A boulevard (French, from Dutch: Bolwerk – bolwark, meaning bastion), often abbreviated Blvd, is type of road, usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery. The division into peripheral roads for local use and a central main thoroughfare for regional traffic is a principal feature of the boulevard. Larger and busier boulevards usually feature a median. It was first introduced in the French language in 1435 as boloard and has since been altered into boulevard.
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Famous quotes containing the word boulevard:
“Ev’ry street’s a boulevard in old New York.”
—Bob Hilliard (1928–1971)
“Arrive in the afternoon, the late light slanting
In diluted gold bars across the boulevard brag
Of proud, seamed faces with mercy and murder hinting
here, there, interrupting, all deep and debonair,
The pink paint on the innocence of fear;
Walk in a gingerly manner up the hall.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)