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Worth Street is a two-way street running roughly northwest-southeast in
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 ...
,
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 ...
. It runs from
Hudson Street,
TriBeCa
Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stre ...
, in the west to
Chatham Square
Chatham Square is a major intersection in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City. The square lies at the confluence of eight streets: the Bowery, Doyers Street, East Broadway, St. James Place, Mott Street, Oliver Street, Worth Street and Park R ...
in
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
in the east. Past Chatham Square, the roadway continues as Oliver Street, a north-south street running
one-way northbound. Between
West Broadway
West Broadway is a north-south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, separated into two parts by Tribeca Park. The northern part begins at Tribeca Park, near the intersection of Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), Walker Street a ...
and
Church Street, Worth Street is also known as
Justice John M. Harlan Way in honor of the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
justice and alumnus of the nearby
New York Law School
New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...
. Between
Centre
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
and
Baxter Street
Baxter Street () is a narrow thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the borough of Manhattan in New York City in the United States in North America. It lies between Mulberry Street and Centre Street. It ...
s, Worth Street is also known as the "Avenue of the Strongest", "New York's Strongest" being a nickname for the city's
Department of Sanitation.
The western end of Worth Street, between Hudson Street and West Broadway, abuts
60 Hudson Street
60 Hudson Street, formerly known as the Western Union Building, is a 24-story telecommunications building in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1928–1930, it was one of several Art Deco-style buildings designed ...
, the former
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
headquarters that later was converted into an internet hub. Worth Street passes through the cluster of government offices and courthouses centered on
Foley Square
Foley Square, also called Federal Plaza, is a street intersection in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, which contains a small triangular park named Thomas Paine Park. The space is bordered by Worth Street to the ...
. 125 Worth Street (at
Centre Street) houses the headquarters of the
New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
NYC Health + Hospitals, officially the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), operates the public hospitals and clinics in New York City as a public benefit corporation. , HHC is the largest municipal healthcare system in the Uni ...
, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Department of Sanitation. Additionally, the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
courthouses at
60 Centre Street
The New York State Supreme Court Building, originally known as the New York County Courthouse, at 60 Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, houses the Civil and Appellate Terms of the New Yor ...
and 80 Centre Street (the
Louis J. Lefkowitz
Louis J. Lefkowitz (July 3, 1904 – June 20, 1996) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as the Attorney General of New York State for 22 years. He was a Republican.
Early life and education
Lefkowitz was born to a Jewish family ...
Building) and the
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was an American politician, diplomat and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York in the United States Senate from 1977 until 2001 and served as an ...
Federal Courthouse (
Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New Y ...
) at 500
Pearl Street all have entrances facing Worth Street.
History
What is now Worth Street originally started at the
Five Points intersection and headed west; it was known as Anthony Street. In 1797, it was named Catherine Street (separately from the other Catherine Street to the southeast, which remains today, as well as another one to the north). Starting at
Hudson Street, it ended at the western bank of the
Collect Pond
Collect Pond, or Fresh Water Pond,, p. 250. was a body of fresh water in what is now Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, New York City. For the first two centuries of European settlement in Manhattan, it was the main New York City water supply system ...
. Catherine Lane, which ran parallel and to the north, still exists as an alleyway between Broadway and Lafayette Street. An 1807 map shows that the pond was filled in, and that Anthony Street ran to an unlabeled short street where Centre Street is now. After 1811, Anthony Street was extended to Orange Street (later renamed Baxter Street), completing the "fifth point" of the intersection by bisecting its northeast corner. In 1854, it was renamed Worth Street in honor of Major-general
William J. Worth
William Jenkins Worth (March 1, 1794 – May 7, 1849) was an American officer during the War of 1812, the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican–American War.
Early military career
Worth was commissioned as a first lieutenant in March 1813, ...
, hero of the 1848
Mexican War. Worth is buried two miles north in
Worth Square
Worth Square, or General Worth Square, is a public square in Manhattan located at East 25th Street between Broadway and Fifth Avenue directly west of Madison Square Park. The location was designated as a public park in 1847, and since 1857 the sq ...
, which is at the north end of
Madison Square
Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for Founding Father James Madison, fourth President of the United States. ...
near 26th Street. In 1868, the city opened the section from Five Points east to
Chatham Square
Chatham Square is a major intersection in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City. The square lies at the confluence of eight streets: the Bowery, Doyers Street, East Broadway, St. James Place, Mott Street, Oliver Street, Worth Street and Park R ...
.
A
station on 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 2 ...
's
IRT Lexington Avenue Line
The IRT Lexington Avenue Line (also known as the IRT East Side Line and the IRT Lexington–Fourth Avenue Line) is one of the lines of the A Division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East H ...
at Worth Street was open between 1904 and 1962.
On February 5, 2016, a crane collapsed on Worth Street at
60 Hudson Street
60 Hudson Street, formerly known as the Western Union Building, is a 24-story telecommunications building in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1928–1930, it was one of several Art Deco-style buildings designed ...
, killing one person and injuring two others.
References
{{coord, 40, 42, 55.5, N, 74, 0, 9.95, W, region:US, display=title
Streets in Manhattan
Tribeca
Lower Manhattan