Famous yellow taxis on Fifth Avenue
Finally, you have decided to visit the United States – you have received an American visa and even booked a direct flight from Kyiv to New York on an online service. Surely you already have a schedule of your stay in this most famous city in the world. But to learn the true spirit of New York, we advise you to definitely visit Fifth Avenue. Here you will find everything – the bold impetuosity of the Empire State Building, the ambitiousness of Rockefeller Center, the pretentious luxury of Trump Tower, and the old-fashioned elegance of the Plaza Hotel.
Fifth Avenue hosts the annual Easter Parade and the St. Patrick's Day Parade, when New Yorkers pour into the streets and the central part of Fifth Avenue turns into an emerald ribbon. Around Christmas, Manhattanites, known for their commitment to taxis and subways, rent cars to admire the festively decorated shop windows and amazing illuminations.
Fifth runs through the very heart of Central Manhattan, dividing the island into eastern and western sides – the East Side and the West Side. It is a kind of social compass, whose needle points to high fashion and the lifestyle of the urban elite. It is that sacred place where the rich and influential citizens carry out all their affairs, where New Yorkers celebrate holidays, and where the city shows itself to the world in all its splendor.
It is also a historical tablet on which are engraved the milestones of Manhattan's geographical expansion northward and its economic progress, a kind of arrow of time pointing to the slum neighborhoods – symbols of the city's economic decline. Fifth Avenue begins at Washington Square Park, not far from the winding streets of Greenwich Village. It runs past the Flatiron Building at the corner of 22nd Street to Madison Square Park, located between 23rd and 26th Streets – here once stood Madison Square Garden, not a concert-sports arena, but a garden.
Then the avenue flows past the foot of the Empire State Building and past Rockefeller Center, for 26 blocks embraces Central Park and smoothly flows into the 'Museum Mile', where the city's largest art museums are located. Continuing its run past mansions and embassies in the Upper East Side, the avenue cuts through Harlem, splitting Marcus Garvey Park in the very heart of the black neighborhood, and finally ends at the Harlem River.
If you have enough time and patience, you can explore all 132 blocks that Fifth Avenue stretches over. This north-south street offers the tourist an exceptionally rich and diverse – culturally and economically – landscape.
For those who are passing through New York, it is necessary to see at least the main sights of Fifth Avenue, which are located between 49th and 59th Streets, i.e., between Rockefeller Center and the Plaza Hotel. However, there are several impressive places outside this section (more details can be found in a New York guidebook).