Fifth Avenue has always been New York's most magnificent thoroughfar
The big parades start here (Steuben Parade, St Patrick's Day Parade), and it is also closed to traffic for other festivities. Fifth Avenue starts downtown at Washington Square in Greenwich Village, and runs straight to the Harlem River dividing Manhattan's streets into West (W) and East (E). At the end of the 19th century, the Rockefellers, Fricks, Forbes, Astors, Vanderbilts, Goulds and others who wanted to flee the congestion of southern Manhattan had townhouses built on its first mile or so, which earned it the nickname “Millionaires' Row”. Its new nickname, “Boulevard of Golden Credit Cards”, comes from luxury shops like Tiffany and Cartier between 49th and 59th St. The rich of the past century have settled further along, next to Central Park. Today the sights concentrated along Fifth Avenue (Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Museum of Modern Art, Trump Tower, Central Park as well as the Museum Mile, to name but a few) exert an unparalleled attraction, not only on tourists but also on New Yorkers. On Fifth Avenue the Flatiron Building at the intersection Fifth Avenue, Broadway and 23rd Street made architectural history as the first skyscraper of Manhattan. For those taking a stroll, the most interesting part of Fifth Ave. is between 34th and 59th Street.
