History Triborough Bridge

location of bridge in new york city



art deco saddle housing

construction began on october 25, 1929 – black friday – triborough project s outlook began bleak. chief engineer othmar ammann, had collapsed original design s two-deck roadway one, requiring lighter towers, , thus, lighter piers, saving $10 million on towers alone, enlisted again guide project, combination of tammany hall graft, stock market crash, , great depression followed it, brought project virtual halt, investors shied away purchasing municipal bonds needed fund it. spring of 1932, project moribund.

the project resurrected robert moses, pushed state legislature create triborough bridge authority (tba) fund, build , operate it. moses confronted situation city had not planned of necessary approaches structure, or bought property needed build roads, property have gotten @ bargain prices on. moses solved problem in typical fashion proposing new roads , parkways feed bridge, connect existing ones had built. complex of roads included grand central parkway , astoria boulevard in queens, extension east river drive (now fdr drive) in manhattan, , whitlock avenue , eastern boulevard in bronx.

while reformers embraced moses plans, state , city officials overwhelmed scale, , slow move provide financing vast system. moses leveraged leadership of authority – after wrenched control of away tammany – state , city positions held, start project again, construction resuming in november 1933. eventually, funding come city , federal government under new deal programs such public works administration (pwa), latter of involved complex political infighting between moses, pwa administrator harold l. ickes, president franklin delano roosevelt , new york city mayor fiorello h. laguardia, on moses lost job. other major source of funding interest-bearing bonds issued triborough bridge authority itself, , not city. these bonds secured future toll revenue.

the scale of triborough bridge project, including approaches, such hundreds of large apartment buildings demolished make way it. structure used concrete factories maine mississippi , , steel 50 mills in pennsylvania. make formwork pouring concrete, forest s worth of trees on pacific coast cut down. robert caro, biographer of moses, said it:

triborough not bridge traffic machine, largest ever built. amount of human energy expended in construction gives idea of immensity: more 5 thousand men working @ site, , these men putting place materials furnished labor of many times 5 thousand men; before triborough bridge completed, construction have generated more 31,000,000-man hours of work in 134 cities in twenty states.

the completed structure, described new york times y-shaped sky highway , dedicated on july 11, 1936, @ ceremonies held on central span attended president roosevelt, mayor la guardia, new york state governor herbert h. lehman, public works administrator ickes, postmaster general james a. farley , moses, acted master of ceremonies. due previous conflicts between himself , moses, attendance of roosevelt not until last minute. ceremonies broadcast via nationwide radio connection.

the total cost of bridge, largest pwa project in east, more $60 million (equivalent $1035.54 million in 2016) – 1 of largest public works projects of great depression, more expensive hoover dam. of this, $16 million came city , $9 million directly pwa, purchased $35 million worth of tba bonds, bought , resold public. in first year of bridge s operation generated $2.72 million (equivalent $45.31 million in 2016) – produced 9.65 million vehicles.

a by-product of triborough project creation of parks , playgrounds in lands underneath bridges , approaches on ward s , randall s island (see randall s island park), in astoria, , in manhattan.

recent events

expansion of toll plaza underway, 2016

motorists first able pay e‑zpass in lanes automatic coin machines @ randalls island toll plazas on august 21, 1996.

at point in past, sign on bridge informed travelers, in event of attack, drive off bridge, new york times columnist william safire wrote in 2008. macabre sign , wrote, must have drawn wry smile millions of motorists.

on november 19, 2008, triborough bridge officially renamed after robert f. kennedy @ request of kennedy family. forty years had passed since new york united states senator , former u.s. attorney general had been assassinated during 1968 presidential bid. traffic , news reports have come commonly refer bridge rfk triborough bridge , @ times triborough bridge avoid confusion among residents long accustomed original name.

in 2015, mta started 2 reconstruction projects on different parts of bridge part of $1 billion, 15-year program renovate bridge complex. mta commenced construction on $213 million rehabilitation of 1930s-era toll plaza between queens , bronx spans, included rebuilding of roadway , supporting structure underneath. new tollbooth structure completed in 2019. in addition, ramp manhattan span northbound harlem river drive being built $68.3 million, ramp finished december 2017. cashless tolling, program eliminates toll gates , allows drivers maintain highway speeds across span, implemented on june 15, 2017. tolls either collected electronically ez pass transponder or mail using data collected license plate readers.