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Broadway was originally an Indian trail that followed the ridge of the hilly island of Manahatta. The Dutch settlers called it Heere Straat, or High Street, because of its elevated position; one of several other names it was known by was the Broad Wagon Way, which presumably was the origin of its present appellation. Above what is now Union Square it was known as the Bloomingdale Road, after a village located on the present-day Upper West Side.
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