Washington Street (Manhattan)

Washington Street is a north-south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Running from 14th Street in the Meatpacking District at its northernmost end to its southern end at Hubert Street in TriBeCa, Washington Street is, for its entire length, the westernmost street in lower Manhattan other than the West Side Highway.

Main east-west streets crossed include (from north to south) Christopher Street, Houston Street and Canal Street; neighborhoods traversed include the Meatpacking District, the West Village, SoHo and TriBeCa. At points north of Canal Street, traffic on Washington Street travels south; at points south of Canal Street, it travels north.

Until the 1940s, a stretch of Washington Street, especially from Battery Place to Rector Street, was the home of the city's Little Syria neighborhood, which consisted primarily of Christian Arab immigrants from present day Lebanon and Syria. The neighborhood and its homes, then described by The New York Times as the "heart of New York's Arab world", were condemned and razed to make way for the approaches to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which opened in 1950.

Transportation

Because Washington Street is so far west, public transportation in the immediate area is scarce. The crosstown M8 bus crosses Washington Street in both directions, westbound on Christopher Street and eastbound on West 10th Street; the crosstown M21 bus runs south on Washington Street between Houston Street and Spring Street before turning back east.

Subway stations nearest to Washington Street include (from north to south) the 14th Street – Eighth Avenue station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line and the BMT Canarsie Line (A C E L trains) and the Christopher Street – Sheridan Square, Houston Street, Canal Street and Franklin Street stations on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line (1 2 trains).

External links

• Washington Street: A New York Songline - virtual walking tour