A horse a horse

This Sunday I will realize a long-held dream: to walk the entire length of Broadway on Manhattan Island. I got the idea about 15 years ago after reading a terrific article on Broadway in National Geographic. Others have walked Manhattan, going North-to-South or South-to-North on a variety of routes, but I like the idea of using Broadway as an organizing principle. This majestic thoroughfare–running all the way to Albany, it is supposedly the longest street in the world at 150 miles–has been a backyard for me since I was a little kid. My dad used to have a store on Broadway and 42nd (a site currently occupied by the chunky-prissy Conde Nast building) in the 80s and early 90s, and my sibs and I would spend our vacations there, helping make fake IDs for tourists and teens, buying six-packs of tallboys (for Dad) at the deli around the corner, and running errands all over the city. Great memories. Broadway was our lighthouse, our magnetic north, our home base and launching pad. North to Central Park to clamber over the bedrock in the playground. West to the Hudson River and trade shows in the glassy expanse of the Javits Convention Center. South to Macy’s and its magical toy department. East to Bryant Park, dirty, drug-infested Bryant Park. At one time or another, I’ve been on every part of Broadway from where it terminates at Bowling Green to 122nd Street in Morningside Heights. Everything north of 122nd is new territory to me (a couple of trips to Yankee Stadium don’t really count). It’s a dangerous land, a gentrified land, full of crumbling retaining walls and insanely charismatic politicians. Have no fear, dear readers, my friend Paul, geography stud and fellow cinephile, will join me for this journey. "Give my regards to Broadway…"

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 at 8:50 pm and is filed under The Lloyd. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.