Worth Street (Manhattan)

Worth Street (Manhattan)

Worth Street is a two-way street in the Manhattan borough of New York City. It runs from Hudson Street, TriBeCa, in the west to Chatham Square in Chinatown at its eastern flank. Past Chatham Square, the roadway continues as Oliver Street, which runs one-way north- and westbound. Between West Broadway and Church Street, Worth Street is also known as Justice John M. Harlan Way in honor of the Supreme Court justice and alumnus of the nearby New York Law School. Between Centre and Baxter Streets, Worth Street is also known as the "Avenue of the Strongest", "New York's Strongest" being a nickname for the city's Department of Sanitation.

Worth Street passes through the cluster of government offices and courthouses centered around Foley Square. 125 Worth Street (at Centre Street) houses the headquarters of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Department of Sanitation. Additionally, the New York Supreme Court courthouses at 60 Centre Street and 80 Centre Street (the Louis J. Lefkowitz Building) and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse (Southern District of New York) at 500 Pearl Street all have entrances facing Worth Street.

Worth Street originally started at the Five Points intersection and headed west and was known as Anthony Street. In 1859 the section between the Five Points intersection and Chatham Square to the west was opened by the city and the entire street was renamed Worth Street in honor of Major-general William J. Worth, hero of the 1848 Mexican War, who is buried two miles north in Worth Square, which is at the north end of Madison Square.