History & Culture
The initial impetus for the development of the Upper East Side was the opening of Central Park in 1858, followed soon after, in the 1860s and 1870s, by the extension of streetcar lines northward. For much of the 19th Century, open railroad tracks along Park Avenue noisily bisected the neighborhood, but in the 1870s, the city began moving the railway underground, creating the Upper East Side we know today. For residents interested in art, few neighborhoods in the world can compete with the Upper East Side. Its Museum Mile (Fifth Avenue along the park) is home to the Met, the Frick Collection, and the Guggenheim, along with a number of smaller institutions.