Madison Avenue is one of
Manhattan's famed
north-south boulevards. While it fits with the borough's grid system of roads established in the 1811 "Commissioner's Plan", it was not part of the original plan, and was constructed in 1836, between
Fifth Avenue/
Central Park East to the west and
Park Avenue to the east. The Avenue begins at
23rd Street, along the east side of
Madison Square, from which it draws its name, and extends northward to West
138th Street, where the
Madison Avenue Bridge spans the
Harlem River diagonal to the grid, linking up with East 138th in the
Bronx. Madison Avenue is a
one-way street, with an uptown (south to north) vehicular flow. Motorists should take care not to confuse Madison Avenue with
Madison Street, which parallels the
East River near the
Williamsburg Bridge in pre-grid
Lower Manhattan.
Madison Avenue has been host to a wide variety of tenants through the years, including a number of major business headquarters, and at street level is known for its fashionable boutiques. However, its most popular identification is with several major advertising firms who, starting in the 1920s and '30s, established themselves in its office towers. This connection has become so well-ingrained in the public consciousness that, like Wall Street with finance or K Street with lobbying, the term "Madison Avenue" is now commonly used to refer to the U.S. advertising industry as a whole.