Crosses: Harlem River
Connects: Third Avenue between Mott Haven, the Bronx and Harlem [satellite map]
Carries: 5 Manahattan-bound vehicular lanes, 2 pedestrian sidewalks
Design: swing bridge
Date opened: 2004

The Third Avenue Bridge is a swing bridge over the Harlem River, connecting Third Avenue in Manhattan with Third Avenue in the Bronx. It is the fourth bridge to stand at that location.

In 1774, Lewis Morris received permission to build a bridge to connect a proposed road through Harlem with a road leading to the Morris family’s estate, Morrisania, and the village of Eastchester (both are now neighborhoods located in the Bronx). Though a ferry had once operated between Manhattan and the Bronx just east of the proposed site of the crossing for a few years in the late 1600s, the only way for people to travel between the two at the time of Morris’ proposal was by either King’s Bridge or Farmer’s Bridge, both of which were located at the far northern tip of Manhattan. Morris’ bridge would cut the traveling distance between his estate and the southern end of Manhattan, the core of the city at the time, by nearly 12 miles.

Coles Bridge

Nothing was done about the bridge, however, until the end of March 1790, when a refined charter was given to Morris to build a drawbridge at least 12 feet wide to accommodate river traffic. Morris was also given permission to charge tolls on the bridge for a period of 60 years, after which ownership of the bridge would pass on to the state. Such arrangements were common at the time as an enticement for private entities and individuals to invest in public infrastructure.

Also common at the time were delays concerning large projects such as this. Nothing concerning the bridge is mentioned in the city’s legislative archives until March 1795, when Morris sought permission to transfer his charter to a business partner and family friend named John B. Coles. The new charter was approved with a modification allowing Coles to build the bridge on top of a dam in order to a establish a water-powered mill at the site. In early 1797 the Coles Bridge, as it came to be known, a simple wooden structure with a turntable draw span, was opened, though Coles apparently never got around to building a dam underneath it. The route over the bridge, consisting of a newly constructed Middle Road (now roughly Eighth Avenue and Central Park West) in Manhattan and what came to be known as Coles Road (now Third Avenue and Boston Post Road in the Bronx) quickly became more popular than the King’s Bridge or Farmer’s Bridge route, in spite of the fact that Coles had inherited and taken advantage of Morris’ right to charge tolls while the uptown crossings were both free to use.

The Harlem Bridge

On April 1, 1858, in accordance with the original charter’s stipulation and the State Legislature’s Chapter 774 of the Laws of 1857, ownership of Coles Bridge passed from the Coles family to the state government. By that time, the bridge had fallen into such a bad state of repair that nothing could be done to save it, according to the Commissioners of Harlem Bridge, a group consisting of New York and Westchester officials convened specially to oversee the takeover of the bridge by the state. In June 1860, the Commissioners made an official inspection of the bridge in anticipation of a reconstruction project. They found the superstructure in an advanced state of decay and “the piers destroyed by the ravages of the worm” [1] (the worm in question, teredo navalis, is not actually a worm but a mollusk, commonly known as the shipworm or marine borer. It is still a serious problem in the city, with many millions of dollars budgeted for the reconstruction of waterfront piers, highways, and high rise foundations due to its highly efficient method of consuming submerged wooden pilings).

The official decision to rebuild the bridge came soon after, and work began in August 1860. Erastus W. Smith, a New York mechanical engineer with many years of experience running municipal water works and ocean liner systems was named as Chief Engineer of the project. The original plans for the bridge called for a series of simple through truss approach spans with a through truss swing span atop a turntable. Smith decided instead to build the bridge with arched tubular truss spans constructed of wrought iron, giving the bridge a gracefully curved profile in comparison to the original boxy design. The old span was kept in place as the new bridge was built just west of it. The piers for the new bridge consisted of a combination of six foot and eight foot diameter cast iron cylinders, sunk into the river bed by pneumatic force, one of the earliest instances of the use of compressed air for bridge construction in the country. The pier sinking and foundation work were completed by the New York firm of Roach & Edwards. The superstructure of the bridge was constructed by the Trenton Locomotive Machine Manufacturing Company of New Jersey. After 8 years of work, the still incomplete bridge, called the Harlem Bridge, was opened for public use on October 16, 1868. The bridge measured 526 feet long by 52 feet wide, including a 218 foot long swing span that operated under the force of water supplied by a Croton water main. Shortly after it opened, a horse car railroad was established over the bridge by the Harlem Bridge, Morrisania and Fordham Railroad Company. Horses would be used on the bridge until 1891, when they were replaced by a an electric propulsion system with power provided by overhead wires.

The Third Avenue Bridge

The Harlem Bridge did not last long, however. After several years, parts of the bridge began to fall apart. The cast iron piers began to crack and the wheels under the turntable had to be replaced multiple times after breaking into pieces. The water powered engine was found to be too sluggish to keep up with the demands of road and river traffic and had to be replaced with a steam engine. In 1882, jurisdiction over all underwater land surrounding the city passed on to the US Government, which had plans to improve the waterways of the city. in 1890, the government passed the Rivers and Harbors Act which specified, among other changes, that all bridges over the Harlem River be raised in order to provide 24 feet of clearance above high water. The Harlem Bridge only provided 5 feet of clearance over the river. Shortly after, the city’s Department of Public Works, which had jurisdiction over the bridge at the time, brought forth a bill in the state legislature asking for authorization to replace the bridge with one that would comply with the new law. The bill was approved, and authorization came in the form of Chapter 413 of the Laws of 1892.

The Harlem Bridge was closed on June 20, 1894, with traffic diverted to a temporary bridge while the new Third Avenue Bridge, as it would be called, was being built. The new span was constructed as a swing bridge, with a swing span operating under steam power. The span was made with steel provided by the Phoenix Iron Works Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The span was 300 feet long and was composed of a large through truss structure with curved upper chords terminating at a sharp apex. It was designed by Thomas C. Clarke, the consulting engineer assigned to the project by the Department of Public Works. It was opened on August 1, 1898 with the blowing of its warning whistle, which was soon joined in by the blowing of whistles from nearby boats, trains and factories. It was the largest and heaviest bridge of its type in the world at the time. The bridge had room for two walkways and a roadway containing two sets of trolley tracks laid down by the Union Railway Company, the successor to the Harlem Bridge, Fordham and Morrisania Railway Company during the construction of the bridge. The tracks would remain in place until 1953 when the Third Avenue Elevated train line was demolished. The tracks were then converted into automobile lanes.

Replacement

The Third Avenue Bridge served the city well until the night of November 7, 1999, when a two alarm fire broke out on the wooden fender surrounding the swing span, closing the bridge for several days. in 2001, the city Department of Transportation, which now has jurisdiction over the bridge, began a $119 million reconstruction of the Third Avenue Bridge as part of a nearly $1 billion program to rehabilitate or replace all of the movable Harlem River Bridges. The new bridge, a swing span like all of its ancestors, was designed to visually mimic as closely as possible the span it replaced, albeit with more modern construction techniques and materials. It carries two sidewalks and five lanes of Manhattan-bound traffic. It opened in 2004.

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References

1864. Commissioners of Harlem Bridge. Reports of the Special Committee on the New Harlem Bridge. New York: Wynkoop, Hallenbeck & Thomas.

1895, December 29. The New Harlem Bridge. The New York Times.

1898, August 2. New Third Avenue Bridge. The New York Times.

1903. New York Department of Bridges. The Department of Bridges of the City of New York: A Statement of Facts. New York: The City Club of New York.

1904. Gay, Martin. Harlem River Bridges. Proceedings of the Municipal Engineers of the City of New York. New York.

1905. New York Department of Bridges. Report of the Commissioner of Bridges to the Hon. George B. McClellan, Mayor of the City of New York, December 31, 1904. New York: Martin B. Brown Co.

1905. Municipal Engineers of the City of New York. Proceedings, 1904. New York.

[1] c1920. New York (City). Historical facts in Connection with New York City Bridges: 1890-1919. New York: City Hall Library.

1999, November 8. Waldman, Amy. Big Fire Closes 3rd Ave. Bridge, Snarling Traffic From the Bronx. The New York Times.

2006, January 14. Chan, Sewell. City Wants to Part With Bridge That Links Bronx and Manhattan. The New York Times.

Crosses: Newtown Creek
Connects: Grand Street, Williamsburg and Grand Avenue, Maspeth [satellite map]
Carries: 2 vehicular lanes, 2 pedestrian sidewalks
Design: swing bridge
Date opened: February 5, 1903

The Grand Street Bridge is a through truss swing bridge across Newtown Creek, connecting Maspeth, Queens with Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Earlier Bridges

In the 1850s Newtown Creek was an incredibly busy and polluted waterway, crowded with ships serving industrial sites like the glue factories, smelting plants, and refineries that lined its shores.

The first bridge to carry Grand Street over Newtown Creek was authorized to be built in 1869, with the cost of construction to be split between the town of Newtown (now a part of present day Queens) and the city of Brooklyn. A contract was awarded in 1874 to the King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, and an iron swing bridge was completed at the site the following year. In 1878, the Kings County Board of Supervisors reported that the bridge was already in bad shape; the swing span had become difficult to turn, causing traffic delays to become a commonplace occurrence. By 1881 the bridge had sunk so far into the mud that at high tide the turntable would become partially submerged in the creek. The Joint Committee on Bridges called for its replacement in 1888. A new iron swing bridge with masonry piers opened the following year. Jurisdiction over the bridge was given to the Department of Bridges in 1898 following the consolidation of the five boroughs into the City of New York. In 1899, the US War Department, looking to dredge and widen Newtown Creek, found the bridge to be an obstruction to navigation and ordered yet another bridge to be built on the site.

Current Bridge

On June 11, 1900, Department of Bridges Commissioner John L. Shea advertised for bids on the construction of a new span. On August 7, a contract was awarded to Bernard Rolf for a steel swing bridge at a cost of $173,380. The old bridge was closed on August 27 and a temporary pedestrian bridge made of wood was built. Construction of the new bridge took much longer than initially expected. Labor strikes, poorly made engineering plans, and deliveries of low quality building materials were compounded by problems with the dredging of the creek. The situation improved when prominent bridge engineer Gustav Lindenthal was appointed Bridge Commissioner by Mayor Seth Low in 1902. In November of that year, consulting engineer C.C. Martin was placed in full charge of the project by the Department of Bridges, and construction progressed quickly. The bridge was completed at a cost of $205,672 and opened to traffic on December 12, 1902. The City of New York officially accepted the bridge on February 5, 1903.

Crimes & Accidents

The Grand Street Bridge and the area very close to it on Newtown Creek have been site to numerous crimes and some mysterious drownings. The bridge was left unguarded at night: policemen stationed there left at 8pm and did not return until 4am. In November of 1894 The New York Times detailed a story told to them by George Roeschman, who said he had been approached by three men asking for a match while crossing the bridge one night. When he reached into his pocket, the men grabbed him, put a bag over his head, robbed him of all he had ($10), and tossed him into Newtown Creek. He lived to tell his tale, though his credibility is questionable: the lumber company Roeschman claimed he worked for had no idea who he was. In the same year several other bodies were pulled from the water near the bridge, it being unknown whether they were murdered or drowned. Two men were arrested and sentenced to Sing Sing Prison for taking and burying alive a baby from a Polish woman (of no relation to either) near the bridge.

In January 1896, Polish priest Reverend Leonard Syczek was heard crying out for help from the water by a watchman and two boat captains who happened to be nearby. He was pulled out but died later. It was thought he had fallen in accidentally: the entryways to the bridge were dark at night and it was easy to miss the walkway and fall right into the river. In September of 1927 a Maspeth man drove through the guardrail and off the narrow bridge after colliding with another car. He managed to free himself from his car and was rescued by boat.

Decline

The bridge held up relatively well until the 1950s, when reports of closures became frequent. Between 1952 and 1956 the main shaft on the turntable broke at least three times, each instance requiring a full day’s work for repairs, during which time the bridge was left in the open position to accommodate boat traffic. On June 12, 1975, a proposal was put into place to cut service for bridge openings. Until that time, a tender was employed 24 hours a day on the bridge. The plans were put off for a time, but were eventually put into place. In 2002, the Department of Transportation, who now has jurisdiction over the bridge, proposed turning the bridge into a fixed span, citing the decline of boat traffic that had come to obviate the need for bridge openings. The proposal has yet to be put into place, though bridge openings have become very rare. In 1998 (the most recent year for which data is available), the bridge was opened only 23 times for boat traffic, and another 63 times for testing. Those numbers show a sharp decline from as recent as 1990, when it was opened 610 times for boat traffic, and 42 times for testing.

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References

1885, September 22. The 18th Ward: Its Past and Its Probable Future. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 1.

1894, November 21. Newtown Creek Crimes: George Roeschman’s Story May Throw Light on Them. The New York Times. (ProQuest Document ID: 106880248).

1896, January 26. Drowned in Newtown Creek: Lack of Guards at Grand Street Bridge Responsible for a Life. The New York Times. (ProQuest Document ID: 108219542).

1898, September 18. Channel Narrowed in Newtown Creek. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 5.

1899, January 1. Grand Street Bridge May Be Condemned. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 28.

1900, July 11. The Grand Street Bridge. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 2.

1900, July 23. Grand Street Bridge: Contract for Construction to Go to Bernard Rolf. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 3.

1900, August 27. Work Begun on New Bridge. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 14.

1901, May 8. Grand Street Bridge Delays. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 9.

1903. New York Department of Bridges. The Department of Bridges of the City of New York: A Statement of Facts. New York: The City Club of New York.

1905. New York Department of Bridges. Report of the Commissioner of Bridges to the Hon. George B. McClellan, Mayor of the City of New York, December 31, 1904. New York: Martin B. Brown Co.

1910. Grand Street Swing Bridge. The Engineering Magazine, October 1909 to March 1910.

c1920. New York (City). Historical facts in Connection with New York City Bridges: 1890-1919. New York: City Hall Library.

1927, September 2. Autoist is Unhurt in Drop off Bridge. The New York Times, p. 19. (ProQuest Document ID: 101507495).

1930, May 25. Urges Change in Plan for Newtown Creek. The New York Times, p. 25. (ProQuest Document ID: 97802448).

1952, November 13. Grand Street Bridge Closed. The New York Times, p. 33. (ProQuest Document ID: 84366724).

1956, March 19. Part of Bridge Adrift. The New York Times, p.33. (ProQuest Document ID: 86549396).

1956, May 8. Newtown Creek Span is Stuck. The New York Times, p. 35. (ProQuest Document ID: 86574829).

1975, June 12. Newman, Barry. Ted Kolo Tends the Grand Street Bridge. The Wall Street Journal, p. 20.

2002, February 10. Lippincott, E. E. Sounding a Death Knell for a Long-Forsaken Waterway. The New York Times, p. CY8.

c2010. New York City Department of Transportation. Grand Street Bridge Facts. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bridges/grandfacts.shtml

Location: Eagle Avenue over East 161st Street,
The Bronx [satellite map]
Carries: 1 vehicular lane, 2 pedestrian sidewalks
Design: girder bridge
Date opened: 1936

Traveling south on Eagle Avenue in the Melrose section of the Bronx, instead of reaching an intersection at East 161st Street as a street map would lead you to believe, your line of sight on this narrow road suddenly opens up and you find yourself crossing a little-known bridge with a view of the imposing Beaux-Arts Bronx Borough Courthouse (built between 1905-1914, abandoned in 1978) to the west. That the Eagle Avenue Bridge is almost never marked on as being a bridge on maps is not a new development; maps contemporary to its construction do not note is as a bridge either, maintaining the idea that one could turn from Eagle Avenue onto East 161st Street. The need for a bridge becomes apparent though when taking the area’s geography into account. Eagle Avenue is located on what was once part of the Morris Manorlands, a tract of almost 1,920 acres formerly owned by Declaration of Independence signer Lewis Morris. This area of the Bronx is full of rocky hills necessitating steep streets, stepped walks, and unexpected bridges. Before the streets in the area were given standard number designations, East 161st Street had been known by several names, including Grove Hill and Cliff Street. The hill at East 160th Street and Eagle Avenue was known as Hupfel’s Hill, after the Hupfel Brewery, which started brewing beer in the area in 1864. Eagle Avenue was laid out in 1891 between 149th and 163d Streets, and the first bridge over East 161st Street was built then of steel, with stairs allowing pedestrians to travel between the upper and lower levels of the crossing.

The current Eagle Avenue Bridge is at least the second bridge at the site, and was opened in 1936. The stone abutments supporting the span appear to be leftovers from the earlier structure. It is a steel girder bridge painted a bright Federal Blue, one of the seven colors used to paint bridges by the Department of Transportation’s Division of Bridges, and is 53.8 feet long. It has been cleaned and repainted by the DOT twice in recent years, in 2003 and 2008. It was built under the authority of Bronx Borough President James Lyon and designed by Arthur V. Sheridan (1888-1952), Lyon’s chief engineer. Sheridan later went on to design highways during the reign of city planner Robert Moses, and is the namesake of the Bronx’s Sheridan Expressway.

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References

1974. Caro, Robert A. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Knopf.

1988, July 24. Gray, Christopher. Streetscapes: Bronx Borough Courthouse; For an Abandoned Civic Landmark, a Second Life?. The New York Times.

1996. McNamara, John. History in Asphalt: The Origin of Bronx Street and Place Names, the Bronx, New York City. Bronx, N.Y.: Bronx County Historical Society.

2003. New York City Department of Transportation Division of Bridges. 2003 Bridges and Tunnels Annual Condition Report.

2005, January 23. Walsh, Kevin. Forgotten New York: The Hub. Retrieved from forgotten-ny.com

2008. New York City Department of Transportation Division of Bridges. 2008 Bridges and Tunnels Annual Condition Report.

2008, October 3. Beck, Graham T. The City Visible: Painting the Town. The New York Times, p. CY4.

Crosses: Pelham Bay
Connects: Pelham Bay Park and City Island, The Bronx [satellite map]
Carries: 2 vehicular lanes, 1 fire lane, 2 pedestrian sidewalks
Design: (former) swing bridge, now fixed
Date opened: July 14, 1901

The City Island Bridge is a fixed bridge (formerly a swing) that connects City Island with Rodman’s Neck in Pelham Bay Park, in the eastern part of the borough of the Bronx.

City Island is a small island, just one and a half miles long by half a mile wide, off the coast of the Bronx mainland in Eastchester Bay. It is known locally as “The Seaport of the Bronx,” and is famous for its resemblance to New England fishing villages. City Island was first settled by the English in the second half of the 17th century after Thomas Pell’s purchase of over 9,000 acres of land from a local Native American tribe known as the Siwanoys. It was originally known as Minnewits or Minefords Island after either Peter Minuit, purchaser of Manhattan, or another local tribe. In 1761, the island was purchased by a businessman named Benjamin Palmer (the builder of Farmer’s Bridge), who hoped to establish the island as a rival city to New York. The American Revolution prevented his plans from coming to fruition, though the name he chose for the settlement, New City Island, stuck, surviving for about a hundred years before being shortened to the current City Island.

Need for a Bridge

On May 10, 1763, the first ferry was established between City Island and Rodman’s Neck. On April 3, 1775, the State Legislature passed an act authorizing Benjamin Palmer and Samuel Rodman, who owned the land closest to the island, to build a “free draw Bridge over the Narrows from Mineford’s Island to Rodman’s Neck” (1894, New York [State], p. 879) within seven years of the passage of the act. It is apparent, however, that no action was taken. Another act was passed in 1804 to allow the construction of a bridge, but the initiative failed due to lack of financial support.

First Crossing

Nothing further was done until April 30, 1864, when the City Island Bridge Company was incorporated to build a toll bridge to City Island. The company failed to build a bridge, however, and the State allowed the town of Pelham, of which City Island was a part of at the time, to acquire the title to the bridge company and permission to charge tolls in 1873. Around the same time, David Carll, a prominent shipbuilder with a large shipyard on City Island, purchased a decommissioned US warship named the North Carolina at a public auction. Carll used wood salvaged from the ship to build a number of smaller boats, and used the leftovers to build the first bridge connecting City Island with the mainland. That bridge (above), was built primarily of wood from the North Carolina, with some ironwork taken from the old Cole’s Bridge, the first bridge to cross the Harlem River. It was was widely reported at the time and for years afterwards (and occasionally even today) that the entire bridge was moved by scows to City Island when it was replaced by the first Third Avenue Bridge, but this appears to be incorrect.

A New Bridge

The town continued to charge tolls on the bridge until 1895, when that part of the Bronx was annexed by New York City. The bridge had become seriously deteriorated by then, with some newspaper accounts telling of residents who had become too afraid to cross it. Plans were already underway for a replacement, however, with the state passing laws in 1894 and 1896 authorizing the construction of a new bridge. Contracts for the construction of the new bridge were signed by Mayor William Strong in 1897, reportedly two hours before the end of his term of office. Construction on the new bridge began on January 19, 1899.

The City Island Bridge was built as a swing bridge with a 180-foot-long swing span and five 80-foot-long fixed approach spans. The structure was built atop six masonry piers sunk 40 feet below the surface of the water to rock, and faced mostly with blue gray limestone. The pier sinking and structure construction were performed by the John F. O’Rourke contracting company of New York. The swing span is of a through truss design, with a rectangular central tower topped with ornamental finials and concave chords on each side supporting the deck. It was completed in 1901 at a cost of $250,000. The bridge was informally opened to pedestrians by Deputy Commissioner of Bridges Matthew Moore on July 4, 1901 as a favor to City Island residents looking to celebrate the nation’s 225th Independence Day, fifty of whom attended the opening. Two weeks later, on July 14, a bridge watchman named Sprout officially opened the bridge to horse carriage traffic by cutting away the old manila ropes that had hung across each end of the roadway.

Monorail

In 1910 a monorail line, the first in the western hemisphere, was established by the City Island Monorail Company between the Bartow Station of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and a station at the eastern approach to the City Island Bridge, with plans to build an extension over the bridge to a station on the island itself. The line was a failure, however, and the system was dismantled on March 16, 1914 to make way for a standard two-rail trolley line.

Repairs and Plans for Replacement

By the 1970’s, like so many other New York City bridges, the City Island Bridge began to show its age. Divers for the city inspecting the bridge’s substructure found cracks and faults in the limestone piers supporting the bridge. A major rehabilitation project began in 1977, extending the life of the bridge by several decades.

The bridge has continued to deteriorate since then, however, and the city now plans to replace it entirely. The new bridge will be of a cable-stayed design, with a 150-foot concrete tower supporting the bridge deck via a system of suspension cables. The Department of Transportation has compared the new design to the mast of a sailboat, fitting the island’s image of a nautical town. Some City Island residents disagree; one member of the City Island Historical Society called the design “a monstrosity” (2008, Bindley). Work was originally set to begin in 2006, but has been pushed back to 2011 due to budgetary concerns.

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References

1864. New York (State). Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York at Their Eighty-Seventh Session. Albany: Comstock & Cassidy.

1873. New York (State). Journal of the Senate of the State of New York at Their Ninety-Sixth Session. Albany: The Argus Company.

1889. Appletons Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1888 13: 626. New York: D. Appleton and Company.

1894. New York (State). The Colonial Laws of New York From the Year 1664 to the Revolution. Volume 5. Albany: James B. Lyon.

1899, January 20. The New City Island Bridge. The New York Times.

1899, March 11. Unsatisfactory Contract. Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

1899, May 27. Harlem and the Bronx. Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

1901, July 1. To Open Two New Bridges. The New York Times.

1901, July 5. City Island Bridge Opened. The New York Times.

1901, July 15. New City Island Bridge Open. The New York Times.

1901, December 12. Harlem and the Bronx. Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

1904. Gay, Martin. Harlem River Bridges. Proceedings of the Municipal Engineers of the City of New York. New York.

1905. New York Department of Bridges. Report of the Commissioner of Bridges to the Hon. George B. McClellan, Mayor of the City of New York, December 31, 1904. New York: Martin B. Brown Co.

1910, October 3. Monorail to Resume Oct. 5. The New York Times.

1911. Wilcox, Delos F. Municipal Franchises: A Description of the Terms and Conditions upon which Private Corporations enjoy Special Privileges in the Streets of American Cities. Volume 2. New York: Engineering News Publishing Company.

1912. Jenkins, Stephen. The Story of the Bronx. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

1920. Gillette, Halbert P. Handbook of Cost Data for Contractors and Engineers. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

c1920. New York (City). Historical facts in Connection with New York City Bridges: 1890-1919. New York: City Hall Library.

1978, June 18. Bridges in New York are Called Unsound. The New York Times.

2008, November 14. Bindley, Katherine. In the ‘Nantucket of New York,’ a Bridge to Agitation. The New York Times, p. C7.

Crosses: Bronx River, Harlem and New Haven Metro-North tracks
Connects: Woodlawn and Wakefield, The Bronx [satellite map]
Carries: 4 vehicular lanes, 2 pedestrian sidewalks
Design: supported deck arch
Date opened: April 23, 1931

The East 238th Street Bridge is a concrete arch viaduct crossing the Bronx River and the Harlem and New Haven lines of Metro-North, connecting the Bronx neighborhoods of Wakefield and Woodlawn. On today’s maps, East 238th Street is called McLean Avenue in Woodlawn and Nereid Avenue in Wakefield.

Proposals and Delays

A bridge at either East 241st Street or East 238th Street was first proposed by the Public Service Commission in 1915, to eliminate a grade crossing of the New York Central and New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroads. The railroads, not wanting to foot the bill but under obligation to pay for grade eliminations, argued that since the proposed bridge would also cross the Bronx River, the Public Service Commission had no jurisdiction and the matter would have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court. Arguments also persisted as to the location. In August of 1918, a crossing at 238th Street was approved by Commissioner Charles Bulkley Hubell, who found that the Public Service Commission did in fact have jurisdiction over the Bronx River and any bridge to be built there. The Bronx Parkway Commission put forth their opinions on aesthetics in the same year, stating that a bridge at either location needed to be a reinforced concrete arched viaduct, as a steel structure would “mar the beauty of the Parkway” (1918, p. 30). Still, no conclusions were reached.

On August 8, 1925, the Transit Commission ordered the railroads to build the bridge at East 238th Street, with the City of New York paying for the portions that did not cross the railroad tracks. However, the railroads continued to resist. An agreement was finally reached on February 2, 1927: the railroads would build two vehicular bridges at East 238th and East 241st Streets, with work on East 238th Street to start immediately.

“Immediately” turned out to be over two years later. Ground was broken by Mayor Walker on June 27, 1929. At the ceremony he talked about the importance of making Yonkers and Westchester County more easily accessible to vehicular traffic.

Construction

The Corbetta Concrete Corporation began construction on July 1, 1929. Corbetta used a 600-foot conveyor belt to place the structural concrete for the viaduct. This was the first successful use of the method, one that grew in popularity thereafter. The viaduct was originally estimated to cost $1,000,000, but wound up costing only $781,200. The completed bridge consists of ten arches built of 92,000 tons of material, is 822 feet long and 80 feet wide, and carries four vehicular lanes and a sidewalk on either side.

Opening

Albert Goldman, Commissioner of Plant and Structures, presided over the opening ceremony on April 23, 1931. A ribbon in the center of the viaduct was cut by Marion Corbetta, the eight-year-old daughter of Roger H. Corbetta, co-owner of the Corbetta Concrete Corporation. Ground-breaker Mayor Walker was unable to attend the ceremony.

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References

1918, February 10. To Bridge Bronx River: Service Commission Makes Order for Viaduct. The New York Times, p.30. (ProQuest Document ID: 102667320).

1918, August 11. Bronx Valley Viaduct: To be Erected from Wakefield to Woodlawn Heights. The New York Times, p. 27. (ProQuest Document ID: 97016339).

1919. New York (State). Report of the Bronx Parkway Commission … December 31, 1918. Albany: J.B. Lyon Co.

1922. New York (State). State of New York Transit Commission … First Annual Report (April 25, 1921 – December 31, 1921). Albany: J.B. Lyon Co.

1925, April 9. New Order to Build Bronx River Bridge: Transit Board Directs New Haven and Central to Start 238th Street Viaduct. The New York Times, p. 25. (ProQuest Document ID: 104170545).

1927, February 3. Railroads to Build Two Bronx Bridges: Transit Commission Announces Work Will Start at Once on One at 238th Street. The New York Times, p. 23. (ProQuest Document ID: 118639402).

1929, June 8. Three Mayors See Bronx Bridge Begun: Walker Turns Soil for Motor Span Over the Bronx River Parkway at 238th Street. The New York Times, p. 36. (ProQuest Document ID: 95968061).

1931, April 24. Walker is Praised at Bridge Opening: His Administration Called One of Progress by Republicans at Bronx Viaduct Ceremony. The New York Times, p. 17. (ProQuest Document ID: 102229537).

1975, September 1. Placing Concrete With Belt Conveyors. American Concrete Institute Journal Proceedings 72 (9): 475.

Crosses: Harlem River
Connects: Washington Heights, Manhattan and Grand Concourse, The Bronx [satellite map]
Carries: 4 vehicular lanes, 2 sidewalks
Design: swing
Date opened: May 1, 1895

Macomb’s Dam bridge crosses the Harlem River, connecting West 155th Street in Manhattan with Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, just west of Yankee Stadium.

The Dam

The story of Macomb’s Dam Bridge dates back to 1813 when Robert Macomb, a local businessman, sought permission from the state legislature to build a dam across the Harlem River near 155th Street in Manhattan. He intended to turn the portion of the river between there and a dam he owned near King’s Bridge on Spuyten Duyvil Creek into a mill pond. The legislature granted permission for the dam on January 10, 1814, with a stipulation that a lock or some other mechanism for naval passage be built into the structure. In late 1813, when it became apparent that Macomb would be given permission to build his dam, a group of fifty prominent citizens petitioned the city’s Common Council seeking authorization for a bridge to be built on top of the dam. The petition mentioned Macomb’s approval for the idea, and an agreement to allow Macomb to charge tolls for passage over the bridge, with half of the toll money going to the city to help educate the poor. The Common Council announced the completion of the bridge on July 8, 1816, and recommended that the city build new roads in the area, which at the time was largely undeveloped, to take advantage of the new crossing.

When the dam was built, Macomb had a small lock, about 7 feet by 7 feet wide, installed on the Westchester County (encompassing what is now the Bronx) side of the structure. However, for unknown reasons, it was filled in with stone sometime in the late 1820s. For a while it was still possible for very small boats to pass through the openings between the piers supporting the bridge deck at high tide, but the trip was extremely hazardous. Several deaths were recorded when boats either overturned or broke apart during the passage.

Local citizens who had previously used the shores of the river for shipping coal, produce, and other materials began to organize an opposition to the obstruction caused by the dam. Robert Macomb had gone out of business by this point, and the ownership of the dam had passed through a number of hands. Complaints filed with the owners of the dam went nowhere, and the group enlisted the help of a young Lewis G. Morris.

The Nonpareil

Morris was of the belief that the obstruction of river navigation was illegal, so he devised a meticulous plan to reopen the river to traffic. He collected sworn statements from locals who had lived on the river before the construction of the dam, describing sloops and schooners sailing up the river to deliver cargo. Several times in early 1838, Morris took sail boats smaller than those described by the locals up the river to the dam, keeping detailed logs of the date, time, and the conditions of the water during the trip. Each time he reached the dam, he requested passage from the bridge tender. Each time, the bridge tender would turn him away, precisely as Morris expected, as such passage was impossible. On the night of September 14, 1838, Morris arranged for a shipment of coal to be delivered from Jersey City on board a boat named the Nonpareil to a dock he had built north of the dam in preparation for the plan. When the Nonpareil, with Morris aboard, reached the dam, passage through the dam was requested. Once again, the bridge tender refused to allow Morris through. When he did so, a band of about 100 men that had accompanied the Nonpareil on the last leg of her journey in an assortment of skiffs and flatboats went at the dam with shovels, axes, and other tools, tearing down a large enough section of the dam to allow Morris’ boat to pass through. When it was found that the tidal flow through the new opening was still difficult to navigate at anything but slack tide, the group returned the next week and spent three days tearing down additional sections of the dam.

William Renwick, the owner of the dam at the time, was furious, and attempted to have Morris arrested for disturbing the peace. When that failed, Renwick sued Morris for damages incurred to his property. In the Superior Court, Morris presented in his defense the original charter for the dam with its stipulation to allow navigation and the evidence he had collected showing that navigation, while once possible, was no longer so on account of the dam owner’s refusal. The court ruled that Morris had done nothing wrong. Renwick appealed the decision, and the Court of Errors affirmed the earlier decision. The case then went to the New York Supreme Court, where Justice J. Cowen ruled that the dam owners “have been guilty of a public nuisance” by obstructing the river with the dam. Having succeeded with his plan, Morris continued to act as an advocate for navigation and the improvement of the Harlem River, playing a major part in the construction of the High Bridge to carry the Croton Aqueduct over the river, the creation of the Harlem River Ship Canal, and other projects.

Central Bridge

After the lengthy legal battle, the owners found themselves forced to maintain an opening in the dam. This arrangement worked for a while, but increasing traffic on the river caused many to call for the complete destruction of the dam, and to have it replaced with a proper movable bridge. On April 16, 1858, the City of New York and Westchester County were directed by the state legislature to remove the dam and build a free public bridge with a turntable opening, allowing navigation of the river at any time of the day. Lewis G. Morris and Charles Bathgate, a local landowner, were appointed as commissioners to direct the project. In 1861, Central Bridge, as it was named by the city, was completed.

Central Bridge was a wooden structure requiring frequent repairs. Large portions of the bridge had to be rebuilt entirely. The square swing frame was replaced by a wooden “A” frame in 1877. The wooden approach spans were replaced by iron spans in 1883. These repairs did not seem to help much, as an 1885 New York Times article showed. “They ought to keep it for clam wagons,” said Lawson N. Fuller, a local horse racer, “though no clam with any regard for himself would ever cross the bridge if he could help it” (A Patchwork of Wood). In October 1887, the city’s Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which controlled the city’s finances, balked at the estimated $60,000 needed to once again bring the bridge into a usable state of repair, and suggested that money would be better spent on a new bridge or a tunnel under the river. The tunnel idea was very popular with local residents who were tired of travel delays incurred by frequent bridge openings. The city elected to build a new bridge, however, and an Act of Legislature passed in 1890 authorized its construction.

Macomb’s Dam Bridge

Alfred P. Boller was chosen as the head engineer of the construction of the new bridge. Boller had a solid reputation as a structural engineer with an eye for aesthetics, which was apparent in the design he selected for the new bridge.

Macomb’s Dam Bridge is a swing bridge, with a span that rotates on a center pivot to make way for boat traffic on the river. The movable span is a 415-foot long Pratt through truss structure with a rectangular central tower adorned with decorative finials and top chords gracefully curving down to the deck with a concave profile. At the time of construction, the span was said to be the heaviest movable structure in the world. The piers that support the ends of the movable span when in the closed position are constructed of granite, with large archway openings on the bottom. On top of both ends of the piers are stone gate tender’s houses with red shingled pyramidal roofs.

The approach on the Manhattan side is composed of a V-shaped intersection, with Macombs Place, formerly Macomb’s Dam Road, on the south, and West 155th Street, carried on a large viaduct on the west. The 155th Street Viaduct was built at the same time as the bridge, and was also designed by Boller. It is 1600 feet long and about 61 feet feet wide. It is a steel structure, composed of deck girder spans carried on two parallel rows of steel columns across the valley from the heights above Harlem.

The approach on the Bronx side of the bridge is composed of two Warren deck truss spans on masonry piers, six steel girder spans installed between 1949 and 1951 with the construction of the Major Deegan Expressway, and most noticeably, a 221 foot camelback through truss carrying the roadway over the Metro-North tracks below.

Construction of the bridge began in 1892, and the old bridge was moved up the river to a set of temporary piers at 156th Street to act as an alternative crossing while the new bridge was being built. The swing span and Bronx approaches for the bridge were built by the Passaic Rolling Mill Company of Paterson, NJ. The 155th Street Viaduct was built by the Union Bridge Company of Athens, PA. The ornamental iron railings and stairways on the bridge and viaduct were made by Hecla Iron Works of Brooklyn.

The bridge opened to traffic on May 1, 1895. An announcement published in the next day’s New York Times said simply, “The new Macomb’s Dam Bridge, which crosses the Harlem River at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, was opened at 9 o’clock yesterday morning. There was no particular ceremony” (New Macomb’s Dam Bridge Opened).

The official name for the new bridge was also Central Bridge, as indicated by the ornamental plaque that still exists on the western side of the swing span. That name, however, never fell into popular use, with almost all New Yorkers continuing to refer to it by its old name, Macomb’s Dam Bridge. Martin Gay, Bridge Commissioner for the city in the early 1900’s decried the Central Bridge name as being “meaningless” (1904, Harlem River Bridges). A resolution by the Board of Alderman officially renamed it as Macomb’s Dam Bridge on November 11, 1902.

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References

1857. Morris, Lewis G. Harlaem River. New York: J.D. Torrey.

1858, April 26. City Items. The New York Times, p. 5. (ProQuest Document ID: 78534533).

1885, June 14. A Patchwork of Wood: The Crazy Structure Which Serves as Macomb’s Dam Bridge. The New York Times, p. 2. (ProQuest Document ID: 103022951).

1886. Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co.

1887, October 26. The Macomb’s Dam Bridge. The New York Times, p. 8. (ProQuest Document ID: 100938760).

1887, October 30. Tunneling the Harlem: Macomb’s Dam Bridge No Longer a Thing of Joy. Horsemen Tired of the Means of Communication Between North and South of the River. The New York Times, p. 11. (ProQuest Document ID: 100939366).

1895, May 2. New Macomb’s Dam Bridge Opened. The New York Times, p. 1. (ProQuest Document ID: 106060793).

1904. Gay, Martin. Harlem River Bridges. Proceedings of the Municipal Engineers of the City of New York. New York: The Society.

1918. New York (State). Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York 29 (62): 141.

1992. Landmarks Preservation Commission. Macomb’s Dam Bridge and 155th Street Viaduct. New York: Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Crosses: Gowanus Canal
Connects: Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, Brooklyn [satellite map]
Carries: 1 vehicular lane, 2 sidewalks
Design: retractile
Date opened: 1889

The Carroll Street Bridge is a retractile drawbridge that crosses the Gowanus Canal in the borough of Brooklyn. It is notable as the oldest surviving retractile bridge in the United States, with only three others still in existence: two non-operational draws in Boston, and one carrying Borden Avenue over Dutch Kills in the borough of Queens.

Planning and Construction

The bridge was built between 1888-1889 by the New Jersey Steel & Iron Company. It replaced a wooden swing bridge that had become so rotten over the years that city engineers were forced to close it in early 1887 to everything but pedestrian traffic, fearing it would collapse under anything heavier. The Brooklyn Common Council passed a resolution in July 1888 ordering that $1200 be allocated for the repair of the bridge. Brooklyn Mayor Alfred Chapin, following the advice of city engineers who felt that repairs would be useless on such a deteriorated structure, vetoed the resolution and instituted a tax levy that would raise $40,000 to pay for a replacement structure.

Plans for the new bridge were developed soon after. George Ingram and Robert Van Buren, engineers with the Department of City Works preferred a retractile bridge to replace the old swing span, as did local property owners. In September 1888 the old bridge was removed, and a public auction was announced for the sale of the superstructure. Construction of the new one was begun at the end of the year. It opened in September the following year, completed at a cost of $29,600.

Rehabilitation and Landmarking

By the 1980s, the bridge had fallen victim to the city’s deferred maintenance program. The Department of Transportation closed the bridge in 1985 after an inspection revealed multiple holes in the road deck, seriously corroded steel, and a broken operating mechanism. After a $1.5 million overhaul by city workers, the bridge was able to reopen to traffic just in time for the 100th anniversary of its initial opening in 1989.

As a retractile draw, the bridge opens by physically sliding out of the navigation channel on a set of three steel rails, pulled by an electrically operated pulley system. The moving portion of the bridge is a 107-foot long trapezoidal deck, supported in the middle by an iron post-and-truss frame that gives the superstructure the appearance of a suspension bridge. The operating controls for the bridge are located in a polygonal brick house on the west side of the site. The house was built during the bridge’s overhaul project of bricks salvaged from the demolition of the old operating house. One of the more interesting features of the bridge, a sign threatening a five dollar fine for anyone driving over the bridge faster than a walker’s pace, was also added during the overhaul.

The unique style of the this bridge gained it landmark status in 1987, with the Landmarks Preservation Commission citing its “rare and unusual” qualities. This designation is meant to preserve the historical nature of the bridge from being altered without the Commission’s approval.

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References

1888, July 22. A Rotten Bridge. Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

1888, September 10. Notice of Sale of Carroll Street Bridge. Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

1889, September 26. Work on the Carroll Street Bridge completed. Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

1987. Carroll Street Bridge Over the Gowanus Canal, Borough of Brooklyn, built 1888-1889 … [report]. Landmarks Preservation Commission. New York: Landmarks Preservation Commission.

1989, May 21. Gray, Christopher. Getting a Landmark in Shape for its 100th Birthday. The New York Times, p. R12. (ProQuest Document ID: 115633317).

1989, September 24. Pitt, David E. Two Neighborhoods Celebrate Restoration of Their Bridge. The New York Times, p. 40. (ProQuest Document ID: 115642752).

1989, September 29. Bringing Back the Bridges. The New York Times, p. A34. (ProQuest Document ID: 115482009).

The East 174th Street Bridge carries four lanes of vehicular traffic and two pedestrian sidewalks across the Bronx River and the railroad tracks of Amtrak and CSX in the West Farms section of the Bronx. It has a total length of 589 feet, with a main through truss span of 190 feet, and has a vertical clearance of 30.5 feet.

A bridge across the Bronx River at East 174th Street was in demand for years before it was built. In 1910, six tracks ran just east of the river, operated by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. That year, the railroad agreed to build bridges over all street crossings. A span was erected at East 174th Street, but only over the tracks. In subsequent years the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway also began using the tracks. Disputes between the railroads and the city over who should pay for the rest of the bridge ensued, and no river crossing or approaches to it were built. By 1918, the finishing of the bridge was considered long overdue, and Bronx property owners requested that the Public Service Commission build the bridge.

By 1925, due to efforts by the Bronx Board of Trade, a proposal for the bridge had been accepted, and plots of land around it started to be bought up. In January 1927, the Board of Estimate finally appropriated $340,000 for the construction of the bridge. Ground was broken on June 20, 1927 by Albert Goldman, Chairman of the Department of Plant and Structures. Bronx Borough President Henry Bruckner and Bronx Board of Trade President John M. Haffen were also there. The bridge opened a month ahead of schedule with a ceremony headed by Mayor Walker on June 15, 1928.

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References

1918, May 19. Demand for Bronx Bridge. The New York Times.

1925, December 23. Bronx River Plots Feature Market: Brokers Report Activity Along Approach of Proposed Bridge. The New York Times, 34.

1927, June 19. Begin Bridge Tomorrow: City Officials to See Ground Broken for Bronx River Span. The New York Times, E9.

1927, June 21. Break Ground on Site for New Bronx Bridge. The New York Times, 42.

1928, June 16. New Bridge Opened Over Bronx River. The New York Times.

The Roosevelt Avenue Bridge is a double-deck, double-leaf bascule movable bridge over the Flushing River in northeastern Queens. It carries four lanes of Roosevelt Avenue and two sidewalks on its lower deck, and three tracks of the IRT Flushing / 7 train line of the New York City Subway on its top.

Planning

Surveying for the bridge began in 1913 as part of an extension of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company’s Woodside and Corona line. The original plan had the line mapped out between 42nd Street in Manhattan and Prime Street in Corona, with the extension reaching out to the village of Flushing, with a possible further extension to Little Neck at the city line. The line reached Corona in 1917, but United States involvement in World War I prevented further construction. Financial problems after the war delayed progress still until 1921, when city engineers began negotiations with the US War Department concerning what type of structure the city could build to cross the Flushing River. The War Department, which had jurisdiction over all navigable waterways and their crossings in the country at that time, denied a request by the city to be allowed to build a simple fixed bridge across the river on account of it being an obstruction to river traffic. A tunnel was briefly considered, but was decided against when cost estimates for it reached $2,500,000, more than the city was willing to pay. The War Department suggested the city build a bascule bridge, and officials relented.

Construction

Groundbreaking for the bridge was held on April 21, 1923 in a ceremony attended by Mayor John Hylan and Maurice E. Connolly, Borough President of Queens. Construction began soon after, though many delays occurred due to a recurring problem with the foundations of the bridge settling in the deep mud on the banks of the river. On May 14, 1927, the bridge was opened to pedestrians and a bus line was established between downtown Flushing and Willet’s Point Boulevard station, the temporary terminal of the line while the foundation issues were being resolved. Train service would not begin across the bridge until January 21, 1928, with a special train for city officials making the inaugural run from Time Square to the new station in Flushing. The extension to Little Neck has yet to be built.

The final cost of the bridge was $2,640,000, more than the estimated cost of a tunnel under the river, even when adjusted for inflation. Despite the additional cost the city was required to pay for a movable bridge, the need to keep the river open to navigation did not last long. When construction of Flushing Meadows Park was under way in 1939, park engineers realized a dam was needed to keep the tides of the East River from inundating the low-lying fields. The Long Island Railroad, which runs just a few hundred feet upriver from Roosevelt Avenue, agreed to replace the swing bridge they owned over the river with a combined embankment and tidal gate on top of which they would continue to operate their trains. With no docking facilities in place between the two structures, navigation of the Flushing River effectively ended at the Roosevelt Avenue bridge. In 1961, construction of the northern extension of the Van Wyck Expressway began, and the route of the highway was driven directly through the navigation channel of the bridge, supported over the river by concrete piers. The operating mechanisms and bridge tender’s controls were finally removed at that point, and the bridge has not opened since.

Design

The Roosevelt Avenue bridge was the largest trunnion bascule bridge in the world when it was completed. It was designed by Edward A. Byrne and Robert E. Hawley of the NYC Department of Plants and Structures, and built by the Arthur McMullen Company of New York. The channel of the river at the point of the bridge is only 70 feet wide, but because of the skew of the route over the river, the clearance between the bridge piers is 162 feet. Together, the lift leaves are 153 feet long, and each weighs approximately 4 million pounds, supported by a truss structure 25 feet 6 inches deep. The piers that support the leaves are of poured concrete construction, with granite blocks covering the facings exposed to the water. Each pier measures 92 feet by 118 feet, and contains a large hollow space inside to accommodate the movement of the bridge’s counterweights.

Future

In January, 2010, the NYC Department of Transportation announced plans to rehabilitate the bridge starting in 2012. Years of neglect have resulted in a need to replace the road deck, repaint and repair rust on the steel truss and approach structures, and repair deteriorating concrete. The city also plans widen the sidewalks from 8 to 10 feet and establish bike lanes within them. The project is expected to be finished in 2015.

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References

1912, September. Public Service Commission. Dual System of Rapid Transit for New York City. New York, 21.

1913, July 13. New Queens Bridge. The New York Times.

1921. McAneny, George. Communication to the War Department. Proceedings of the Transit Commission, State of New York. 1, April 26 to December 31, 1921, New York, 392-393.

1922. First annual report. State of New York Transit Commission Proceedings, April 25, 1921 to December 31, 1921. Albany: L.B. Lyon Printers, 89-90.

1923, April 22. Hylan Digs Dirt for Corona Subway. The New York Times.

1927, March 18. Sink Delays Work on Queens Subway. The New York Times.

1927, May 15. Dual Queens Celebration. The New York Times.

1927, July 14. Judd, Edwin I. Floating-Caisson Construction of Bascule Bridge Piers. Engineering News-Record 99 (2): 48-53.

1928, January 8. Flushing Extension of the Corona Subway Ready to Open. The New York Times.

1928, January 21. Flushing Bedecked for Subway Fete. The New York Times.

1928, January 22. Flushing Rejoices as Subway Opens. The New York Times.

1936. City of New York Parks Department. The Flushing Meadow Improvement 1 (3): 7.

2010, January 15. Sheets, Connor Adams. DOT Updates Roosevelt Avenue Bridge Plans. Queens TimesLedger.

Traveling east along the 1&9 Truck Route from Newark to Jersey City, you may notice a small steel plaque on the Passaic River crossing proclaiming that span to be 1941’s Most Beautiful Steel Bridge. That designation, given by the American Institute of Steel Construction, was awarded the year that bridge opened to traffic.

The bridge replaced a low level swing span that had been in place since 1921. That bridge, with a 10 foot clearance over the river, required an average of 30 openings a day to accommodate marine traffic, causing significant automobile traffic delays. Problems were exacerbated by the opening of the Holland Tunnel in 1927 as the final link between the interstate Lincoln Highway and New York City. Though the opening of the Pulaski Skyway, located just a short distance north of this route, was intended to alleviate these problems, the Skyway was effectively obsolete as soon as it was opened to traffic. The diversion of all truck traffic from the Skyway in 1933 further complicated problems along the route. Construction of a new span commenced in 1938, at a projected cost of two million dollars.

Design

The vertical lift design of the new bridge required the construction of two large steel towers on each side of the navigation channel, connected by a movable deck, which has a span of 332.5 feet. In the closed position, the new bridge provided 40 feet of clearance over the Passaic, reducing the number of daily bridge openings to an estimated 5 per day. Tower drive motors, a fairly new innovation at the time, were able to lift the deck 95 feet above its closed position, allowing for a maximum of 135 feet clearance, a minimum height specified by the War Department for marine crossings. The chief engineer was Morris Goodkind, with the firm of Howard, Needles, Tammen and Bergendoff as consulting engineers. The substructure was fabricated by Senior and Palmer and the superstructure by the American Bridge Company.

Construction

The Passaic River Bridge took three years to complete under the supervision of lead engineer Morris Goodkind and the New Jersey State Highway Commission, with the final cost just barely exceeding the projected estimate by just under $56,000. The bridge was constructed as close to the south side of the old span as logistically possible in order to ease the transfer of the traffic alignment from the old bridge to the new. During the final phase of construction, with everything in place except for the moveable deck, river traffic was halted for 72 hours while the deck could be installed.

In what must have been a very carefully choreographed procedure, the deck was floated into the work location on a barge at high tide and aligned with the rest of the structure. As the tide receded, the deck gradually sank into position on the bridge piers. After the 64 lifting ropes attached to the lift’s counterweights were connected to the deck, the bridge was essentially complete, save for some fine tuning needed to ensure proper bridge operation. It was opened to traffic at 11 PM on Sunday, January 14th, 1941.

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References

1932, January 10. Opening Ways from the City to North, East, South, West. The New York Times.

1937, December 2. Jersey Bridge Approved. The New York Times.

1941, May. Tammen, Henry C., and Ellis E. Paul. Vertical-Lift Bridge has Tower Drive. Civil Engineering 11 (5): 288-291.

1942, May 13. Bridge Design Winners. The New York Times.