Wednesday, October 20, 2021 – The subway as well as the trolleys both rode on the Queensboro Bridge
TOMORROW IS ISSUE #500. PLEASE SEND US YOUR COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS TO BE INCLUDED IN THIS SPECIAL ISSUE. SEND TO ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021
499th ISSUE
THE SECOND AVENUE
ELEVATED SUBWAY
ON THE
QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
ANDY SPARBERG
We all know that the Queensboro Bridge (aka Ed Koch Bridge, popularly the 59th Street Bridge) has two decks for motor traffic. But it’s been lost to history that the upper deck carried, between 1917 and 1942, two elevated train tracks that connected Manhattan’s old IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) Second Avenue Elevated Line with the Queensboro Plaza station complex, which allowed the Second Avenue trains to travel to Astoria and Flushing on today’s N and #7 lines, respectively.
The bridge elevated tracks were a part of the Dual Contracts, which greatly expanded the initial subway system constructed between 1900 and 1913. Under the Dual Contracts, the two rapid transit operating companies, the IRT and BRT (Brooklyn Rapid Transit), were granted the right to operate, through a lease, a whole series of new lines that NYC government built between 1913 and 1931.
These transit lines connected Manhattan with a whole variety of neighborhoods in The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. New housing, made possible by the new transit connections, induced people to move out of Manhattan, whose population dropped from 2,332,000 in 1910 to 1,867,000 in 1930, or a 20% drop.
In the same twenty years, Queens grew from 284,000 to 1.079,000, a 280% increase. The two bridge tracks, along with tunnels at 42nd and 60th Streets, were key reasons why Queens grew so rapidly. Population data is rounded to the nearest thousand.
Originally the Queensboro Bridge tracks were in the center of the upper deck. In 1929 the tracks were moved to the north side (Manhattan-bound traffic today) to permit installation of two automobile lanes on the south side.
The BRT was reorganized into the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) in 1923. In June 1940, New York City purchased the IRT and BMT firms, and merged them with its IND subway (always city-owned from its 1925 inception) to create a single unified city-wide subway system under the Board of Transportation.
Mayor LaGuardia choreographed this event, which he called “a good deal” because the five-cent fare was saved for the duration of his years in office. Unfortunately, part of LaGuardia’s deal was the closing of the Second Avenue elevated south of 60th Street, and its connecting tracks on the Queensboro Bridge, both of which occurred in June 1942. The elevated north of 60th Street had already closed (June 1940).
There’s more to this story, but for now suffice to say that no elevated train has crossed the Queensboro Bridge for close to eighty years. The former train tracks on the upper deck north side were converted to two automobile lanes in the late 1950s and are still in that use today.
JUNE 7, 1942
WEDNESDAY PHOTOS OF THE DAY
SEND YOUR ANSWER TO:
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
IF MESSAGE REJECTS SEND TO:
JBIRD134@AOL.COM
TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
A view of Long Island City from Blackwell’s Island (around 1901), showing the under construction footings of the Queensboro Bridge and the New York Architectural Terra-Cotta Works factory
. In his 1891 book Terra-Cotta in Architecture, Walter Geer described the factory in detail. “The first story contains the engine, boilers, machinery for preparing clay, and the clay, coal and grit pits.” This machinery included washer and slip tanks, crushers and mill stones, as well as some items known as pug mills. There were 12 kilns.
The clay came from New Jersey. It was mined, seasoned, and delivered to the factory, where it was crushed, ground, washed, and mixed with grit before being molded and sculpted. From there, the terra cotta got shipped off to adorn some of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Ed Litcher
FROM CLARA BELLA, Who commented that we did not mention the Bronx:
| And by the way, although I’ve resided in this area for 18 years (longer than anywhere else I’ve ever lived) I didn’t know the great majority of the info you featured today, the significant history of my humble neighborhood.AND THANKS for featuring my local Armory!! There has been debate and discussion about how to re/use the space for well over a decade. It was/is supposed to become the world’s largest ice rink complex but progress has been stalled for a number of years. About a decade back, Macy’s filmed a holiday tv ad in the hangar, and that same space served as a pandemic food distribution center in 2020. Someone who worked there told me that the basement contains about 8 feet of foul water that freezes every winter and melts every spring, as well as a thriving population of rats and raccoons. Currently the chain-link fence around the Armory provides the perfect display wall for informal second-hand clothing sellers and street vendors who set up a variety of stands and tables offering everything from industrial equipment to mostly-used electronics to handicrafts to rescued and recycled furniture to gold jewelry, all at rock-bottom prices. |
Andy Sparberg
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Copyright © 2021 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
Leave a comment