numbered street

A numbered street is a street whose name is an ordinal number, as in ''Second Street'' or ''Tenth Avenue''. Such forms are among the most common street names in North America, but also exist in other parts of the world, especially in Colombia, which takes the system to an extreme, and the Middle East. Numbered streets were first used in Philadelphia and now exist in many major cities and small towns. Grid-based naming systems usually start at 1 (but sometimes at a higher number or even at zero), and then proceed in numerical order. In the United States, seven out of the top ten most common street names are numbers, with the top three names being "2nd," "3rd," and "1st" respectively. Streets named "0th" are quite uncommon, however, but do exist (sometimes spelled out "Zero Street") (like 0 Avenue in BC, Canada), and negative numbered streets (i.e, "−1st", "−2nd", etc.) are extraordinarily rare. Fractional numbered streets exist in some places, such as Street in Springfield, Illinois.

Some cities also have ''lettered'' street names. For example, Washington, D.C., in addition to having numbered streets, also has streets identified as a letter followed by "Street," going as high as the letter W. New York City has avenues titled "Avenue" followed by the respective letter of the alphabet, such as Avenue D. The idea for such a system was developed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who devised the system for Washington.

The numbered street system is criticized for taking away the individuality from a community that a named street would provide.

North America

United States

Baltimore

The city of Baltimore, Maryland, has numbered streets in the north-central part of the city. The numbered streets in Baltimore do not begin with 1, but rather start with 20th Street just north of and parallel to North Avenue, the former northern boundary of the city, and what is viewed by many today is the northern boundary of Downtown Baltimore. The numbered streets, which go as high as 43rd Street, correspond with the first two digits in the addresses of the north–south streets they cross. Unlike in Washington, where the numbered streets run north–south, Baltimore's numbered streets run west–east. All begin their names with either "West" or "East," depending on which side of Charles Street the block is located.

Some of Baltimore's numbered streets are well known for various reasons. 28th and 29th streets, a one-way pair, are the only numbered streets to have an interchange with I-83. They use the numbered designations to the east of the expressway, and to the west, they merge into a six-lane road known as Druid Park Lake Drive. East 33rd Street was the location of the now-demolished Memorial Stadium, home to the Baltimore Orioles for 38 years and the Baltimore Colts for 31. West 34th Street is the location of the annual Miracle on 34th Street, where residents on one block of the street open their porches to tourists to view their holiday decorations. West 40th Street is the location of The Rotunda shopping mall, and it merges into West 41st Street, which crosses over (but does not have an interchange with) I-83 into Television Hill and is the only numbered street in the city west of I-83.

Chicago

The City of Chicago is set on a grid with eight "standard" city blocks per mile. Some blocks are further divided in half. A standard block has 100 address numbers, meaning there are 800 numbers per mile. Chicago address numbering begins downtown at State Street and Madison Street; State Street is 0 east and west, and Madison Street is 0 north and south. Major streets a mile apart have address numbers that, for the most part, are multiples of 800.

The south side of the city uses numbered east–west streets, although older streets that were already named retained their names, particularly in the Loop. As stated above, Chicago house numbers are generally assigned at the rate of 8 blocks to a mile. The only exceptions are from Madison to 31st Street, just south of downtown.

The first two main numbered roads in the system were renamed for historical figures after the numbering system was adopted. Roosevelt Road (previously 12th Street and renamed for Theodore Roosevelt) is one mile south of Madison with 12 blocks to the mile, Cermak Road (previously 22nd Street and renamed in memory of assassinated mayor Anton Cermak) is two miles south of Madison with 10 blocks to the mile, and 31st Street (3100 S) is three miles south of Madison with 9 blocks to the mile. South of 31st Street, the pattern of 8 blocks to the mile resumes, with 39th Street the next major street, 47th after that, and so on.

The numbering within Chicago is continued throughout many suburbs south of the city proper. For instance, Chicago Heights has a 185th Street, set on the same numbering scheme.

Chicago's numbered street system was adopted in 1911 as a result of new legislation. Madison Street was made the base for all street numbering, and State Street for north–south streets.

Cleveland

As a general rule, the only numbered streets in Cleveland run generally north–south, while streets that run parallel to the Lake Erie shoreline (generally east–west) have names rather than numbers. Public Square in downtown Cleveland separates east- and west-numbered streets, with the numbers increasing in both directions as one travels further away from Public Square, in a system initiated in 1906. Conforming east–west roads are given a name, rather than a number, and the suffix "Avenue." Where an avenue crosses Ontario street or the Cuyahoga River, its name changes, meaning that a numbered street does not intersect a given avenue more than once. For example, stating a location as "65th and Detroit" implies West 65th Street, since Detroit Avenue changes to Superior Avenue when it crosses the river. Non-conforming streets are suffixed with names other than "street" or "avenue," e.g., West Boulevard, Old River Road, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Geographic idiosyncrasies in certain parts of the city mean that this is by no means an absolute rule but generally applies within the city proper. The major exceptions to this system are the street names in the near west side city of Lakewood, and in a few cities on the far east side, generally south of Euclid Avenue and north of Chagrin Boulevard. The street numbering extends from West 233rd in North Olmsted to East 367th in Eastlake, adjacent to the Willoughby municipal line.

Denver

Denver has two systems in place in two distinct areas of the city. Downtown Denver's diagonal street system technically begins with 4th Street near Auraria Campus, underneath the Colfax Avenue viaduct. The system then counts up northeastward from 4th Street to 40th Street. The diagonal system meets the normal numbered grid at various points, with the termination of the downtown system at 40th Avenue and 40th Street in the Five Points neighborhood.

The second system is a typical East/West layout, with directional indicators. First Avenue is adjacent to Ellsworth Avenue in Central Denver; the series extends to 168th Avenue in unincorporated Adams County. Exceptions include Colfax Avenue, which takes the place of 15th Avenue, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which generally takes the place of East 32nd Avenue. The designations ''East'' and ''North'' are generally not used unless needed. Building numbers on cross-streets reflect the street numbering; for example, 1800 Colorado Boulevard would be at the corner of 18th Avenue. (1800 South Colorado Boulevard is outside the area of numbered streets.)

Detroit

In the northern suburbs of Detroit, "___ Mile Road" runs east–west, a stated number of miles from the center of Detroit. Some of these roads are also known by other names. The lowest numbered road is 5 Mile Road, while the city limits end at 8 Mile Road, which at one time was called " Baseline Road". The highest such numbered road is 38 Mile Road, which is mostly in Almont.

The city of Detroit also has some conventional numbered streets within the city limits.

Los Angeles

In the city of Los Angeles, all numbered streets begin from the historic corner of First and Main and are numbered according to the distance from their in their respective quadrants.

Greater Miami

In Greater Miami, numbered streets go into the three digits, with varying, overlapping sets of numbered streets. The area has roads that are named as a number followed by "Street" that runs west–east, and a number followed by "Avenue" that runs north–south. All these streets start their names with NW, NE, SW, or SE, depending on where they are in relation to the center of Miami.

In the Miami suburbs, some numbered streets and avenues are paired with a parallel "Court", "Drive", "Place" or "Terrace"; while in the same area, other sets of numbered streets and avenues exist with lower numbers, such as in Hialeah, where W 68th St is also designated NW 122 S

This is known to lead to confusion among some, especially non-locals.

Similar numbering systems are used throughout the state of Florida, such as i
GainesvilleOcalaPanama City
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Jacksonville

New York City

The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 laid out the grid that covers most of Manhattan today. Most east–west streets (which actually run southeast–northwest) are named "___th Street", and a few major north–south streets (which actually run northeast–southwest, roughly parallel to the island's long axis) are named "___th Avenue".

The highest-numbered street on Manhattan Island is 220th Street, and the highest-numbered street in the Borough of Manhattan is 228th Street.

The Manhattan numbered street grid continues north in The Bronx, where the highest numbered street is West 263rd Street on the border of Yonkers. The only numbered avenue in The Bronx is a continuation of Manhattan's Third Avenue.

In Queens, the melding of various grids from pre-consolidation villages resulted in repeat numbers, for example, 67th Street, 67th Place, 67th Lane, and their perpendicular counterparts 67th Avenue, 67th Road, and 67th Drive. Streets, Places and Lanes run north to south, while Avenues, Roads, and Drives run east to west. Avenues run from 2nd Avenue in Whitestone to 165th Avenue in Howard Beach. Streets run from 1st Street in Astoria to 271st Street in Glen Oaks.

In Brooklyn, there are ten sets of numbered streets ( unprefixed numbered streets as well as North, South, East, West, Bay, Brighton, Paerdegat, Plumb, and Flatlands numbered streets), along with numbered avenues up to 28th Avenue and letter avenues up to Avenue Z. Manhattan's Alphabet City consists of Avenues A through D.

The Rockaways section of Queens has streets prefixed with the word ''Beach''. However, street signs in this area typically identify this prefix using only the letter B (e.g. "B 116 St"). The neighborhood of Broad Channel also has its own network of numbered roads, prefixed with East or West, relative to Cross Bay Boulevard.

The closest cross street to a given building number in Manhattan can be estimated using the Manhattan address algorithm.

The highest-numbered street in all of New York City is 271st Street, located in Glen Oaks, Queens. 704th Street in Orangeburg, New York is the highest-numbered street in the Greater New York City area, and at one point was the highest-numbered street in the United States. The highest-numbered Avenue in Manhattan is the obscure Thirteenth Avenue, on Gansevoort Peninsula in the Hudson River just north of Gansevoort Street. Currently, only one unmarked block remains, currently used as a garbage truck access behind the Bloomfield Street Sanitation Depot. The street was once longer, but much of the land it was built on was removed to provide longer piers for berthing larger ships, such as and , without protruding further into the Hudson River. Twelfth Avenue is the highest numbered avenue that is signed by the city and accessible to the public. Higher-numbered avenues exist in other boroughs.

Sixth and a Half Avenue, is the only numbered avenue in Manhattan involving fractions.

Philadelphia

Central Philadelphia was laid out by Thomas Holme in 1683 and was the first city to use numbered streets systematically. While the original plan had two sets of north–south numbered streets, one parallel to the Delaware River and one to the Schuylkill; all are now numbered from the Delaware, with numbers increasing westward and continuing across the Schuylkill through West Philadelphia to the edge of the city. There are two main exceptions to this pattern: Holme's plan included Front Street in place of First and Broad Street in place of Fourteenth; "Schuylkill Front Street" became 22nd when the streets west of Broad were renumbered. The highest numbered street is 90th Street. In Southwest Philadelphia, the grid is oblique, with numbered streets running from northwest to southeast and meeting their West Philadelphia equivalents at Baltimore Avenue. In general, numbered streets northwest of the Schuylkill are not aligned with their counterparts across the river in South Philadelphia

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