Diamond District, Manhattan
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, located at the east end of 47th Street
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| Other name(s) | Diamond Jewelry Way |
|---|---|
| Maintained by | NYCDOT |
| Length | 1.8 mi (2.9 km) |
| Location | Manhattan |
| Postal code | 10036, 10017, 10167 |
| Nearest metro station |
47th-50th Streets    
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| Coordinates | 40°45′31″N 73°59′00″W / 40.7586°N 73.9832°WCoordinates: 40°45′31″N 73°59′00″W / 40.7586°N 73.9832°W |
| West end |
 NY 9A (12th Avenue) in Hell's Kitchen
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| East end | First Avenue in Midtown East |
| North | 48th Street |
| South | 46th Street |
| Construction | |
| Commissioned | March 1811 |
47th Street is an east-west running street between First Avenue and the West Side Highway in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west, starting at the headquarters of the United Nations. The street features the Diamond District in a single block (where the street is also known as Diamond Jewelry Way) and also courses through Times Square.
The Diamond District is between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The district was created when dealers moved north from an earlier district near Canal Street and the Bowery that was created in the 1920s, and from a second district located in the Financial District, near the intersection of Fulton and Nassau Streets, which started in 1931, and also at Maiden Lane, which had existed since the 18th century. A notable, long-time anomaly of the district was the famous Gotham Book Mart, a bookstore, which was located at 41 West 47th Street from 1946 to 2004.
The move uptown started in 1941. The district grew in importance when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, forcing thousands of Orthodox Jews in the diamond business to flee Amsterdam and Antwerp and settle in New York City. Most of them remained after World War II, and remain a dominant influence in the Diamond District. Another factor in the northward move was the co-location of finance and insurance companies who moved into the downtown districts, causing rents to drastically increase. By 1941, the Diamond Dealers Club—an exclusive club that acts as a de facto diamond exchange and has its own synagogue—officially made the move up to midtown as well.
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Wikipedia