The Streets of New York City Trivia Quiz

Answer: Maiden Lane

Maiden Lane is two blocks north of Wall Street in New York's Financial District. The name comes from Dutch for "Maiden Path" because of the popularity of the nearby brook among mothers and daughters as a place to do the family laundry on sunny days.

Maiden Lane is the location of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Continental Center, the Cushman Building, and the Goldsmiths' and Silversmiths' Building, as well as other office buildings.

Answer: Steinway Street

Steinway Street is major north-south boulevard in Astoria, Queens. William Steinway's factory played a huge part in the development of the neighborhood starting in 1870 when he purchased 400 acres of rural land in northern Astoria.

He established factory operations and expanded to include a sawmill to prepare its own lumber, and a foundry to make the cast iron plates that sit inside the heart of the piano. Victorian row houses were built for Steinway employees so they could live near the new production headquarters. Steinway Village spanned from what is now Ditmars Boulevard up to the East River/Bowery Bay, and from 31st Street to Hazen Street.

The Steinway family owned a palatial home on 41st Street, north of 19th Avenue, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and referred to as the Steinway Mansion.

Steinway Street has become a major commercial district and is the primary section of a business improvement district called Steinway Astoria Partnership.

Answer: Apple Street

Cranberry, Orange, and Pineapple Streets received their names in the 19th century from local resident Lady Middagh, a descendant of one of the earliest families to settle in the area. The streets were named after aristocratic families that lived on them. Lady Middagh found this "pretentious", and her solution was to remove the original street signs and put up her own.

The City took them down, but eventually relented to Lady Middagh's persistence. However, she left Middagh Street alone and it still exists today, running parallel to the fruit streets!

At the end of the streets is the "Fruit Street Sitting Area" complete with benches and a plaque, which connects Columbia Heights to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Cranberry Street, in particular, gained fame as the location of the character Loretta Castorini's home in the 1987 film "Moonstruck", starring Cher and Nicolas Cage.

Answer: Utopia Parkway

Nestled in Queens between Jamaica and Flushing is Utopia, a neat, tree-lined grid that was originally planned as a haven for Jewish immigrants. The name comes from the Utopia Land Company, which purchased fifty acres of farmland in Queens in 1905.

The company planned to provide a less-crowded community for Lower East Side Jewish families. At the time, the land east of 164th Street between Jamaica and Flushing was open space. The company also planned to name the roads in the new community after the Lower East Side streets where its inhabitants used to live, including Essex, Hester and Ludlow.

Ironically, Utopia Land Company went bankrupt before it could realize its dream. Much of the land remained unused for the next 35 years before Jamaica's Gross-Morton Park Corporation began developing the area.

In 1940, a road that ran from Union Turnpike to Grand Central Parkway was christened Utopia Parkway.

Answer: Broadway

Broadway is a translation for "broad road". Broadway not only runs the length of Manhattan but continues through the Bronx and even 18 miles beyond the City, ending just past Sleepy Hollow, New York. It is the oldest north-south main thoroughfare in New York City.

The lower Broadway section originating at Bowling Green to City Hall Park is location for the City's ticker-tape parades, and is known as the "Canyon of Heroes".

"The Great White Way" became one of the nicknames for Broadway in the late 1890s, when the street was one of the first to be fully illuminated by electric light. By the turn of the century, Broadway was already revered as the mecca for aspiring American stage actors and is known as the heart of New York City's theater district.

Answer: Park Avenue

Park Avenue was originally known as Fourth Avenue. When the New York and Harlem Railroad began in the 1830s, the tracks ran through an open cut covered with grating and grass between 34th and 40th Street. In the early 1850s, a section of this "park" was renamed Park Avenue.

Nowadays, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east. Park Avenue's entire length was formerly called Fourth Avenue and the name still applies below 14th Street. Between 17th Street and 32nd Street the name Park Avenue South is used, and the section between 17th Street and Broadway/14th Street is called Union Square East.

Answer: Trinity Church

Trinity Church is an historic Gothic-style cathedral on Broadway and Wall Street in the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

Extended in 1784, Church Street is believed to be in existence as early as 1761. Part of the street once owned by the Church was given to the city in 1804.

The Church Street Station Post Office at 90 Church Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the Canal Street Station Post Office at the north end of Church Street.

Answer: Water Street

Water Street is situated on what used to be the eastern edge of the island, the East River washed through the streets until the surrounding areas became landfill, and the island's eastern borders were extended.

In 1981, the remains of an early 18th century merchant ship were uncovered in the landfill. Nautical archaeologists were able to determine that sometime between 1749 and 1755, the ship was hauled to this spot and sunk in place, to be used as a wooden support, or cribbing, to hold in new landfill. Water Street also housed New Amsterdam's first organized City Hall.

Nearly one-third of Lower Manhattan is "made land", and land-filling has been used to extend the city's edge from the 1650s through the 19th century.

Answer: Waverly Place

The novel was extremely popular in the early 19th century. After Scott died in 1832, the street was named for him at the insistence of local residents.

Waverly Place runs from Bank Street to Broadway, and an interesting feature is that Waverly Place changes direction at its midpoint (Christopher Street) from a north-south street to a northwest-southeast street. Waverly branches into a "Y", thus creating an intersection of Waverly Place and Waverly Place!

Answer: Jane

Jane street runs for five blocks from Greenwich Avenue to the Hudson River in New York's West Village. It is believed that a cow path (rather than a cobblestone road) led to the Jaynes family tobacco farm. Through the years, the street's name was altered from Jaynes or Jayne to Jane.

Sarah Jessica Parker's character Carrie Bradshaw's in "Sex and the City" resided on the Upper East Side. In reality, the townhouse used for the external shots is on Jane Street.