The University Heights Bridge

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The University Heights Bridge
Spans Manhattan to the Bronx crossing the Harlem River.
From 207th Street in Inwood to West Fordham Road in University Heights.

Before the current bridge was erected, a wooden footbridge known as the 'Fordham Footbridge' crossed the the same point of the then shallow, Harlem River. This bridge was removed in 1895 when the Harlem River Ship Channel was dug and the northern stretch of the river became navigable by ships.

Replacing the bridge turned out to be a bit more complicated than expected. The New York City Department of Bridges favored a newfangled lift bridge, but the city wouldn't pay for it and opted for a cheaper 'swing' style. The Broadway Bridge was due for replacement as part of the opening up of the river, and so they decided to reuse the center span of the Broadway Bridge in the new University Heights Bridge.

Alfred P. Boller, who designed the Madison Avenue, 145th Street and Macombs Dam swing bridges, designed the New University Heights Bridge as well, and work began in November 1903.
The old Broadway Bridge span was floated down the river and lifted onto the new center pier in June 1906.
The University Heights Bridge opened to traffic on January 8, 1908.



Beginning in 1989, the NYCDOT undertook a $35 million project to rebuild the bridge. A new swing span was barged to the site and hoisted into place, and new electrical and mechanical controls were installed. The renovation was completed in 1992.
The swing mechanism below the center span of the current bridge.





View from the span looking South down the Harlem River towards the Alexander Hamilton Bridge.

The similarity to the Macombs Dam Bridge is most obvious in the aesthetic of the bridge, most prominently in the little decorative gazebos and frivolous decorative elements that adorn both bridges.
But the University Heights Bridge suffers in comparison due to it's location.



From 10th Avenue on one end to the entrance of the Major Deegan Expressway on the other, according to the DOT, the bridge carries 45,000 vehicles per day (as of 2007?).
Crossing on foot or by bicycle is done only via the sidewalk and the approach on the Bronx side is especially hazardous due to traffic.



The University Heights bridge celebrated it's 100th birthday in 2008 with little fanfare although it is one of only ten bridges in New York City to have been granted landmark status.



The University Heights Bridge circa 1933
From the collection of the NYPL

Type of bridge: Swing
Construction started: November 18, 1903
Opened to traffic: January 8, 1908
Length of main span: 267 feet
Length of two channels: 100 feet
Total length of bridge and approaches: 1,566 feet
Width of bridge: 50 feet
Width of roadway: 33 feet, 6 inches
Number of traffic lanes: 2 lanes
Clearance at center above mean high water: 25 feet
Foundation type: Caisson
Cost of original structure: $1,200,000

Bridge facts from NYC Roads.com


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The Grand Street Bridge

Only 2,012 more to go ...



The Grand Street Bridge
Spans - Brooklyn to Queens over the East Branch of the Newtown Creek (Possibly AKA the English Kills?)
From Gardner Avenue in Brooklyn to 47th Street in Queens



Grand Street is a two-lane local City street in Queens and Kings Counties. Grand Street runs northeast and extends from the Brooklyn Queens Expressway in Brooklyn to Queens Boulevard in Queens.
The road is known as Grand Street west of the bridge and Grand Avenue east of the bridge.
The Grand Street Bridge is a 69.2m long swing type bridge with a steel truss superstructure.



The general appearance of the bridge remains the same as when it was opened in 1903. The bridge provides a channel with a horizontal clearance of 17.7m and a vertical clearance, in the closed position, of 3.0m at Median High Water and 4.6m at Median Low Water.



The bridge structure carries a two-lane two-way vehicular roadway with sidewalks on either side. The roadway width on the bridge is 6.0m and the sidewalks are 1.8m wide. The height restriction is 4.1m.
The approach roadways are wider than the bridge roadway. For example, the width of Grand Avenue at the east approach to the bridge (near 47th Street) is 15.11m.

Bridge facts from NYC DOT



The Grand Street Bridge is one of five (need to fact check this as of 07/08) bridges which connect Brooklyn to Queens across the Newtown Creek and it's branches, Maspeth Creek and The English Kills.
Those Bridges are:
The Pulaski Bridge
The Greenpoint Avenue/JJ Byrne Memorial Bridge
The Kosciuszko Bridge
The Grand Street Bridge
and the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge

"The Newtown Creek is a murky estuary that runs 3 1/2 industrialized miles along the border of Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Maspeth, Queens. Once a site of mansions, then a mecca for shipbuilders, the creek is now a toxic dumping ground that bubbles up raw sewage every time it rains. Newtown Creek has been given the lowest possible cleanliness rating by both New York City and New York State. The Riverkeeper, wrote of the creek:

"It fails to meet even the most basic goals of the 1972 Clean Water Act. Nearly the entire stretch of the creek is heavily industrialized, there is virtually no public access, and water dependent industries have stagnated. A boat trip up the creek is a journey into the heart of darkness, with the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline as a reminder of its real world locale."

pbs.org

Pedestrian and Bicycle Access:
There is a pedestrian pathway on this bridge, but I don't recommend cycling on it.
Most cyclists merge into traffic and cross the metal grating because the Brooklyn side of the path is a completely demolished, uneven dirt path and stairs.

Random Bridge Factoids:
The Grand Street Bridge looks very similar in character and design to the Carroll Street Bridge which was completed in 1889. Unfortunately, this bridge hasn't received as much love over the years and it shows.

The Newtown Creek has a long history of tragedy:

* January 1894: At least four workers dredging the creek died after a flimsy foot bridge they were standing upon collapsed.
* July 1894: Two boys, apparently brothers, drowned after they evidently got caught in the “ooze and slime” at the bottom of the creek, which is composed of soft sediment.
* January 1896: A Polish priest of the Roman Catholic Church fell into the creek and drowned.
* June 1910: A boy, roughly age 12, drowned in the creek at the foot of Ten Eyck Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His clothing was found nearby.
* February 1928: A 29-year-old worker was killed when a 325-ton draw span was moved upstream to make way for a new bridge.
* January 1934: Two men drowned after their car plunged into the creek from the Penny Bridge, linking Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Long Island City, Queens.
* November 1942: A 28-year-old diver drowned in the creek off Review Avenue in Long Island City “when his diving helmet became detached in an undetermined manner while he was searching for a link in an oil pipe crossing the creek,” The Times reported.
NYTimes


January 26, 1896, New York Times

"The unguarded condition of Newtown Creek at the Grand Street Bridge, was responsible for another drowning accident early yesterday morning. The victim was a tall, heavily built man, who, from papers found in his pockets, is supposed to be the Rev. Leonard Syczek, a Polish priest of the Roman Catholic Church."

Borough: Brooklyn/Queens
Type: Swing
Waterway: Newtown Creek
Miles from Mouth: 3.1
Length: 555'
Max. Span: 227
Roadways: 1 - 19' 7"
Sidewalks: 2 - 6' 0"
Construction Cost: $191,008.19
Land Cost: $14,663.53
Total Cost: $205,671.72
Date Opened: Feb. 3, 1903

In 1998 (the last year I could find data for) it opened 86 times both for testing and water traffic


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The Hamilton Avenue Bridge

Only 2,013 more to go ...



The Hamilton Avenue Bridge in Brooklyn is one of five bridges which span the Gowanus Canal.

The five bridges are, in order from North to South, The Union Street Bridge, The Carroll Street Bridge, The Third Street Bridge, The Ninth Street Bridge, and the Hamilton Avenue Drawbridge which runs parallel to the Gowanus Expressway at the mouth of the canal.

Most of the length of Hamilton Avenue runs below the elevated portion of the Gowanus Expressway, including the bridge. The bridge connects Smith Street and Second Avenue over the Gowanus Canal and is the first canal crossing north of the Gowanus Bay.



"The bridge is comprised of two bridges, each consisting of one bascule span with each span carrying four lanes of one-way traffic (one northbound and one southbound) and a pedestrian sidewalk. Hardesty & Hanover LLP (as Waddell & Hardesty) designed the existing bridges based on the patented Hanover skew design—an innovative approach to skewed bascule crossings. The Hamilton Avenue Bridge is one of the two remaining structures of this type."

Source: Hardesty & Hanover LLP September 13, 2007


The Bridge is currently undergoing reconstruction.
The reconstruction will replace the entire bridge in two stages. Completion is scheduled for January 2009.

On June 28, 2008 at 12:01 am the entire southbound bridge will be taken out of service. The current 4-lane northbound bridge will be converted to 2 lanes northbound and 2 lanes southbound to facilitate the replacement of the southbound bridge.



The Hamilton Avenue Bridge has a vertical clearance of 19 feet at
mean high water, and 23 feet at mean low water in the closed position.
The existing drawbridge operating regulations require the bridge to open on signal at all times.



Want to get the bridge open?

Drawbridge Operation Regulations; Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, NY

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS.

The draw of the Hamilton Avenue Bridge, mile 1.2, shall open on
signal after at least a four-hour advance notice is given by calling
(201) 400-5243. This paragraph is effective from November 7, 2007 to
January 15, 2009.

Type of Bridge: Bascule
Opened to traffic: 1942
Length of largest span: 77.8 ft.
Total length: 136.8 ft.
Deck width: 42.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 16.1 ft.
Average daily traffic: 23,187 (as of 2004)


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Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge

Only 2,015 more to go...



As seen from the Rockaway Peninsula.

Spans: Brooklyn to Queens, The Rockaway Inlet of Jamaica Bay

The Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge is a vertical lift bridge that crosses the Rockaway Inlet of Jamaica Bay, connecting the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens with Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. It is one of very few toll bridge in NYC, and carries four motor traffic lanes and a (free) 5’ wide foot/cyclepath on the western edge.



Built under the auspices of the Marine Parkway Authority in 1937, the bridge was designed by Aymar Embury II, who was also the architect of the Bronx-Whitestone and Triborough Bridges. In 1978, the bridge was renamed for Gil Hodges, the former first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hodges retained his relationships in Brooklyn after the team moved to Los Angeles, later played for the New York Mets, and then managed them from 1968 until his death in 1972. We do love our baseball in NYC.

In 1938, the bridge’s first full year of operation, 1.9 million vehicles crossed the bridge; in 2006, 7.8 million did. The vertical lift was raised 157 times in 2006 to allow vessels to pass through the Rockaway Inlet. The center span is 540 feet long and is only 55 feet above the water but can be lifted up to a height of 150' feet above the water. When it opened, the bridge had the longest vertical lift span in the world; it is still the longest vertical lift span for vehicular traffic in North America.
Bridge Information from MTA info



Both ends of the bridge today are within the Gateway National Recreation Area connecting Floyd Bennett Field and Jacob Riis Park. Bridge traffic surges by more than 50 percent during the summer as city dwellers make their way to the beach.



Seen in the distance from the Shore Parkway

The M.T.A. offered this historical tidbit in a news release commemorating the Bridge’s 70th Anniversary:

The morning of July 3, 1937, marked the grand opening of the new Marine Parkway Memorial Bridge. With the sun shining and the N.Y.P.D. Police Band ready to play, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, Robert Moses, head of the Marine Parkway Authority and city Parks Commissioner and other officials, were getting ready to embark in a 500-car motorcade to christen the bridge.
There was excitement in the air as the band tuned up from its designated place on the bridge’s elevated lift span and invited guests got into cars on the Brooklyn side of the bridge along Flatbush Avenue for the inaugural ride across the span.
But the first vehicle to cross the bridge did not belong to the mayor or master builder Robert Moses, who helped make the bridge a reality. About 15 minutes before the ceremonies were scheduled to start, the first vehicles to cross the span were three engine companies from Brooklyn; summoned to help put out a five-alarm fire that destroyed two blocks of wooden concession stands along the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk.
Even before its official opening, the bridge proved it was an asset to the community. Mayor La Guardia pointed out that if the bridge wasn’t there, it would have taken the Brooklyn fire companies precious minutes to travel to the old Cross Bay Bridge, four miles to the east.
The Police Band, which scrambled off the lowered lift before the fire trucks screamed across the bridge, resumed their post and the ceremony went on as planned. A gun salute from nearby Fort Tilden announced the beginning of the event, which included a fireboat pumping streams of water into the air and a flyover by nine Martin bomber planes from nearby Mitchel Field.
Today, during the anniversary celebration, a Rockaway Point Volunteer Fire Department truck led the motorcade, the authority said, “in a nod to history.”

Quoted from the NY Times






View of Coney Island with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the distance from the center span of the bridge.

Toll info Effective March 16, 2008

Cash $2.50

Token $1.67

E-Zpass $1.55

Rockaway Resident Token $1.40

Rockaway Resident E-Zpass $1.03


Toll Information from MTA info




Type of bridge: Vertical lift-span
Construction started: June 1, 1936
Opened to traffic: July 3, 1937
Length of main lift-truss span: 540 feet
Length of side truss spans: 540 feet
Total length of bridge and approaches: 4,022 feet
Number of traffic lanes: 4 lanes
Clearance at lift span above mean high water: 55 feet
Clearance at lift span in raised position: 150 feet
Steel used in through truss spans and towers: 7,600 tons
Steel used in deck truss spans: 3,800 tons
Concrete used in truss piers: 24,000 cubic yards
Concrete used in deck truss spans: 23,000 cubic yards
Cost of original structure: $12,170,000

Bridge Statistics from NYCRoads



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The Union Street Bridge

Only 2,017 more to go...

Spans - The Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn

According to the DOT,
"The Union Street Bridge is a double leaf Scherzer rolling lift bascule supporting Union Street over the Gowanus Canal in the borough of Brooklyn."

The Union Street Bridge is the northernmost of five bridges which cross the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The other four bridges are, from north to south; The Carroll Street Bridge, The Third Street Bridge, The Ninth Street Bridge, and the Hamilton Avenue Drawbridge which runs parallel to the Gowanus Expressway at the mouth of the canal.



The Bridge looks like a continuation of Union Street until you are right up on top of the steel grid span and can see the canal on either side.
It has two traffic lanes and two sidewalks.
Union Street is one way traveling eastbound across the span, but bicyclists ignore this constantly because Union Street runs in both directions straight from Prospect Park until 4th Avenue.







Looking North to Butler Street.



Looking South to the Carroll Street Bridge.



According to the EPA, the bridge was opened for water traffic 245 times in 1999 (the last year I could find available data.)

Type of Bridge: Bascule
Opened to traffic: 1905
Roadway Width: 35 feet
Sidewalks: Two 6 foot wide sidewalks
Max. Span: 56 Feet
Construction Cost: $85,206.85

2 general lanes and 1 bicycle lane on 1 roadway allow eastbound ONE-WAY traffic only.
2 sidewalks

Bridge facts from NYCDOT


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The Carroll Street Bridge

Only 2,018 more to go...



The Carroll Street Bridge in Brooklyn is one of five bridges which span the Gowanus Canal. The canal has long been considered the dividing line between the Carroll Gardens and Park Slope neighborhoods although it is sometimes now referred to as it's own community - 'Gowanus'.

The five bridges are some of the most picturesque in the city and are, in order from North to South, The Union Street Bridge, The Carroll Street Bridge, The Third Street Bridge, The Ninth Street Bridge, and the Hamilton Avenue Drawbridge which runs parallel to the Gowanus Expressway at the mouth of the canal.

The Carroll Street Bridge was built in 1888 and is the oldest of only four retractile bridges in the United States. It rolls back horizontally on wheels set on steel rails in order to clear the waterway. The bridge was designated a NYC landmark in 1987.



View of the pulley and cable retraction system.

According to the EPA, the bridge was opened for water traffic 228 times in 1999 (the last year I could find available data.)



The approach is still cobblestoned and the bridge itself is wooden planking. One of the better unnoticed details is the sign which remains atop the structure:



"Ordinance of the City
Any Person Driving over
this Bridge Faster than
a Walk will be Subject to
a Penalty of Five Dollars
for Each Offence."

(Caps are theirs)

Type of Bridge: Retractile
Opened to traffic: 1889
Roadway Width: 17 feet
Sidewalks: Two 4.5 foot wide sidewalks


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The Macombs Dam Bridge

Only 2,023 more to go...



Spans - Manhattan-Bronx, Harlem River.

The bridge and adjoining park were named for the Macomb family who operated a dam and mill on the site.
As use of the Harlem River increased in the 1830's, the dam, which blocked all but the smallest of boats became a local bone of contention. In 1838, a group of local citizens rammed the dam with a coal barge and destroyed it by chopping through it with axes.
In the course of the following lawsuit and court case, the dam was found to be "a public nuisance..." built "without authority of law...the Legislature did not authorize the obstruction of the navigation of the river in the manner in which it was done by the dam in question."



After the Brooklyn and Washington Bridges, Macomb's Dam Bridge is the third oldest major bridge in New York City. It was designated a city landmark in 1992.
At the time of its construction, its massive steel central swing span was considered to be the world's heaviest movable mass.

Type of bridge: Moveable - Swing
Construction started: April 1, 1892
Opened to traffic: May 1, 1895
Length of main span: 412 feet
Length of two channels: 150 feet
Total length of bridge and approaches: 2,540 feet
Width of bridge: 60 feet
Width of roadway: 40 feet
Number of traffic lanes: 4 lanes
Clearance at center above mean high water: 28 feet
Foundation type: Caisson
Cost of original structure: $1,800,000


Bridge statistics from nycroads.com



The bridge is a handy way to access Yankee Stadium and can get fairly crowded before or after a home game in the Bronx.


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The Broadway Bridge

Only 2,024 more to go...



Spans - Manhattan-Bronx, Harlem River
View of the Harlem River from the Broadway Bridge.
This is more accurately the Harlem River Ship Channel as it is a man-made canal that was constructed in 1895.
The MTA, Marble Hill Station is in the foreground on the North side of the channel, the Circle Line is passing to the South, and the Henry Hudson Bridge is visible in the distance to the West.
Marble Hill is a truly strange example of NYC redistricting. The Harlem river originally passed to the North of the community, making it part of the island of Manhattan. When the channel was dug to facilitate the passing of larger ships, the area was cut off from the island, and the old river route filled in.
Marble Hill is still legally part of the borough of Manhattan.



View of the actual bridge crossing.
The subway runs on the upper level.

Type of bridge: Moveable - Vertical lift
Construction started: April 1, 1959
Opened to rail traffic: December 26, 1960
Opened to vehicular traffic: July 1, 1962
Length of main span: 304 feet
Total length of bridge and approaches: 557 feet
Number of traffic lanes: 6 lanes
Number of subway tracks: 3 tracks
Clearance over mean high water (closed position): 25 feet
Clearance over mean high water (open position): 136 feet
Steel used in structure: 2,500 tons
Cost of original structure: $13,400,000

Bridge statistics from nycroads.com


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Roosevelt Island Bridge

2,025 to go...
View of the Queensboro Bridge from the span of the Roosevelt Island Bridge



Spans - East River East Channel from Queens to Roosevelt Island
The bridge is the only motor vehicle connection to the island.
Other access is provided by a tramway from Manhattan and Subway service.

Type of bridge:Vertical lift
Construction started:March 17, 1952
Opened to traffic:May 18, 1955
Length of main lift span:418 feet
Total length of bridge and viaduct approaches:2,877 feet
Width of bridge:40 feet
Number of traffic lanes:2 lanes
Clearance over mean high water (closed position):40 feet
Clearance over mean high water (open position):100 feet
Height of towers:170 feet
Cost of original structure:$6,500,000

Statistics from nycroads.com




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