72nd Street (Manhattan)

72nd Street

The Dakota Apartments, located at 1 West 72nd Street
Maintained by	NYCDOT
Length	1.6 mi (2.6 km)
Width	100 feet (30.48 m)
Location	Manhattan
Postal code	10023 (west), 10021 (east)
Coordinates	40°46′20″N 73°57′58″W / 40.7721°N 73.9662°W / 40.7721; -73.9662Coordinates: 40°46′20″N 73°57′58″W / 40.7721°N 73.9662°W / 40.7721; -73.9662
West end	NY 9A / Henry Hudson Parkway / Riverside Boulevard in Riverside South
East end	Dead end in Upper East Side
North	73rd Street
South	71st Street
Construction
Commissioned	1811

72nd Street is one of the major bi-directional crosstown streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Where the west end of 72nd Street curves into the south end of Riverside Drive, the memorial to Eleanor Roosevelt stands in Riverside Park. At this end of the street is the landmarked Beaux-Arts Chatsworth Apartments (344 West 72nd Street, John E. Scharsmith, architect, 1902–04, Annex, 1905–06).

The street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan street grid as one of 15 east-west streets that would be 100 feet (30 m) in width (while other streets were designated as 60 feet (18 m) in width).

At 72nd Street, Broadway crosses Amsterdam Avenue, creating a small triangular space, Verdi Square; across the street to the south lies Sherman Square.

72nd Street is one of the few streets to go through Central Park, connecting the Upper West Side via Women's Gate, Terrace Drive and Inventors Gate, with the Upper East Side. However, Terrace Drive is often closed to vehicular traffic and therefore the crosstown M72 bus crosses the park at 65th Street.

The Dakota apartment building is located on the corner of West 72nd Street and Central Park West. Before automotive traffic, broad cross-streets offered desirable sites for prominent residences; the mansion at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue was the first of the Gilded Age mansions to be replaced by an apartment block, 907 Fifth Avenue, and McKim, Mead, and White’s Charles L. Tiffany mansion (1882) at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue was replaced by an apartment block (19 East 72nd Street, Rosario Candela, architect), but the Rhinelander Mansion, occupied now by Ralph Lauren, is still located on the southeast corner.