In this era of instant news, a week feels like a long time. A campaign lasting 14 years seems immeasurable. But tomorrow, just such a campaign culminates — when the High Bridge, a long-forgotten treasure of the city, reopens to the public. The idea started right here.
On March 11, 2001, in this space, there appeared a very unusual editorial, an entire page devoted to the need to restore and reopen a bridge over which no cars or trains can travel.
It explained that the High Bridge, the city’s oldest span, was the single most important piece of infrastructure in New York’s long history — completed in 1848 as an aqueduct to deliver a steady flow of clean water to the thirsty, dirty, growing metropolis. No water, no city. Simple as that.
...this page started its lonely crusade — yielding progress in fits and starts. It started with an inspection in the Rudy Giuliani years. Rep. José Serrano early on secured $5 million for the project. He deserves a place of honor.
Under Mike Bloomberg and his Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, plans accelerated. With the commitment of $48 million in 2007, the heavy preservation work started. The $61.7 million endeavor was finalized under Mayor de Blasio.
This was no ordinary rehab. Masonry and steel had to be reviewed by scuba divers. All was solid. The old-timers knew their craft. The bridge was cleaned with care by the Department of Design and Construction under Commissioner Feniosky Peña-Mora for Parks Commissioner Mitch Silver. We give a special salute to Ellen Macnow, who has shepherded the project since the start.
- The Bronx gets a refurbished High Bridge
- Manhattan gets the High Line
- Brooklyn gets Brooklyn Bridge Park and
- Queens gets... a coat of paint on the NYS Pavilion.
11 comments:
Hey. That coat of paint won't cost Queens one thin dime.
Queens may get its Queensway project, so there is still hope!
Makes me almost ashamed to tell people I'm from Queens....
Well, almost - you have to have HOPE and PRIDE in your hometown, no matter what....
Maybe us "old-timers' think differently....
...and Staten Island gets... no mention.
"Queens gets... a coat of paint on the NYS Pavilion."
AND the destruction of the Steinway Historical Site where THE most beautiful building in Queens - the Italianate Steinway Mansion sits.
And this is in the Borough whose President, Melinda Katz, grew up in an artistic family.
Queens sucks.
Big time.
"Queens may get its Queensway project, so there is still hope!"
Make that, hope NOT!
And we Queens slobs are still waiting for the Bowne house restoration, a landmark that is almost two centuries older than High Bridge and the birthplace of religious freedom in The United States, to be completed.
Keep electing the numbskulls like Katz, Crowley (male & female versions), Vallone, Meng, etc. to office and the other boroughs will continue to eat out lunch.
Are there security cameras on the bridge? Better watch out for the criminal element who will frequent it.
How many will accidently fall off the bridge into the Harlem River?
Damn place is a public safety hazard.
Anon no. 9: How would you know? Have you ever been on it? By the pictures, it's fenced in.
Queens gets... a coat of paint on the NYS Pavilion
and stripes over potholes in forest park and a fracked gas transfer pipeline in rockaway
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