East 23rd Street

23rd Street

West 23rd Street from the High Line, 2013
Maintained by	NYCDOT
Length	1.9 mi (3.1 km)
Location	Manhattan, New York City
Postal code	10011, 10010
Coordinates	40°44′32″N 73°59′28″W / 40.7421°N 73.9911°W / 40.7421; -73.9911Coordinates: 40°44′32″N 73°59′28″W / 40.7421°N 73.9911°W / 40.7421; -73.9911
West end	Eleventh Avenue in Chelsea
East end	FDR Drive / Avenue C in Kips Bay / Peter Cooper Village
North	24th Street
South	22nd Street
Construction
Commissioned	March 1811

23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan, one of the major two-way, east-west streets in the borough's grid. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since 1999 the area north of 23rd Street around the park has been referred to as Nomad. The street formerly ran from the East River to the Hudson River, but now terminates at 11th Avenue.

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).

West 23rd carves through the heart of Chelsea. For much of the late 19th century and early 20th century its western end was site of the Pavonia Ferry at Pier 63, just north of the Chelsea Piers. London Terrace is slight farther inland. In the late 19th century, the western part of 23rd Street was to American theater what Broadway is today, with the Opera House Palace and Pike's Opera House one block away and Proctor's Theater ("continuous daily vaudeville") across the street from the Hotel Chelsea. 23rd Street remained New York's main theater strip until The Empire opened on Broadway some twenty blocks uptown, ushering in a new era of theater.