Pulaski Bridge on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Pulaski Bridge in
Designed by Frederick Zurmuhlen, the Pulaski Bridge is a
In 2012, in response to the lack of adequate bicycle facilities currently on the Pulaski Bridge, the NYC Department of Transportation began studying the possibility of installing dedicated bicycle lanes on the bridge. Since the Pulaski is a drawbridge with an open section in the middle, it presents several challenges not faced by other bridges. First, physical dividers must be lightweight yet securely installed so they don't come loose when the drawbridge is opened. Secondly, the joints where the two leaves come together must be somehow protected to make them more bicycle wheel-friendly. In April 2013, in a letter to Assembly Member Joe Lentol, the NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner stated that the proposal for a two-way dedicated bike lane, which would convert the existing walkway to a pedestrian-only path, had met the requirements of a traffic analysis and that an engineering study and recommendations would be made by the end of the year. On October 25, 2013, Lentol announced that the DOT was in the process of designing a dedicated bike lane and that the final design would be presented to community board 1 in Brooklyn and Community Board 2 in Queens before the end of the year. Bike lane construction was originally projected to occur late spring or early summer of 2014. Construction occurred during the winter of 2015 and the bike lane opened at the end of April 2016.
NYC DoT page
* {{NYC Bridge Bascule bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1954 Road bridges in New York City Bridges in Queens, New York Bridges in Brooklyn Long Island City Greenpoint, Brooklyn Pedestrian bridges in New York City 1954 establishments in New York City Monuments and memorials to Casimir Pulaski
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
connects Long Island City
Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...
in Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
to Greenpoint in Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
over Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. Channelization made it one of the most heavily-used bodies of water in the Port of N ...
. It was named after Polish military commander and American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
fighter Casimir Pulaski in homage to the large Polish-American population in Greenpoint. It connects 11th Street in Queens to McGuinness Boulevard
McGuinness Boulevard is a boulevard in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It runs between Interstate 278 (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) in the south and the Pulaski Bridge in the north, which connects to Queens an ...
(formerly Oakland Street) in Brooklyn.
Description
Designed by Frederick Zurmuhlen, the Pulaski Bridge is a bascule bridge
A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- o ...
, a type of drawbridge
A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of movea ...
. It carries six lanes of traffic and a pedestrian sidewalk over the water, Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average week ...
tracks, and the entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. The pedestrian sidewalk is on the west or downstream side of the bridge, which has views of the industrial areas surrounding Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. Channelization made it one of the most heavily-used bodies of water in the Port of N ...
, the skyline
A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land.
City skylin ...
of Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, and of a number of other bridges, including the Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressw ...
, the Queensboro Bridge
The Queensboro Bridge, officially named the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City. Completed in 1909, it connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with the Upper Ea ...
, and the Kosciuszko Bridge
The Kosciuszko Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge over Newtown Creek in New York City, connecting Greenpoint in Brooklyn to Maspeth in Queens. The bridge consists of a pair of cable-stayed bridge spans: the eastbound span opened in April 2017, ...
. The bridge was reconstructed between 1991 and 1994.
Located just over from the start of the New York City Marathon at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the Pulaski Bridge serves as the approximate halfway point in the race.
History
The Pulaski Bridge opened to traffic on September 10, 1954. It served as a replacement for the nearby Vernon Avenue Bridge, which had linked Vernon Avenue in Long Island City with Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint. From 1979 until 1990, a message reading "Wheels Over Indian Trails" was painted on the Pulaski Bridge over the approach to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. The artwork was created byJohn Fekner
John Fekner (born 1950 in New York City) is an American artist known for his spray painted environmental and conceptual outdoor works.
Fekner's has created paintings, cast paper reliefs, video, music recordings and performance works, sculpture, ...
as a tribute to the thirteen Native American tribes who inhabited Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...
.
In 2012, in response to the lack of adequate bicycle facilities currently on the Pulaski Bridge, the NYC Department of Transportation began studying the possibility of installing dedicated bicycle lanes on the bridge. Since the Pulaski is a drawbridge with an open section in the middle, it presents several challenges not faced by other bridges. First, physical dividers must be lightweight yet securely installed so they don't come loose when the drawbridge is opened. Secondly, the joints where the two leaves come together must be somehow protected to make them more bicycle wheel-friendly. In April 2013, in a letter to Assembly Member Joe Lentol, the NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner stated that the proposal for a two-way dedicated bike lane, which would convert the existing walkway to a pedestrian-only path, had met the requirements of a traffic analysis and that an engineering study and recommendations would be made by the end of the year. On October 25, 2013, Lentol announced that the DOT was in the process of designing a dedicated bike lane and that the final design would be presented to community board 1 in Brooklyn and Community Board 2 in Queens before the end of the year. Bike lane construction was originally projected to occur late spring or early summer of 2014. Construction occurred during the winter of 2015 and the bike lane opened at the end of April 2016.
References
External links
NYC DoT page
* {{NYC Bridge Bascule bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1954 Road bridges in New York City Bridges in Queens, New York Bridges in Brooklyn Long Island City Greenpoint, Brooklyn Pedestrian bridges in New York City 1954 establishments in New York City Monuments and memorials to Casimir Pulaski