The street runs Northwest from the central Manege Square in the direction of Saint Petersburg and terminates at the Garden Ring, giving the name to Tverskoy District.

[1] During the imperial period, the importance of the thoroughfare was highlighted by the fact that it was through this street that the tsars arrived from the Northern capital to stay at their Kremlin residence.

Past sentry-boxes now they dash, Past shops and lamp-posts, serfs who lash Their nags, huts, mansions, monasteries, Parks, pharmacies, Bukharans, guards, Fat merchants, Cossacks, boulevards, Old women, boys with cheeks like cherries, Lions on gates with great stone jaws, And crosses black with flocks of daws.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the street was reconstructed, with stately neoclassical mansions giving way to grandiose commercial buildings in an eclectic mixture of historical styles.

Arkady Mordvinov, who handled this ambitious project, retained some historical buildings, like the ornately decorated Savvinskoye Podvorye by Ivan Kuznetsov.

Its extension, First Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, continues further on Northwest right up to Belorussky Rail Terminal (Tverskaya Zastava Square), changing its name again into Leningradsky Prospekt.

According to an index published by global real estate company Colliers International in 2008, it is now the third most expensive street in the world, based on commercial rental fees.

Both squares will acquire complex multi-level, grade-separated crossings and underground shopping malls, despite objections from preservationists and traffic experts.