"In the early seventeenth century, in a backwater Dutch colony, there was a wide, muddy cow path that the settlers called the Brede Wegh. As the street grew longer, houses and taverns began to spring up alongside it. What was once New Amsterdam became New York, and farmlands gradually gave way to department stores, theaters, hotels, and, finally, the perpetual traffic of the twentieth century's Great White Way. From Bowling Green all the way up to Marble Hill, Broadway takes us on a mile-by-mile journey up America's most vibrant and complex thoroughfare, through the history at the heart of Manhattan." -- Publisher's description.

Mile 1: Bowling Green to City Hall Park. Soaring things ; Mud and fire ; Promenade ; Fire and progress ; Barnum ; Traffic -- Mile 2: City Hall Park to Houston Street. Across the meadows ; "A glance at New York" ; Millionaires and murderers ; "Broadway is never finished" -- Mile 3: Houston Street to Union Square. The bend ; Grace ; Union ; The Rialto ; Incendiary speech -- Mile 4: Union Square to Herald Square. Ladies' mile ; The "merry chair war" ; The freak building ; The "light cure" -- Mile 5: Herald Square to Columbus Circle. Great White Way ; Eden ; Times Square types ; Broadway ghosts -- Mile 6: Columbus Circle to 79th Street. The Boulevard ; "Down there" ; Chickens on the roof ; Harsenville -- Mile 7: 79th Street to 106th Street. The raven of speculation ; Boomtown ; Hometown -- Mile 8: 106th Street to 122nd Street. Asylum ; Acropolis ; God's skyscrapers -- Mile 9: 122nd Street to 143rd Street. "Honest to goodness slum land" ; Murderville -- Mile 10: 143rd Street to 165th Street. The house on the hill ; Necropolis ; Minnie's land -- Mile 11: 165th Street to 179th Street. The Heights ; Hilltoppers ; The fourth reich ; The bridge ; The cut -- Mile 12: 179th Street to Dyckman Street. Mr. Billings ; Mr. Molenaor ; Mr. Barnard -- Mile 13: Dyckman Street to 228th Street. Life and death in Inwood ; The last farm ; Indian trail ; Where does this road end?