Today's FFF FrankieFunFact 2/2/2015

Words and photo by F LoBuono

Broadway, arguably the street most famously associated with the island of Manhattan, was originally a Native American footpath that ran from the southern most tip of the island all the way north to what would become Albany. Originally called The Wickquasgeck Trial, it was named form the tribe that lived along its length . The Dutch, the first European settlers to the island (aprrox. 1626), used it freely, widened it, and eventually called it The Gentlemens' Street, High Street, or simply The Highway. The English, who took the island from the Dutch, eventually renamed it Broadway. Although it has always run continuously North and South, its early route was much more circuitous than it is today.