Given that eminent domain is on everyone’s mind these days, we were interested to come across this video about the history of the Verrazano Bridge, which began construction in 1959 and was finished in 1963. As it turns out, over 800 homes were destroyed and 7,000 people displaced to make way for the bridge. We wonder how much public outcry at the time, which was towards the end of Robert Moses’ reign.
Verrazano Bridge a Brief History [YouTube]


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  1. 7,000 people in 800 homes? I don’t think so. A bit of under-counting or over-crowding I surmise. Try 800 structures with multiple units or ‘homes’. Sunset Park lost two miles of multi-families along 3rd Avenue.

  2. Look I’ll let my wife do her own negotiating, but clearly the direction of this thread again establishes how intellectually weak and desperate the opposition to AY and the use of ED at that location is.

    I also fail to see why it would be so emotionally devestating to leave an apartment you couldnt have owned more then a couple of years max. Its got to pale in comparison to the Verazzano/Bay Ridge situation, where you might be forced out of a home which you may have occupied for decades or even generations. Something tells me the that kind of loss can only be slightly mitigated by the fact that a bridge is being built. Yet the ED opponents fail to address these salient points.

  3. This is the best thread ever…!!..incredible how these forums often bring out schoolyard mentality. Given an anonymous forum people just love to regress back to five year olds…..it happens all the time at the brooklynian.com too…love it.

  4. I don’t mean to be a pedant, but if the earlier poster was offering $20 for your wife, and if $20 is 2X her market value, that would make your wife a $10 hooker.

    Just a clarification….

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