Fifth avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among the most expensive shopping streets in the world.

HISTORY The lower stretch of Fifth Avenue extended the stylish

neighborhood of Washington Square northwards. The high status of Fifth Avenue was confirmed in 1862, when Caroline Schermerhorn Astor settled on the southwest corner of Thirty-fourth Street, and the beginning of the end of its reign as a residential street was symbolized by the erection, in 1893, of the Astoria Hotel on the site of her house, later linked to its neighbor as the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (now the site of the Empire State Building). Fifth Avenue is the central scene in Edith Wharton's 1920 Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Age of Innocence. The novel describes New York's social elite in the 1870s and provides historical context to Fifth Avenue and New York's aristocratic families.

Originally a narrower thoroughfare, much of Fifth Avenue south of Central Park was widened in 1908, sacrificing its wide sidewalks to accommodate the increasing traffic. The first commercial building on Fifth Avenue was erected by Benjamin Altmanwho bought the corner lot on the northeast corner of Thirty-fourth Street in 1896, and demolished the "Marble Palace" of his arch-rival, A. T. Stewart. In 1906 his department store, B. Altman and Company, occupied the whole of its block front Lord & Taylor's flagship store is still located on Fifth Avenue near the Empire State Building and the New York Public Library.

New York City street scenes - 5th Avenue.

Photograph with period automobiles, 1918

Fifth Avenue is the traditional route for many celebratory parades in New York City; thus, it is closed to traffic on numerous Sundays in warm weather. The longest running parade is the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. Parades held are distinct from the ticker-tape parades held on the "Canyon of Heroes" on lower Broadway, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Paradeheld on Broadway from the Upper West Side downtown to Herald Square.

St Patrick’ s day parade

Bicycling on Fifth Avenue ranges from safe with a bike lane south of 23rd Street, to scenic along Central Park, to dangerous through Midtown with very heavy traffic during rush hours.

SHOPPINGBetween 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with

prestigious boutiques and flagship stores and is consistently ranked among the most expensive shopping streets in the world. [14]

Most of the world's luxury boutiques are located on Fifth Avenue, which include Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Giorgio Armani, Fendi, Versace, Harry Winston, Cartier, Omega, Chanel and many more.

Fifth Avenue is home to Luxury department stores Lord & Taylor. Saks Fifth Avenue. Barneys & Bergdorf Goodman.

Fifth Avenue is home to New York's fifth most photographed building, the Apple Store.

The Louis Vuitton

store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

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