I Have a Question

When watching American TV and movies, I often see house numbers such as 1711 or 3242 or whatever. Are the streets actually that long? Are there thousands of houses on one street? Or does the number break down into something else?
This is probably a question that makes me sound naive but living in the middle of England my entire life, things are obviously different over here than in other countries but I've always just been curious. :)