Broad Street is a major thoroughfare in Central Ohio, predominantly in Franklin County and Columbus.

Continuing east, the road quickly enters Franklin County and passes by Lake Darby in Prairie Township.

The road passes Franklinton and crosses the Scioto River on the Discovery Bridge, entering Downtown Columbus.

The settlement's founders were persuasive, though its flood problem led Ohio officials to choose the eastern bank of the river, on higher ground.

[4] Broad Street's construction involved clearing dense forest, and tree stumps left behind caused horse-drawn carriages to maneuver around them, helping lead to the wide roadway.

[3] Early in Columbus's history, around the mid-1800s, East Broad Street became one of the most fashionable places to live, from downtown past Franklin Park.

This carried into the early 1900s, when grand hotels and apartment buildings like the Royal York and Brunson Place were built.

Around the 1970s, Columbus mayor Tom Moody commissioned Vincent Ponte to redesign downtown Broad Street.

Ponte proposed a similar parkway to what was built in the 1850s, but a lack of funding and concerns of impeding traffic caused the plan to not be carried forward.

[3] Starting around the 1980s, the remaining mansions on East Broad Street began to be repaired and restored to their original integrity.

[6] In 1992, with the AmeriFlora '92 exposition approaching, the city again considered reworking Broad Street, including transit options or a parkway with medians.

Again in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with a declining downtown population, Mayor Michael B. Coleman commissioned $10 million in studies.

[3] The street has a reputation as dangerous to cross without a walk sign, especially portions of West Broad that have large stretches without stoplights where cars speed by.

For public transportation, the Central Ohio Transit Authority's Route 10 runs down most of Broad Street.

[11] Before the authority was created, the same route was operated by private transit companies with bus lines, and before that, streetcars and horsecars.