Triborough View
After hearing of the shocking damage to the First Reformed Church in Astoria Village, I recently walked in the area to document the damage and walk some streets in the area I haven’t been down. I was surprised to obtain some interesting views of the Triborough Bridge I hadn’t seen before, such as this one looking west on 24th Road from 21st Street.
Though a Harlem and East Rivers span from northern Manhattan to Queens had been talked about since the Queensboro (Ed Koch) Bridge had opened in 1909, it took enormous political will and engineering expertise to connect the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Randalls Island, and though ground for the bridge was broken in 1929, substantial work didn’t commence until 1934, with the complete bridge opening two years later. The complete story of the Triborough Bridge can be found in Sharon Reier’s excellent book, The Bridges of New York (Dover, 1977).
The main span is 1380 feet (421m); it is the longest of the Triborough’s three spans, and the total length including approaches is 2780 feet (847m). Unlike the other two spans, it contains just one narrow sidewalk, on the north side. The towers are 315 feet (96m) in height. The architect, Othmar Ammann of Switzerland, chief engineer for the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the Port Authority, assisted in the design most of the City’s great bridges of the 20th Century: The George Washington; Triborough; Bronx-Whitestone; Throg(g)s Neck; and Verrazzano-Narrows.
According to legend, a sign on the bridge once read, “In event of attack, drive off bridge.” Since the bridge roadway is the equivalent of 15 stories from the river, that advice would have meant certain death.
One of Forgotten NY’s most successful tours was held in 2011, when we traveled all three spans of the Triborough (since co-named the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge) as well as Wards and Randall’s Islands, going from Harlem to Astoria.
Another look at one of the main towers, seen looking west on 24th Avenue and 29th Street across from Bohemian Hall.
Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013)