Orientation
The avenues e.g., Fifth Avenue, Seventh Avenue run north-south and are the long, wide streets. The numbered streets e.g., 14th Street, 42nd Street run east-west and start at 1st Street just above Houston Street, running up to 220th Street at the northern end of the island. Warning: There is one exception to this. Numbered streets are not all parallel to one another in Greenwich Village, which is on the West Side between W. Houston St. and West 14th St. West 4th St. slants to the northwest, crossing higher-numbered streets up to 13th St. For ease in calculation, note that a distance of 20 city blocks north-to-south, counting numbered streets only, not avenue blocks is approximately equal to one mile. Going east to west, one mile is very approximately 7 avenues. Note that Park Avenue South and Park Avenue are continuations of 4th Avenue, north of Union Square 17th St. and 32nd St, respectively; Lexington Avenue is between 3rd and Park Avenues, and can be thought of as a "3½ Avenue". Madison Avenue is between Park and 5th Avenues, and can be thought of as a "4½ Avenue".
