Historic 72nd Street
At 72nd Street, Broadway crosses Amsterdam Avenue, creating a minute triangular space called Verdi Square; across the street to the south lies Sherman Square.
72nd Street is one of the few streets to go through Central Park, connecting the Upper West Side via Women's Gate, Terrace Drive and Inventors Gate, with the Upper East Side. However, Terrace Drive is often closed to vehicular traffic and therefore the crosstown M72 bus crosses the park at 65th Street.
The Dakota apartment building is located on the corner of West 72nd Street and Central Park West. Before automotive traffic, broad cross-streets offered desirable sites for prominent residences; the mansion at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue was the first of the Gilded Age mansions to be replaced by an apartment block, 907 Fifth Avenue, and McKim, Mead, and White’s Charles L. Tiffany mansion (1882) at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue was replaced by an apartment block but the Rhinelander Mansion, occupied now by Ralph Lauren, is still located on the southeast corner.
At Third Avenue, the Tower East apartment block (1960) set a new model for high-rise residences, a slab tower set back from the street front and isolated on a low base.
On October 11, 2006, the Belaire Apartments, a 50-story apartment complex located at 524 E. 72nd Street between York Avenue and the FDR Drive, was the site of a plane crash involving Cory Lidle's aircraft.
There is a park at the Eastern most end of 72nd Street overlooking the FDR and the East River. High Muggle traffic at times, especially during warmer weather. The location on this map makes it look like it is actually ON the FDR, but trust me, it is not. It is above the highway, in the park.