1956 was a crucial year for seven-mile Third Avenue.
That’s when the last piece of steel from the Third Avenue El was dismantled (below at 34th Street in the 1930s), bringing sunlight and broad views to a thoroughfare long known for its shadows and grime.
And right about when the El was finally removed, some residents and real estate officials called for Third Avenue to be given a more glamorous name.
“[Borough President Hulan E. Jack] said that at least five new names had been suggested,” wrote The New York Times on February 17, after a ceremony marking the removal of a steel column.
Among them were The Bouwerie, United Nations Avenue, International Boulevard, and Nathan Hale Boulevard (the Revolutionary War hero was reportedly hanged at today’s Third Avenue and 66th Street).
“One atomic-minded New Yorker had offered Fission Avenue,” stated the Times.
Borough President Jack was against a name change, though he did propose renaming the Bowery “Third Avenue South” to get rid of the Bowery’s “connotation of drunken derelicts and broken dreams.”
In the end, of course, Third Avenue remained Third Avenue . . . and the Bowery now connotes boutique hotels.
[Photo: New York City Municipal Archives]
Tags: 1930s New York City, Bowery Bums, Nathan Hale Third Avenue, renaming Third Avenue, The Bouwerie, The Bowery drunks, Third Avenue, Third Avenue 1950s, Third Avenue El, Third Avenue street
Ephemeral New York 
March 25, 2013 at 10:42 am |
Manhattan is so easy to get around in.
Leave it as Third Avenue. What about Sixth Avenue? Do people call it Avenue of the Americas or not?
March 25, 2013 at 8:19 pm |
Nobody calls it Avenue of the Americas except tourists with outdated maps.
March 25, 2013 at 2:03 pm |
No! It’s a little long.
March 25, 2013 at 2:18 pm |
it is. Funny, that it was even suggested!
March 25, 2013 at 11:34 pm |
right. logical!
March 27, 2013 at 7:40 pm |
“Fission Avenue”
i love it.
March 27, 2013 at 7:43 pm |
Yes, very nuclear age!