The Bridges of New York County Part 8 - Down the East River

Easily the least utilized (but non-abandoned) bridge over the East River is the Ward's Island Pedestrian Bridge. Summer days the bridge is usually down - its accessible position. Throughout the entire Winter, and nights from April to October, the center span is up and the bridge is closed to pedestrians and bikers. Ward's Island has some homeless camps near the bridge (not to mention a psychiatric hospital), and the place is completely deserted at night, but I still have not heard any coherent rationale for not just keeping the bridge down 24-7. Even in the down position it's low enough that almost all boats can fit under, and there's four other ways to walk on and off the island 24-7. One more example of "inaccessibility" being a lazy shortcut for "security."

The second-least-used bridge over the East River is the Roosevelt Island Bridge. I used to live on the Queens side of the Roosevelt Island Bridge. Having it be so close was bad motivation to go climb it - I finally got around to it about a week before I moved, but there's no way to actually get on top of the bridge. The lift room at the top (thankfully, without a pigeon colony like the Broadway Bridge) was as far as I got. One more down, but I can't say it felt terribly significant. You can get just as high up by heading to the top of the parking garage next door.

The Ward's Island Pedestrian Bridge, the Triboro, the George Washington, and the Park Avenue Metro North bridge are the four bridges around Manhattan I've never managed to get on top of. The G.W will let student groups or people with connections up to the top once every blue moon, and I'm pretty confident that sometime in my life I'll be able to tag along. The Park Avenue bridge has recently gotten a lot of new security, and I may have blown my chance at that one, we'll see. The Ward's Island bridge would be pretty cool - we went there one night trying to find a way up, which turned out to involve having to break into the lift rooms. If it had been the Brooklyn Bridge... well, sometimes you do what you gotta do. But criminal trespass for the Ward's Island Pedestrian Bridge is definitely not worth it.

The Triboro I'd certainly like to climb also - I've never been on top of a bridge that narrow for starters - but I can't really say I have a terrible itch for it. It certainly wasn't frustrating to walk across, like the 59th Street bridge was before I managed to get up that.