116th Street (Manhattan)

116th Street runs from Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River, to the East River, through the New York City borough of Manhattan. It traverses the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Spanish Harlem; the street is interrupted between Morningside Heights and Harlem by Morningside Park.

West Side and Columbia University

The western entrance to 116th Street at Riverside Drive is flanked by a pair of white apartment buildings with curved facades, The Colosseum and The Paterno. "The New York Times" has said that the "opposing curves, (form) a gateway as impressive as any publicly built arch or plaza in New York. [Gray, Christopher, Streetscapes/The Colosseum and the Paterno, 116th Street and Riverside Drive; At Curves in the Road, 2 Unusually Shaped Buildings [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E2D61E30F936A2575BC0A96F958260] ", "The New York Times", August 15, 1999.] The unusual curves of the road are the result of an 1897 plan to make the land between Claremont Avenue and Riverside Drive into a public park in order to give veterans parades a large park adjacent to Grant's Tomb as a terminus. The street was redesigned so that a vehicle or a parade coming up Riverside Drive would swing onto 116th Street in a gracious curve, then immediately swing north onto Claremont Avenue following a second curve. The city never appropriated funds to buy the land, but the curves remain. [Gray, Christopher. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E2D61E30F936A2575BC0A96F958260 "Streetscapes/The Colosseum and the Paterno, 116th Street and Riverside Drive; At Curves in the Road, 2 Unusually Shaped Buildings"] , "The New York Times", August 15, 1999.] The top of the northern of the two buildings is capped with an architectural fancy in a shape that, to some, conjures up an Aztec temple. It is visible from the gates of Columbia University at Broadway and 116th Street.

The intersection of 116th Street and Broadway, is the location of the main entrance of Columbia University, the city's Ivy League school. Until the 1950s, the street ran uninterrupted through Morningside Heights from Riverside Drive to Morningside Park. In 1953, during Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency at Columbia, however, the block between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue was permanently closed to vehicular traffic and was turned into a pedestrian way called "College Walk." The street had been ceded to Columbia in exchange for a payment of $1,000. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40B11FE395A107B93C5A8178AD95F478585F9&scp=1&sq=%22closed%20off%22%20%22116th%20street%22&st=cse "COLUMBIA PUTTING NEW WALK IN SHAPE; Transformation of 116th Street Block Into a Campus Artery Moving Toward Completion"] , "The New York Times", November 17, 1953. Accessed August 21, 2008.] 116th Street ends at Morningside Drive, at the top of the steep slope of Morningside Park.

Central Harlem

The main portion of 116th Street begins again at Morningside Park through central Harlem to Fifth Avenue. A large West African immigrant community has developed in central Harlem with stores, bakeries and cafés along 116th Street west of St. Nicholas Avenue. This community has been called Little Senegal or Le Petit Senegal. [Attah, Ayesha. [http://www.africanmag.com/viewer/magazines/article.asd/id/504/vts/design001 "Mourides Celebrate 19 Years in North America"] , "The African". Accessed October 23, 2007. "116th Street in Harlem, New York is aptly named Le Petit Senegal. It abounds in aromas of stewing mafe and yassa wafting out of restaurants, sidewalks turned into mosques and businesses stocked with merchandise right out of Dakar."]

East Side - Spanish Harlem

East of Fifth Avenue, 116th Street has historically been the primary business hub of Spanish Harlem. It terminates at FDR Drive and the East River.

ubway stations

116th Street may also refer to one of the following "four" New York City Subway stations, all within Manhattan:
*116th Street–Columbia University (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
*116th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line)
*116th Street (IRT Lenox Avenue Line)
*116th Street (IRT Lexington Avenue Line)

References

116th street gallery