Broadway begins at Castle Garden, the extreme southern point of Manhattan, unites at the Central Park with the Boulevard, making the longest street on the island, thirteen and one-half miles, and is lighted by over one thousand gas lamps. This street is eighty feet wide, and contains many of the principal business houses, hotels, and places of amusement. Not a few of these cover an entire block, are built of marble or iron, are five, six, and sometimes seven stories above ground, and two below, with well-lighted vaults extending to near the centre of the streets. Broadway is the glittering promenade of wealth, beauty, fashion, and curiosity.