Broadway - probably there are very few people in the word who have never heard anything about Broadway.  Not only is it the main street of New York but it is also the longest street in the city.What do you associate with Broadway?  Probably first of all you think about flashing advertisements with neon lights and musical-show spectacles.  This main artery of the city in its outline repeats an Indian path which later united the two first European settlements on the island - Harlem and New Amsterdam.  The name of the street comes from the first settlers of Dutch extraction who called it Breede weg - wide path.  The southern part of Broadway you will encounter from other of our tours, but in front of us awaits the Theater district on Broadway.  The theatre district of New York extends from 40th to 54th streets and from 6th avenue on the west to 8th avenue on the East.  The portion of Broadway included in the theater district is called the Great White Way because of the incredibly bright light of the neon signs.Theatrical life began to actively develop here in the early 1900s.  At that time the civil authorities decided to demolish antiquated buildings in the region of Times Square.  On the freed up space, theaters began to appear like mushrooms after a rain.  It turned out that to invest money in a theatrical presentation was very profitable.  Therefore, theaters were built and rebuilt, trying to outdo each other in elegance and magnificence.  In addition to traditional spectacles  and stylish plays the theaters tried to attract audiences with new musical entertainments.  It was at this time that the  genre of the Broadway musical emerged. In 1914 on Broadway very close to each other there were 43 theaters, today there remain 22.Photo Broadway by Matthias Uhlig is licensed under CC BY 2.0