The Red Hook Bridge That Never Was
Last weekend’s New York Times article on Robert Moses, written on the eve of three new museum retrospectives, had one particularly interesting tidbit in it. Turns out that one of the projects that Moses championed that never came to fruition was a bridge from Red Hook to Battery Park City. And you thought property values…
Last weekend’s New York Times article on Robert Moses, written on the eve of three new museum retrospectives, had one particularly interesting tidbit in it. Turns out that one of the projects that Moses championed that never came to fruition was a bridge from Red Hook to Battery Park City. And you thought property values were high in Red Hook now! Anyone know more about how that proposal played out and was ultimately scrapped?
Rehabilitating Robert Moses [NY Times]
Photo by burningdove
His reasons for preferring bridges over tunnels were a little more complex than just wanting to show off. Parkways are so named because back in the early days of the car, these roads were thought of as a nice way for a family to enjoy nature (the ‘park’ in ‘parkway’). It’s also partly why highways around NYC were built near the water. You could enjoy the views…
kind of a jerk, that moses guy…
I too second the Power Broker. There is a diagram of the proposed bridge. The effects on the skyline in lower Manhattan would have be questionable at best.
I believe the Cross-Harbor Bridge was stopped by the feds b/c of concern of sabotage (during wwII) by the Axis powers, who could conceivably blow up the bridge, having in block up NY Harbor, and cripple the city.
Bob:
Indeed it was. It was gutted in the runup to the bridge construction. The Castle itself was also nearly destroyed, but it was luckily spared (and landmarked in 1946).
Amazing book. One of my favorite stories is when the Northern State Parkway on LI was planned it curved around his friends/contributors estates but then he cut right through long standing family farms essentially destroying them. That was him in a nutshell 😀
Jim,
Wasn’t the old aquarium INSIDE Castle Clinton?
The proposal to build a bridge between the Battery and Red Hook was stopped at the federal level — I think by FDR. Moses had worked things out so that no one on the city or state level could stop him! EVERYONE should read The Power Broker by Robert Caro, especially New Yorkers, most especially New Yorkers interested in real estate. It’s a fantastic read and a fascinating study of a man who accomplished a lot that was good for NYC and environs, but whose single most remarkable achievement was the acquisition of near-absolute power. At his peak, Moses was answerable to nobody, least of all voters, since his various titles were all appointments, and he had amassed so much power that elected officials dared not touch him.
The bridge was eventually completed in the form of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Moses prefered bridges to tunnels because they were more showy. No one else wanted the bridge, and his opponents – Laguardia Included, called on FDR to help stop the plan. FDR had his secretary of war declare that building a bridge there would hinder the WWII effort because it would block access to the Brooklyn Naval Yards – a totally BS argument, but strong enough to get the bridge turned into a tunnel. There is a rendering of the bridge in ‘The Power Broker’.
Interesting footnote. The NY Aquarium was moved form Battery Park to Coney Island when Moses decided that it had to be destroyed to make room for the bridge. The bridge never happened, but the aquarium was indeed demolished and moved. Moses also would have had to tear down castle clinton and the other historical buildings in the park – somethiogn that also garnered him enemies in his efforts.