I hadn't been to the top of the Empire State Building since I was a kid, and my daughter had never been, so Wednesday we made the trip. Even though the the air was hazy with humidity, it was a great view and I got some wonderful pictures of the lower Manhattan bridges before the thunderstorms hit.
Closest to us was the Ed Koch Queensboro/59th Street Bridge, looking from this height like a kid's popsicle stick bridge.
This morning I went to see the new Batman movie, the Dark Knight Rises, in which many of the bridges of Manhattan play a pivotal role -- and the Queensboro Bridge, most of all. I'm not going to spoil the movie, but if you've been a fan of Manhattan's bridges, you'll probably enjoy the focus on them in the movie.
Except -- one tiny, tiny thing. They moved the bridge. They moved the bridge. In actual real Manhattan, the bridge is midtown, connecting the island with Queens. In the movie's climactic scene, the bridge has apparently replaced the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, Staten Island has disappeared entirely, and the Marine Parkway Bridge now connects to Manhattan. Or something. And is now reddish instead of gray.
When I got home I checked a NYC map just to be sure I wasn't crazy, but I was right. They moved the bridge.
The
Providence River Bridge in Providence, Rhode Island is a network arch bridge -- first one I've seen live -- at the mouth of the Providence River at the northern tip of Narragansett Bay. It's apparently the widest network arch bridge in the world -- seven lanes of traffic across, plus room for pedestrians. It was part of a renovation project a few years back that moved the I-95/I-195 intersection from its old position in the middle of the city to its current spot behind the Fox Point hurricane barrier, which you can see in front of the bridge, on the right.
Also, my car ;-)
Piers for the old I-195 bridge still sit in the canal
The
Providence River Bridge (also known as the Iway Bridge) was built by the Cardi Corporation at the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown -- the jumping off point for the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge. Once completed, it was put onto barges and floated up the bay to Providence, where cranes put it in its final position. One of the properties of this sort of bridge is the way it puts no tension on the bridge abutments, so it needn't be built in place.
The History Channel featured the Providence River Bridge on an episode of "Mega Movers -- Really Big Bridges". They show the bridge moved the 15 miles from North Kingstown to Providence. They also figure out how they would move the Golden Gate Bridge... probably worth watching. A YouTube user filmed the barge and the bridge going past up the bay; I've embedded it above.
Point Street Bridge
Just on the other side of the Fox Point hurricane barrier, the cantilever truss Point Street Bridge connects the banks of the Providence River for pedestrians and local traffic.
Providence River Bridge from the Water Street Bridge
With the completion of the Iway, Providence turned a blighted area of ruined buildings and traffic into a beautiful riverside park, capped on one side by the Providence River Bridge and the Point Street Bridge, and on the other by a series of decorative bridges that cross the river canal. There's plenty of parking all over, should you visit. India Street goes off to India Point to the east of the bridge, and that leads to the multispan arch Washington Bridge. I didn't get a picture of it (I was headed out of the city when I saw it), but that just gives me reason to return to one of the most beautiful capital cities in New England.
This bridge is one I cross every time I go to visit my son in Virginia. This is one of the few bridges outside the Hartford area I'm writing about that I actually appreciate for its utility rather than merely its beauty. This is the bridge that showed me the sheer beauty of the Hudson River Valley.
I grew up near the Blackstone River in southern Massachusetts; moved up to Concord, New Hampshire and the Merrimack River which I liked fine. Now that I live on the Connecticut, I thought that was the most beautiful river I'd ever seen. Then I saw the Hudson from the deck of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and was just astonished. Not only by the majesty of the river itself, but by the gorgeous landscape all up and down the banks.
It wasn't really the best weather when I went back to take my bicycle through Beacon, over the bridge, around Newburgh and back. There were lots of people on the bridge. A few bicyclists, a couple of joggers, a hiker couple. The river was still muddy from debris after the passage of Hurricane Irene.
Anyway. I couldn't find a decent place to park the car and assembly my bike. There's a Metro North station in Beacon about a mile down the road, but the parking lot was absolutely full. There was metered road parking but I was still hoping for "free". I eventually ended up parking in a small business park and riding to the bridge.
Once I was on the other side, I found the ACTUAL bridge parking; it's on the north side of the road on the Newburgh end of the bridge. Plenty of cars parked there. There is a small park on that side as well.
Beacon looks like an upscale artsy community. Newburgh was once described as the murder capital of New York. Seemed nice enough while I was there, though.
