diff --git a/modules/angular2/src/router/location.ts b/modules/angular2/src/router/location.ts
index 1c154d3dd0..5f1ae15a5f 100644
--- a/modules/angular2/src/router/location.ts
+++ b/modules/angular2/src/router/location.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ export class Location {
   normalize(url: string): string { return this._stripBaseHref(stripIndexHtml(url)); }
 
   normalizeAbsolutely(url: string): string {
-    if (url[0] != '/') {
+    if (url.length > 0 && url[0] != '/') {
       url = '/' + url;
     }
     return this._addBaseHref(url);
diff --git a/modules/angular2/test/router/location_spec.ts b/modules/angular2/test/router/location_spec.ts
index b6fd0a0eed..4475d8e06f 100644
--- a/modules/angular2/test/router/location_spec.ts
+++ b/modules/angular2/test/router/location_spec.ts
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ export function main() {
           .toHaveBeenCalledWith(null, '', '/my/app/user/btford');
     });
 
+    it('should not prepend urls with starting slash when an empty URL is provided',
+       () => { expect(location.normalizeAbsolutely('')).toEqual(browserLocation.baseHref); });
+
     it('should not append urls with leading slash on navigate', () => {
       location.go('/my/app/user/btford');
       expect(browserLocation.spy('pushState'))