WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES DECEMBER 17, 2020 47
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Bridges of Newtown Creek
Avenue Bridge was a drawbridge
that quickly became heavily used
by trolleys and vehicles. Within 13
years, the city tallied more than 2.2
million crossings at the span.
Undoubtedly, the massive amount
of traffic — in an era before expressways
were built — took a tremendous
toll on the bridge’s superstructure.
By the 1950s, the Vernon Avenue
Bridge had a reputation for often
breaking down — or simply allowed
to remain open to accommodate passing
vessels.
The city decided the time had come
to build a more modern span in the
area, but instead chose to construct
about two blocks to the east, linking
11th Street and McGuinness
Boulevard — both of which were
wider than Vernon Boulevard and
Manhattan Avenue.
Frederick Zurmuhlen, who was
formerly the head of the city’s Public
Works Department, is credited
with having designed the Pulaski
Bridge to carry three lanes of traffic
in both directions, as well as a
pedestrian sidewalk. But the bascule
bridge, built at a cost of over
$11.2 million (about $108 million
in today’s dollars), would not only
carry the roadway over the creek;
it would also cross the Long Island
Rail Road’s Lower Montauk Branch
as well as the Queens entrance to the
Queens Midtown Tunnel.
Opened in 1954, the Pulaski Bridge
— named for the Polish general,
Casimir Pulaski, who fought on the
American side in the Revolutionary
War as a tribute to the area’s Polish-
American heritage — quickly became
one of the most vital roadway links
in the city.
It was reconstructed in 1991 and
1994 and altered to fit the times; in
2015, the city converted the right lane
of its southbound side into a two-way
bike path, allowing bicyclists a safer,
separate space to travel.
The Pulaski Bridge also has an
important place in the sports world;
it is mile 13 on the route of the New
York City Marathon, serving as the
halfway point in the great, five-borough
foot race from the Verrazzano
Bridge on Staten Island to Tavern on
the Green in Manhattan’s Central
Park.
As for the gone-and-forgotten
Vernon Avenue Bridge, the only
remnants of the bridge are concrete
walls on either side of the creek
where boaters often moor their
vessels.
FROM GREENPOINT TO
BLISSVILLE
About three-quarters of a mile
southeast of the Pulaski Bridge lies
the next existing crossing over the
Newtown Creek: the Greenpoint
Avenue Bridge.
The current bridge, which opened
in 1987, is the sixth iteration of a
cross-creek span at the location
since the 1850s. The original bridge
was called the Blissville Bridge,
named for the nearby hamlet of
Blissville located within Long Island
City.
Three other bridges came and
went between the 1850s and early
1900s. The fourth bridge was severely
damaged by a fire in 1919;
that led to the construction of a fifth
bridge that opened in 1929, which
would remain in heavy use until the
mid-1980s.
By about 1984, the Greenpoint
Avenue Bridge was opening and
closing about 3,000 times a year,
according to The New York Times
— and the wear-and-tear had taken
a toll. In 1984, the state Transportation
Department declared that
it would build a new $32.2 million
replacement drawbridge adjacent
to the span.
Opened to traffic in 1987, the
double-leaf bascule bridge stretches
1,352 feet from end to end. It was
reconstructed in the last decade
and, like the Pulaski Bridge, now
includes a bike lane.
But though most people know it
as the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge,
the new space’s official name is the
J.J. Byrne Memorial Bridge, named
in honor of the former Brooklyn
Commissioner of Public Works, who
died back in 1930.
Next week, our story about the
Bridges of Newtown Creek continues
with the Kosciuszko Bridge, the
Grand Street Bridge and the Metropolitan
Avenue Bridge.
Sources: The New York Times,
Brooklyn Relics, Brownstoner, Forgotten
New York and the New York City
Department of Transportation.
* * *
If you have any remembrances or
old photographs of “Our Neighborhood:
The Way It Was” that you would
like to share with our readers, please
write to the Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood
Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY
11361, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. Any print photographs
mailed to us will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
The Pulaski Bridge, open, in this 2017 photo. Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Jeff rey Bary
Runners make their way over the Pulaski Bridge during the 2015 New
York City Marathon on Nov. 1, 2015.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Picture Supplied by Action Images
/WWW.QNS.COM
/ridgewoodtimes.com
