Central Park West

Central Park West (sometimes referred to simply as CPW) is an avenue that runs north-south in the New York City borough of Manhattan, in the United States.

As its name indicates, CPW forms the western edge of Central Park. It also forms the eastern boundary of the Upper West Side. It runs 51 blocks from Columbus Circle (at 59th Street, or Central Park South) to Frederick Douglass Circle (at 110th Street, or Cathedral Parkway). The gates into Central Park along its western edge are: Merchants Gate at 59th Street, Women's Gate at 72nd, Naturalists Gate at 77th, Hunters Gate at 81st, Mariners Gate at 85th, Gate of all Saints at 96th, Boys Gate at 100th, and Strangers Gate at 106th. Central Park West's expensive housing rivals that of Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side.

South of Columbus Circle, in Midtown, CPW becomes Eighth Avenue. North of Frederick Douglass Circle, in Harlem, it is alternately known as Eighth Avenue or Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Unlike many Manhattan avenues, CPW has traffic running in two directions. The IND Eighth Avenue Line runs under the avenue, serving local stations.

Central Park West is the address of several famous residences, including The Dakota (where John Lennon lived with Yoko Ono, who still resides there, and outside of which he was murdered in 1980), The San Remo (home to U2's Bono, Demi Moore, Diane Keaton, & Steve Martin), The El Dorado, The Beresford (home to Diana Ross & Jerry Seinfeld), The Langham, The Century, 15 Central Park West (home to Sting), 41 Central Park West (home to Madonna), 455 Central Park West, The St. Urban, and The Majestic (which was home to some of the former heads of the Genovese crime family, including Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello. In 1957, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante shot Frank Costello in the lobby of The Majestic in a failed assassination attempt).

According to New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger, the street's buildings, both the new ones like 15 Central Park West and the old ones such as The Century, "fit together the same way the ones in that hypothetical Main Street do, and for the same reason. For more than a hundred years, their architects honor the unspoken agreement to work together, to line their buildings up with each other and to work in a consistent scale with materials that are compatible."

Most of these housing cooperatives were built around 1930, replacing late 19th century hotels with the same names. Some, including The Century, The San Remo, and The Majestic, are twin towers. Other landmarks and institutions along its length include the New-York Historical Society and the American Museum of Natural History. The area from 61st to 97th Streets is included in the Central Park West Historic District.

The building located at 55 Central Park West is the infamous "Spook Central" from the movie Ghostbusters. The famed New York City restaurant Tavern on the Green is located off of Central Park West, at 66th Street, within the grounds of Central Park.

In 1899, while exiting a streetcar, Henry Bliss was run over by a taxi at CPW and 74th Street, becoming the first person to be run down and killed by a motor car in the Americas.