The Little Guys

Before you get to the big East River bridges, there's a series of little guys between Harlem and the Bronx. They start with the Macombs Dam, leading directly over to Yankee Stadium, and then the 145th street, Madison Avenue, Third Avenue, and Willis Avenue bridges. Between the Madison and Third Avenue bridges is the rail bridge that takes Metro-North out of Manhattan. It's the tallest by far - and unfortunately one I haven't ever walked over or climbed. Someday.

I don't have a lot of love for most of the little guys - the only time I've ever bothered climbing them was so we have something for this guy who was doing a story about us (warning - .pdf y solo en espanol). Some of the little guys are actually among the harder bridges to get up - the Third Avenue bridge was replaced in 2004, and as such is not subject to the decades of wear and tear that allows easy access: every conceivable way to climb is guarded by razor wire or other obstacles.

Still just because it's tough to climb them doesn't mean they aren't interesting. We have a bunch of different kinds of movable bridges - lift bridges, draw bridges, retractable bridges, and the kind all the little Harlem River bridges happen to be: swing bridges. You have to have some way for boats to get by the bridges of New York County. If they aren't tall enough for boats to sail under (our suspension and arch bridges), then they need to move somehow to let the boats through.

One of the little bridges I do have love for though is the littlest bridge we've got. It's not really even a bridge - it's a couple of concrete beams used to carry power cables between the Bronx and Randall's Island. Still, it's a way over water between two boroughs, so it's good enough for me.

This little area is one of my favorite places in town - an out-of-the-way, yet functional little corner of the city that is just barely outside the boundaries of official public space. I've walked over these beams several times, occasionally running into various people. This time there was a bunch of Mexican guys hanging out. The time before there were workers drilling into the soil. There was a bit of a language gap, but from what I gathered they said they were doing a survey for a new pedestrian bridge. I thought I'd misheard, until I read this article in the New York Times.

I thought it was interesting that they did the article from the boaters', rather than pedestrians' perspective - not even mentioning the fact that people use the beams as a shortcut from the Bronx to Randall's Island. Perhaps this is because I don't believe you're technically supposed to be able to walk there - you do have to duck through a fence and cross over the train tracks - which is what I mean by "barely outside the boundaries of official public space." On the other hand perhaps it's just that some people are more enamored of boats than bridges.

Other stuff

I'm not done writing up the bridges quite yet, but do need a little break. This latest story (well, the whole blog I suppose) is from my 2007 trip to South America.