Editing Broadway (Manhattan) (section)

=== Colonial history ===
[[File:View of Broadway, 1834 (NYPL b12349156-421536).jpg|thumb|upright=1|An 1834 illustration of Broadway]]
[[File:NewYorkCity1860.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Broadway in 1860]]
Broadway was originally the [[Wecquaesgeek|Wickquasgeck]] trail, carved into the brush of Manhattan by its [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] inhabitants.<ref group=notes>The name of the Indian band has variously been spelled Wiechquaeskeck, Wechquaesqueck, Weckquaesqueek, Wecquaesgeek, Weekquaesguk, Wickquasgeck, Wickquasgek, Wiequaeskeek, Wiequashook, and Wiquaeskec. The meaning of the name, however spelled, has been given as "the end of the marsh, swamp or wet meadow", "place of the bark kettle", and "birch bark country". See:
*{{cite book | last=Trumbull | first=James Hammond | title=Indian Names of Places, Etc., in and on the Borders of Connecticut: With Interpretations of Some of Them | publisher=Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company | year=1881 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JS8TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA81 | page=81 | access-date=August 21, 2019 | archive-date=March 17, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240317180540/https://books.google.com/books?id=JS8TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status=live }}
*{{cite news |title=Oldest Streets Are Protected as Landmark |first=David |last=Dunlap |author-link=David W. Dunlap |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/15/nyregion/oldest-streets-are-protected-as-landmark.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |issn=0362-4331 |date=June 15, 1983 |access-date=December 21, 2015 |ref=none |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222224851/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/15/nyregion/oldest-streets-are-protected-as-landmark.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Streets Where History Lives |first=Russell |last=Shorto |author-link=Russell Shorto |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/opinion/the-streets-where-history-lives.html |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=February 9, 2004 |access-date=April 10, 2020 |quote=And what about a marker for the Wickquasgeck Trail, the Indian path that ran the length of the island, which the Dutch made into their main highway and the English renamed Broadway? |archive-date=June 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605212920/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/opinion/the-streets-where-history-lives.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This trail originally snaked through swamps and rocks along the length of Manhattan Island.{{refn|group=notes|According to author [[Russell Shorto]]: "Broadway does not follow the precise course of the Indian trail, as some historians would have it. To follow the Wickquasgeck trail today, one would take Broadway north from the [[Alexander Hamilton U. S. Custom House|Customs House]], jog eastward along [[Park Row (Manhattan)|Park Row]], then follow the [[Bowery]] to [[23rd Street (Manhattan)|Twenty-third Street]]. From there, the trail snaked up the east side of the island. It crossed westward through the top of [[Central Park]]; the paths of Broadway and the Wickquasgeck trail converge again at the top of the island. The trail continued into [[the Bronx]]; [[U.S. Route 9 in New York|Route 9]] follows it northward."<ref name=shortobroad />}}

Upon the arrival of the [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]], the trail was widened<ref name=shortobroad>{{harvnb|Shorto|2005|loc=p. 60, note}}</ref> and soon became the main road through the island from ''Nieuw Amsterdam'' at the southern tip. The Dutch explorer and entrepreneur [[David Pietersz. de Vries]] gives the first mention of it in his journal for the year 1642 ("the Wickquasgeck Road over which the Indians passed daily"). The Dutch called it the ''Heeren Wegh'' or ''Heeren Straat'', meaning "Gentlemen's Way" or "Gentlemen's Street" &ndash; echoing the name of a similar street in Amsterdam – or "High Street" or "the Highway"; it was renamed "Broadway" after the British took over the city, because of its unusual width.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lorenzini |first1=Michael |title=The Dutch and the English, Part 2: A Wall by any other name |url=http://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/2/23/the-dutch-the-english-part-2-a-wall-by-any-other-name |website=New York Department of Records and Information Services |publisher=NYC Archives |date=February 23, 2017 |access-date=August 21, 2019 |archive-date=August 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817104919/http://www.archives.nyc/blog/2017/2/23/the-dutch-the-english-part-2-a-wall-by-any-other-name |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Burrows|Wallace|1999|page=50}}<ref name=shortobroad /><ref>{{cite streetbook|page=31}}</ref><ref>{{cite naming|page=26}}</ref><ref group=notes>It is also claimed that the Dutch called it "''Breede Weg''", of which "Broadway" is a literal translation. See:
*{{cite book |title=The Epic of New York City |author=Ellis, Edward Robb |author-link=Edward Robb Ellis |publisher=Old Town Books |year=1966 |page=26 |ref=none}}
*{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1893/05/29/archives/some-new-publications-peter-stuyvesants-unhappy-rule-peter.html |title=Some New Publication: Peter Stuyvesant's Unhappy Rule |date=May 29, 1893 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=April 20, 2020 |quote=One other thing which came from the Dutch is the name of our street, Broadway, which by them was called the Breede Weg, the translation being afterward made by the English |archive-date=July 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711112703/https://www.nytimes.com/1893/05/29/archives/some-new-publications-peter-stuyvesants-unhappy-rule-peter.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Although currently the name of the street is simply "Broadway", in a 1776 map of New York City, it is labeled as "Broadway Street".<ref name="1776 NYC Map">See the map inset. [http://updates.gizmodo.com/post/34784175229/manhattans-sandy-evacuation-zones-match-up-with "Manhattan's Sandy Evacuation Zones Match Up With the Island's Original Coastline"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105194516/http://updates.gizmodo.com/post/34784175229/manhattans-sandy-evacuation-zones-match-up-with |date=November 5, 2012}} ''gizmodo.com''</ref>