Tuesday, 15 November 2022 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika Category/Kategorie: GeneralReading Time: 5minutes
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City‘s borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or “uptown”. It is commercial for much of its length. Sixth Avenue begins four blocks below Canal Street, at Franklin Street in TriBeCa, where the northbound Church Street divides into Sixth Avenue to the left and the local continuation of Church Street to the right, which then ends at Canal Street. From this beginning, Sixth Avenue traverses SoHo and Greenwich Village, roughly divides Chelsea from the Flatiron District and NoMad, passes through the Garment District and skirts the edge of the Theater District while passing through Midtown Manhattan. Sixth Avenue’s northern end is at Central Park South, adjacent to the Artists’ Gate entrance to Central Park via Center Drive. Historically, Sixth Avenue was also the name of the road that continued north of Central Park, but that segment was renamed Lenox Avenue in 1887 and co-named Malcolm X Boulevard in 1987.
The avenue’s official name was changed to Avenue of the Americas in 1945 by the City Council, at the behest of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who signed the bill into law on October 2, 1945. The intent was to honor “Pan-American ideals and principles” and the nations of Central and South America, and to encourage those countries to build consulates along the avenue. It was felt at the time that the name would provide greater grandeur to a shabby street, and to promote trade with the Western Hemisphere. After the name change, round signs were attached to streetlights on the avenue, showing the national seals of the nations honored. However, New Yorkers rarely used the avenue’s newer name, and in 1955, an informal study found that locals used “Sixth Avenue” more than eight times as often as “Avenue of the Americas”. The move was also criticized as “propaganda” by those who wanted to return to the original name. The street has been labelled as both “Avenue of the Americas” and “Sixth Avenue” in recent years. Most of the old round signs with country emblems were gone by the late 1990s, and the ones remaining are showing signs of age.
