Union Drive East is a major north-south highway in Grand Theft Auto IV, Episodes from Liberty City and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars located in Algonquin, Liberty City.
Description[]
Serving as an essential highway running down the eastern edge of Algonquin along the Humboldt River, the highway passes through a number of Algonquin's neighborhoods. It appears as a two-way two-lane highway with multiple major intersections.
When the Higgins Helitours pilot flies over Union Drive East, he says that Union Drive was built during an unprecedent reign of organized crime. As a result, it is rumored to have fifteen bodes within its cement.
The highway starts as a large open road in Lancaster, passing through Middle Park East, Hatton Gardens, Lancet, Presidents City, Fishmarket North, Fishmarket South and finishing at the Castle Tunnel in Castle Gardens.
Its western counterpart is Union Drive West. Both highways meet at the Castle Tunnel at their southernmost points.
The freeway is a mixture of at-grade, underground and elevated roadways. Both Union Drive East and Union Drive West are some of the longest continuous roads in Liberty City.
Lancaster[]
Starting in Lancaster, the highway forms as a large open street following on from Topaz Street which runs across the northern fringe of Middle Park. It meets at an intersection with two smaller roads running north-south; San Juan Road in the north and Albany Avenue in the south. On the corners of the intersection are the East Holland Police Station between Topaz Street and San Juan Road, and a Terroil fuel station between Topaz Street and Albany Avenue. Albany Avenue is significantly related to Union Drive East in that it runs parallel for the entire journey from north to south of Algonquin and, for a significant part, looks out and over the highway onto the Humboldt River. Many of Union Drive East's exits lead onto roads that quickly descent or ascend onto Albany Avenue too.
Despite starting as a east-west facing road, a sharp 90 degree corner leads UDE towards the south as it approaches Silicon Street, a small one-way street also running through Albany Avenue. A large pedestrian walkway bridge passes over the road at this point at a traffic-light controlled intersection with the small one-way street.
Further down, UDE meets with east-west Ruby Street, another large open 2-way-2-lane road which is connected to Charge Island via the East Borough Bridge. As another traffic-light controlled intersection, the road is a relatively busy location with traffic, although it is significantly aided with the implementation of two one-way off-ramp bridges that pass over UDE from the East Borough Bridge to Ruby Street further west of the Albany Avenue intersection, reducing traffic pile-ups from the east-west directions.
Middle Park East[]
After Ruby Street, UDE enters a "dip" within the land as it becomes lower than the west avenues, running at close-to sea level with the Humboldt River. The road's traffic is also divided by central reservation barriers. Construction work appears to be taking place west of the highway as it passes through Middle Park East. More pedestrian walkway bridges passover the highway, including a spiral footpath evolving the much-higher Albany Avenue.
The highway meets at a controlled intersection with Obsidian Street at the same level, which passes under Albany Avenue before ascending to street-level at Bismarck Avenue.
Hatton Gardens[]
Within Hatton Gardens the highway has on and off-ramps with Manganese Street at street level. It also passes under the Civilization Committee building as is bends further east as the island widens. This section of the highway is relatively open despite being underground, and doesn't appear to be structured as a tunnel, with no signs of emergency exits, but otherwise features open space and no permanent central division nor outer division, allowing the player to fall into the river at certain points.
This section is clearly based on the United Nations Tunnel, a section of the FDR Drive in Manhattan, New York City, that runs underneath the large grounds of the United Nations Building.
Upon exiting the underpass, the Algonquin Bridge and the Colony Island Skycar pass over. Two one-way freeway off- and on-ramps to/from the south lead onto Kunzite Street which curve around the large stairway foundations of the Algonquin Bridge. They meet with Albany Avenue is a large ditch within the land as the Algonquin Bridge descends to road-level, creating a large intersection trough.
Presidents City[]
Despite passing through the entire latitude of Presidents City, UDE has no exits or entrances with any roads within it, however it has close by within Fishmarket North.
The UDE passes under Leaper's Bridge which connects mainland Algonquin with Colony Island. Again, the highway curves further out into the river as the island widens, creating a narrow passage of water underneath Leaper's Bridge where several barges are found parked. As it passes under the bridge, freeway ramps lead out into the next neighborhood.
Fishmarket North[]
The highway has a major intersection with Garnet Street providing both exit and entrance from and onto the highway. Two small ramps pass under the highway where several warehouses are found. It can be a very busy area for traffic heading north as traffic merges from Garnet Street onto the highway. Traffic often takes time to clear when exiting north onto Garnet Street too, due to the traffic lights at Garnet Street and Albany Avenue. This often causes a huge bottleneck under Leaper's Bridge as NPCs occasionally turn across both lanes of traffic to merge their way into the off-ramp.
At this point of the stretch, UDE ascends to an overpass, passing over Privateer Road which begins at Feldspar Street and runs parallel underneath the UDE. This road has many connections with some of the warehouses on the rim of Algonquin.
Fishmarket South[]
Within Fishmarket South, the UDE has no connections to any other roads, but does run both over and under several, including the Broker Bridge which descends into Chinatown.
The under-passing Privateer Road homes many of the skyscrapers which line the southern downtown Algonquin Skyline, including the Privateer Road Building, Borlock Road-Barium Street Building and Borlock Road Building, the three main skyscrapers which border southern Algonquin's inner city.
The highway begins to descend after passing over Barium Street near Bus Lane, where it eventually runs alongside Flatfish Place. It meets ground level on the very outskirts of Fishmarket South but has no road connections until Castle Gardens.
Castle Gardens[]
Union Drive East's final span is within Castle Gardens. Having descended back to street level, it connects with South Parkway, the main road running along the southern Algonquin tip north of Castle Gardens.
It then continues on towards Castle Tunnel where it terminates, providing exit onto Flatfish Place which is now running perpendicular to South Parkway. Flatfish Place also provides entrance onto UDE. The UDE does not continue into the Castle Tunnel, the tunnel serving as its own road exits at the other side of Castle Gardens in City Hall where it continues onto Union Drive West running along the western fringe of Algonquin.
Influence[]
Union Drive East is evidently a take on Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive in Manhattan, New York City.
Intersections[]
Being a major highway of Liberty City, Union Drive East has many connections to other streets, both large and small. Running parallel to the city's major avenues, it has selected connections to the alphabetical list of Algonquin's horizontal streets G, K, M, O, R, S and T.
From north to south, Union Drive East has the following intersections:
Gallery[]
