 Most of Denver has a straightforward street grid oriented to the four cardinal directions . Blocks are usually identified in hundreds from the median streets , identified as " 00 " , which are Broadway ( the east – west median , running north – south ) and Ellsworth Avenue ( the north – south median , running east – west ) . Colfax Avenue , a major east – west artery through Denver , is 15 blocks ( 1500 ) north of the median . Avenues north of Ellsworth are numbered ( with the exception of Colfax Avenue and several others , such as Martin Luther King , Jr . Blvd and <unk> Blvd . ) , while avenues south of Ellsworth are named . 
