New York's Oldest

When you say "The Bridge" in New York, everybody's got a different one. Generally it's the Brooklyn, but often times it's the George Washington. For Staten Islanders it almost always means the Verrazano, and for some Queens natives it's the 59th street. It's whatever bridge is closest to your heart. Whatever bridge means the most to you. Whatever bridge you consider yours. For me "the Bridge" has always been High Bridge.

High Bridge is what started the itch for me many years ago. I had been in town for a while, walking around and seeing what I could find. I started innocently enough - seeing neighborhoods, walking across bridges, generally enjoying the sense of wonder and possibility only a newcomer can have. I learned about an abandoned bridge between the Bronx and Manhattan and went to see it for myself.

High Bridge is the oldest existing bridge connecting two boroughs. Much like the Brooklyn Bridge it was an engineering marvel of its time, built for an urgent urban planning need. Not transportation - water. The rapidly growing New York of the early- to mid-1800s had polluted its limited water supply. A good 12 decades or so away from desalinization plants (the rivers and harbor around New York are all salt water), the only other choice was to build an aqueduct. Finished in 1848, the High Bridge brought the newly constructed Croton Aqueduct from upstate over the Harlem River and to its last leg from Harlem down to the Murray Hill reservoir, where the New York Public Library sits today. Officially known as the Aqueduct Bridge, it was colloquially called the "High Bridge" because the design that was chosen was a 135 foot "high bridge" rather than a low bridge or tunnel.

Pretty soon more water capacity was needed, so the two 33 inch pipes were replaced with a 90 inch pipe and the pedestrian walkway over the aqueduct was raised. This was the grand era of High Bridge, when it was a leisure destination for the well-off. The subway extensions to Upper Manhattan and the Bronx in the early part of the 20th century brought the masses, and everything from hotels to amusements parks found their way to the area. In 1917 the aqueduct was shut down due to concern over German sabotage during World War 1. Shortly after the war a metal arch replaced several stone arches over the Harlem River to improve navigation. This was one of New York's first examples of creative historic preservation - originally the city wanted to tear down the bridge completely, being convinced to preserve it only after an outpouring of support by concerned citizens.