New York Avenue

New York Avenue is diagonal avenue radiating northeast from the White House in Washington, D.C., to the border with Maryland. It is a major east–west route in the city's Northwest and Northeast quadrants and connects downtown with points east and north of the city via Cheverly, Maryland, the John Hanson Highway, the Baltimore–Washington Parkway, and eventually Interstate 95.

New York Avenue was planned as one of the original streets in the L'Enfant Plan for Washington, D.C. It was intended to begin at the Potomac River and extend northeast toward the White House, then continue past the Executive Residence northeast to the boundary of the Federal City. The portion of the street southwest of the White House was to give the President of the United States an uninterrupted view of the river. Construction of the State, War, and Navy Building from 1871 to 1888 blocked this view, and it remains blocked to this day. Originally, it extended to the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory, but the construction of Rawlins Park in 1873 destroyed a block of New York Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets NW. Its consolidation with Triangle Park and three other "parklets" into a "Little Mall" in 1937 consumed another block between 20th and 21st Streets NW. Construction of the United States Department of War Building , and an associated park from 1940 to 1941 destroyed the lower three blocks of New York Avenue. Construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Building in 1963 eliminated another block between 19th and 20th Streets NW. This left a single block of New York Avenue NW, between 17th and 18th Streets NW, southeast of the White House.

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