96th Street (Manhattan)

96th Street (Manhattan)

Coordinates: 40°47′39″N 73°58′13″W / 40.794051°N 73.970368°W / 40.794051; -73.970368

96th Street is a major two-way street in East Harlem and the Upper West Side, which is a part of the New York City borough of Manhattan, running from the East River at the FDR Drive to the Henry Hudson Parkway at the Hudson River. It is one of the 15 hundred-foot-wide (30 m) crosstown streets mapped out in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 that established the numbered street grid in Manhattan.

On the East Side, 96th Street forms the traditional dividing line between Yorkville to the south and Spanish Harlem to the north.

Parts of 96th Street, particularly near Second and Third Avenues, underwent significant gentrification, with luxury apartment buildings being constructed by Related Rentals beginning in the late 1980s.

The street is separated by Central Park, whose West 96th street pedestrian gate is called "Gate of all Saints" and whose East 96th Street gate is called "Woodmans Gate". A sunken street through the park, often called the 97th Street Transverse road or Transverse Road #4, connects the East Side and West Side via 96th and 97th Streets.

On the West Side, 96th Street runs through a natural valley leading down to the former Stryker's Bay. It is also regarded as the southern border of the nearby Manhattan Valley The street is entirely within the boundaries of ZIP Code 10025 on the West Side.

96th Street is the northern border of the New York City steam system which pumps 30 billion pounds of steam into 100,000 buildings south of the street—the largest such system in the world.