very simple

According to Manhattan Block-by-Block by John Tauranac (a great map and guide for anyone living or visiting NYC), while all blocks are of “roughly” equal size, the distance between sixth and seventh avenues is by far the longest distance between avenues. Anyone who has worked in a particular section of midtown west on the 50s has always known about the “secret” passageway through a series of buildings halfway between the two, because it was just too much of a pain in the *** to go all the way to the corner if you had to go from, say, midblock on 53rd to midblock on 56th. So the thoroughfare, cutting through public and semi public spaces including a pedestrian passageway behind the Hilton, City Center, the Parker Meridian hotel (among others), led to a constant stream of people playing frogger with midtown traffic.

A few years ago, the city decided enough was enough. No, they didn’t try to force people to cross at the corners – that would have been asking too much. They turned the entire “secret passageway” into an official street.

Tags: new york city, photos