Boulevard

A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district.

Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls.

In North American usage, boulevards may be wide, multi-lane thoroughfares divided with only a central median.

Etymology

The word boulevard is borrowed from French. In France, it originally meant the flat surface of a rampart, and later a promenade taking the place of a demolished fortification. It is a borrowing from the Dutch word bolwerk 'bulwark'.^[1]

Notable examples

Australia and Oceania

Europe

North America

Canada

• Lake Shore Boulevard, Toronto
• Pie-IX Boulevard, Montreal

Mexico

• Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City

United States

• Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn
• Broadway, Manhattan
• Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles
• Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles
• Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles
• Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
• Chicago Boulevard System
• Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia
• Roosevelt Boulevard, Philadelphia
• Southern Boulevard Park, Philadelphia
• Boulevard, Atlanta
• Park Avenue, New York City
• Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas
• Ohio River Boulevard, Pittsburgh

South America

Argentina

• Avenida 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires

Uruguay

• Artigas Boulevard, Montevideo

References

Books

• Jacobs, Allan B.; Elizabeth Macdonald; Yodan Rofé (2003). The Boulevard Book. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-60023-1.
• Fiaccadori, Gianfranco; Malinverni, Alessandro; Mambriani, Carlo (2012). Guglielmo du Tillot: regista delle arti nell'età dei Lumi (in Italian). Parma: Fondazione Cariparma. ISBN 978-88-7898-064-8. OCLC 889616353.
• Pastega, Agostino Brotto (2010). Antonio Gaidon 1738-1829. Un professionista ante litteram dal rilievo mappale al boulevard. Bassano: Associazione Interprofessionale Bassanese.

External links

• The dictionary definition of boulevard at Wiktionary
• Boulevards in Vietnam