A steel arch bridge with a height of 140 ft (43 m) over the Harlem River, High Bridge connects the New York City boroughs of the Bronx and Manhattan. The eastern end is located in the Highbridge section of the Bronx near the western end of West 170th Street, and the western end is located in Highbridge Park in Manhattan, roughly parallel to the end of West 174th Street. Although the bridge was originally completed in 1848 as a stone arch bridge, the Harlem River span was replaced with a steel arch during a 1927 renovation. The bridge was closed to all traffic from the 1970s until its restoration, which began in 2009. The bridge was reopened to pedestrians and bicycles on June 9, 2015. The Old Croton Aqueduct was the first of its kind ever constructed in the United States. The innovative system used a classic gravity feed, dropping 13 inches (330 mm) per mile, or about 1/4" per 100' (~0.02%)[9] and running 41 miles (66 km) into New York City through an enclosed masonry structure crossing ridges, valleys, and rivers. University Avenue was later built over the southernmost mainland portion of the aqueduct, leading to the bridge. On this day as cumulus clouds piled up haphazardly over Hudson river and GWB in New York like a field of cotton balls within in a second of shooting the above shot, a pelting rain came down.
Those of us stranded in this beautiful open part of long and narrow Riverside Drive Park in Hell's Kitchen that stretches from 59th street to 155th street ran for cover underneath sections of an elevated West Side Highway where there are winding trails below for bicycles and people walking or running, and we stood there for several minutes watching the rain come down until it dribbled out of steam and stopped and a glorious sun glowed, and it got warm. Prior to and while under construction, GWB was unofficially known as the "Hudson River Bridge". That name was the popular choice, chosen over a host of other proposed names as well as the Port Authority's preference for the name "George Washington Bridge", based on 1931 ballot voting submitted to the Port Authority by New York and New Jersey residents. However, the Port Authority named the bridge after George Washington that year.
The bridge was dedicated on October 24, 1931, and opened to traffic the following day. The George Washington Bridge, with a span of 4,760 feet (1,450 m) in total– including a main span of 3,500 feet (1,100 m) – was the longest main bridge span in the world at the time, at nearly double the 1,850 feet (560 m) of the previous record holder, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. It held this title until the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. |
AuthorCHARLES PEARSON Archives
August 2019
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