighborhood that is referred to also as Gramercy, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York, United States.
...
. 14th Street then intersects with Third Avenue, which forms the border between the neighborhoods of the
East Village to the south and
Gramercy to the north. The street goes on to intersect with Second Avenue.
At First Avenue, 14th Street widens from a four-lane road to a six-lane divided
boulevard with a westbound service road. It then intersects with the main thoroughfares of Alphabet City: Avenue A, Avenue B, and Avenue C, where the street terminates. It formerly terminated at
FDR Drive
The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Par ...
via an on-ramp to the southbound FDR before the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
, when the
New York Police Department
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
vacated the portion between Avenue C and FDR due to the presence of the nearby
ConEdison East River Generating Station along 14th and 15th Streets as a possible terrorist target.
Since October 2019, vehicle restrictions are in place on 14th Street between Third and Ninth Avenues from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The only vehicles that can use the busway are buses, trucks making deliveries on 14th Street, emergency and
Access-A-Ride
The physical accessibility of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s public transit network, serving the New York metropolitan area, is incomplete. Although all buses are wheelchair-accessible in compliance with the Americans with Dis ...
vehicles, and local traffic traveling for no more than one block.
Public transportation
14th Street is well served by the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...
. The
BMT Canarsie Line () runs underneath 14th Street from
Eighth Avenue to the
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...
, stopping at
Eighth Avenue,
Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
,
Union Square,
Third Avenue
Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Squ ...
, and
First Avenue. Additionally, every subway route that crosses 14th Street has a stop there, except for the :
*
14th Street–Union Square on the
BMT Canarsie Line,
BMT Broadway Line
The BMT Broadway Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan. , it is served by four services, all colored : the on the express tracks and the on the local tracks during weekdays (the N and Q train ...
, and
IRT Lexington Avenue Line serving the
*
14th Street/Sixth Avenue on the
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line,
BMT Canarsie Line, and
IND Sixth Avenue Line
The IND Sixth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in the United States. It runs mainly under Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, and continues south to Brooklyn. The B, D, F, and M trains, which use th ...
serving the
*
14th Street–Eighth Avenue on the
BMT Canarsie Line and
IND Eighth Avenue Line serving the
A station at Second Avenue and 14th Street is planned as part of Phase 3 of the
Second Avenue Subway, which is currently unfunded.
PATH also makes a stop at
14th Street at its intersection with
Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
.
In the past, every former IRT elevated line had a station at 14th Street:
*
14th Street on the
IRT Second Avenue Line
*
14th Street on the
IRT Third Avenue Line
*
14th Street on the
IRT Sixth Avenue Line
The IRT Sixth Avenue Line, often called the Sixth Avenue Elevated or Sixth Avenue El, was the second elevated railway in Manhattan in New York City, following the Ninth Avenue Elevated.
The line ran south of Central Park, mainly along Six ...
*
14th Street on the
IRT Ninth Avenue Line
The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, often called the Ninth Avenue Elevated or Ninth Avenue El, was the first elevated railway in New York City. It opened on July 3, 1868 as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, as an experimental single-track cabl ...
Two
New York City Bus routes serve the entire street, the .
Bus priority and truck access
Alongside the
Canarsie Tunnel closure between 2019 and 2020, the
New York City Department of Transportation began planning conversion of 14th Street between
Third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (disambiguation)
* Third Avenue (disambiguation)
* Hi ...
and
Ninth Avenues into a bus-only corridor during rush hours. The department began planning a new
Select Bus Service bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...
route to be implemented across 14th Street. At the time, the M14A/D routes were among the busiest and slowest NYCT bus routes.
The M14A/D were converted to Select Bus Service routes on July 1, 2019.
The 14th Street busway was inspired by
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
's successful
King Street Pilot Project, which sped up transit times for transit riders on the
504 King streetcar route, the
Toronto Transit Commission's busiest surface route.
[ As part of the busway plan, the only motor vehicles that could use the busway, between 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, would be buses, trucks making deliveries on 14th Street, emergency and ]Access-A-Ride
The physical accessibility of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s public transit network, serving the New York metropolitan area, is incomplete. Although all buses are wheelchair-accessible in compliance with the Americans with Dis ...
vehicles. Local traffic would be required to turn off 14th Street at the next intersection. Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer who lives on nearby 12th Street, blocked the plan by filing several injunctions to halt its implementation. As a result, the busway was not implemented as scheduled in July 2019; pushing its implementation back to August 2019. The plan was blocked once again, pending an appeal. The August ruling was later overturned by a panel of judges who approved the busway's implementation, which took effect on October 3, 2019. The busway was so successful on its first day that M14 buses had to be slowed down in order to keep from running ahead of their posted schedules.
Points of interest
From west to east, points of interest include:
* Little Island at Pier 55
* Hudson River Park
* High Line
* New York County National Bank (at Eighth Avenue), a New York City designated landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
* New York Savings Bank
The New York Savings Bank is a historic bank building in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1896 by Robert Henderson Robertson with George Provot, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2000. T ...
(at Eighth Avenue), a New York City designated landmark and National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
(NRHP) landmark
* Norwood Club (241 West 14th Street), a New York City designated landmark
* 154 West 14th Street, a New York City designated landmark
* 144 West 14th Street, a New York City designated landmark
* The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, comprising soldiers, officers and adherents col ...
Greater New York Divisional Headquarters (120 West 14th Street), a New York City designated landmark
* Fourteenth Street Theatre
The Fourteenth Street Theatre was a New York City theatre located at 107 West 14th Street just west of Sixth Avenue.Berg, J.C. (9 January 2011)The Fourteenth Street Theater, ''nycvintageimages.com''
History
It was designed by Alexander Saelt ...
(107 West 14th Street), demolished in 1938.
* R. H. Macy & Co. Store, 14th Street Annex (56 West 14th Street), a New York City designated landmark
* Baumann Brothers Furniture and Carpets Store (22-26 East 14th Street), a New York City designated landmark
* Lincoln Building (at Union Square West), a New York City designated landmark and NRHP landmark
* Union Square Park
* Consolidated Edison Building
The Consolidated Edison Building (also known as the Consolidated Gas Building and 4 Irving Place) is a neoclassical skyscraper in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 26-story building was designed by the architectural f ...
(at Irving Place), a New York City designated landmark
* First German Baptist Church (334 East 14th Street), a New York City designated landmark
* Grace Chapel (406 East 14th Street), a New York City designated landmark and NRHP landmark
* Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church/Grace Chapel Hospital (414 East 14th Street), a New York City designated landmark
See also
* List of numbered streets in Manhattan
References
Notes
External links
New York Songlines: 14th Street
a virtual walking tour
{{Authority control
014
Chelsea, Manhattan
Meatpacking District, Manhattan
Gramercy Park
East Village, Manhattan
Union Square, Manhattan