From the NY Times:“Unassuming” is perhaps the appropriate word. “It’s very much like the place it goes to, Queens,” said Barry Lewis, an architectural historian. “Who lives in Queens?” Who, that is, besides Mr. Lewis, who grew up in Woodhaven and now lives in Kew Gardens.
But why not let him answer his own question? “You’re going to have your newsstand guy, your doorman, the guy who runs the store around the corner, they all live in Queens,” he said. “The people who live in Queens are really the people who make the city run in a basic, gritty way, and the bridge is exactly that. It’s not a bridge that you write poetry to.”
Birthday cake will be served Monday night at the Greater Astoria Historical Society at 7pm.
24 comments:
It’s not a bridge that you write poetry to.”
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel did.
Happy Birthday. I hope you're feeling groovey.
All hail the Erector Set Dinosaur. It still stands Head and Shoulders above other grey monolithe's as the Gdubs, Manhattan and Triboro. It occupies it's own space and that's all right. The view coming into Queens from the Manhattan Side's Luxury Movie Style Apartments, to the Specter of the Haunted House on Roosevelt Isl, to the LIC waterfront is one of the best transitions in the world. To 100 more!
Feeling Groovy? I want to throw up. Simon and Garfunkel are just about the biggest Queens morons in existence. Referring to the Q Bridge as the "59th Street Bridge"!
Read the stupid lyrics that they wrote. There's absolutely no connection whatsoever to the bridge.
BTW is the bridge officially "Queensborough", "Queensboro" or "Queens boro"?
I don't know the official spelling of the name of the bridge. I just know my title's spelling: Queensburro
Where's Snake Pliskin? I seem to remember in Escape from NY he got out by driving over the "69th street" bridge.
Yea, with the president of what?
Snake
This is to be renamed "Hillary D Clinton" bridge or is that just the walkway ?
If this bridge is to be renamed after Hillary R. Clinton, pretty soon traffic reporters will be anouncing "We have a 40 minute delay on the Bobby, and 20 minutes on the B*tch!"
I hope that you are joking about renaming the Queensborough. The Triborough renaming was a colossal waste of funds in the middle of a fiscal crisis.
If anyone needs a tribute to Robert Kennedy, they should view the historic footage of his funeral.
When I was a child, my parents made me watch as countless poor people tore down fences near the rail route taking him home so that they could show their respect.
He would have never wanted money taken away from education or health care to pay for a ridiculous boondoggle like this.
I hope that GAHS doesn't keep referring to it as "The 59th Street Bridge".
After all this "robust" organization is headquartered in Queens.
Gustave Lindenthal, premier bridge engineer, designed that bridge.
If you wan't to play with an "erector" set....play with your own
...oops...I can't say it.
This is not an "X" rated site!
H-m-m-m...
so the "whine and cheese" parties (with a little slice of cake added)
have moved over to Astoria...
ha, ha, ha!
In lieu of preservation...I suppose
(wink).
Daily News coverage:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/30/2009-03-30_toneddown_queensboro_bridges_birthday.html
Been on WINS1010 all morning.
I hope that GAHS doesn't keep referring to it as "The 59th Street Bridge".
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I don't know about them, but I refer to it as the "59th Street bridge", grew up in Queens, and everyone else I know called it that too.
Maybe you say "Queensboro" in Kew Gardens or where ever.
When the bridge was opened, it was called the Queens Borough Bridge according to articles from the time. In fact, I have found it referred to as Queensborough into the 1950s. I don't know when it became Queensboro, but the title of this post reflects its historical and original name in honor of its centennial.
Do you notice how 1010WINS' traffic reports these day refer to the venerably named Triborough Bridge as "the RFK-Triborough"? [I guess they'll eventually drop the Triborough moniker.] However, the jerk-off traffic reporters refer to the Queensborough as the "59th Street Bridge".
Someone told me the original plaque on the bridge says "Queensboro" so I changed the title.
"Boro" as a simplification for Borough is probably a modern invention like thru for through or flammable for inflammable.
At the turn of the last century the world divided into the educated classes and the completely illiterate.
Today we have tons of partially-educated people.
"Boro" as a simplification for Borough is probably a modern invention like thru for through or flammable for inflammable.
At the turn of the last century the world divided into the educated classes and the completely illiterate.
Today we have tons of partially-educated people.
Loosen up there, great-grandpa.
Attleboro, Brattleboro, Marlboro... any of these ring a bell from your childhood?
1. Borrowing a name from English history, Queens can be called the Rotten Borough.
2. "...said Barry Lewis...'Who lives in Queens?...You're going to have the newstand guy, your doorman, the guy who runs the store around the corner, they all live in Queens...The people who live in Queens are really the people who make the city run in a gritty way...'"
No newstand guys live in the Bronx.
No doorman live in Brooklyn. No storeowners from Manhattan.
Queens has no doctors, no lawyers, no educators, no brilliant blog pontificators.
It does have Queens resident Barry
Lewis. A gritty jerk.
"Boro" as a simplification for Borough is probably a modern invention like thru for through or flammable for inflammable.
It's the other way around. "In" means "not". Something's flammable if it can catch fire; if it can't, it's inflammable!
And if you think that's annoying, try reading the constant misuse of "it's" and "its"!
No my dear. Inflammable means able to catch fire. Please consult a dictionary if you are in doubt. The term, "flammable" was created around World War II because so many people were confused by the original correct term.
If you're not happy with 1010 WINS calling it the RFK Bridge, call their traffic hotline and complain about it. With enough calls, maybe they'll listen and revert to Triboro.
The so called Name Change of the Triborough Bridge to RFK Bridge show the stipidity of the TBTA. Total idiots! It will always be TRIBOROUGH BRIDGE!
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