The Third Avenue Bridge carries southbound road traffic on

Third Avenue Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...

over the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyte ...

, connecting the

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

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

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

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 ...

. It once carried southbound

New York State Route 1A New York State Route 1A (NY 1A) was a north–south state highway mostly located within New York City. It extended for just under from an intersection with NY 27 near the Holland Tunnel in Lower Manhattan to an interchange with U. ...

. The Third Avenue Bridge carries traffic south from the intersections of either

and East 135th Street, or

Bruckner Boulevard The Bruckner Expressway is a freeway in the borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx in New York City. It carries Interstate 278 (I-278) and Interstate 95 in New York, I-95 (and formerly Interstate 878 (1959), I-878) from the Triboroug ...

and Lincoln Avenue, in the Bronx. On the Manhattan side, the bridge funnels traffic into three locations: East 128th Street; the intersection of East 129th Street and

Lexington Avenue Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along it ...

; or the southbound

Harlem River Drive The Harlem River Drive is a 4.20-mile (6.76 km) long north–south limited-access parkway in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs along the west bank of the Harlem River from the Triborough Bridge in East Harlem to 10th Avenue i ...

in Manhattan. The bridge was formerly bidirectional, but converted to one-way operation southbound on August 5, 1941 on the same day the

Willis Avenue Bridge The Willis Avenue Bridge is a swing bridge that carries road traffic northbound (and bicycles and pedestrians both ways) over the Harlem River between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, United States. It connects First Avenu ...

was similarly converted to one-way northbound. In 1955, the original multi-truss bridge constructed in 1898 was removed and sold. A rebuilt bridge reopened in December 1956.

Reconstruction

As part of a major NYCDOT reconstruction project from 2001-2005, a new swing span was floated into place on October 29, 2004. Two lanes of Manhattan-bound traffic opened on December 6, 2004, and the remaining three lanes opened in 2005. In addition to replacing the swing span and its machinery, the project included redesigned approach ramps to the bridge on the Bronx side and off the bridge in Manhattan. As reconstructed, the Third Avenue Bridge carries five lanes of Manhattan-bound traffic from the Bronx, which split to three ramps in Manhattan: to East 128th Street and Second Avenue; to Lexington Avenue and East 129th Street; and to the southbound Harlem River Drive/

FDR Drive The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Park ...

. For 2011, the

New York City Department of Transportation The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is the agency of the government of New York City responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure. Ydanis Rodriguez is the Commissioner of the Departm ...

, which operates and maintains the bridge, reported an

average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

volume of 59,603; the bridge reached a peak ADT of 73,121 in 2000. Between 2000 and 2014, the bridge opened for vessels 93 times, including 60 times in 2007.

Public transportation

The Third Avenue Bridge carries the bus route operated by

MTA New York City Transit The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. P ...

. The route's average weekday ridership is 19,951.

TV documentary

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

contracted Barner-Alper Productions of Toronto to produce an episode of ''Mega-Builders'', titled "Spanning the Harlem", about the work leading up to the float-in of the swing span. It first aired in 2005 in Canada on Discovery Canada.

References

External links

*
NYCRoads.com: Third Avenue Bridge Historic Overview

New York City Department of Transportation - Harlem River Bridges

NYC DoT Third Avenue Bridge
Bridges completed in 1898 Bridges in Manhattan Bridges in the Bronx Bridges over the Harlem River Harlem Road bridges in New York (state) Swing bridges in the United States Pedestrian bridges in New York City Third Avenue {{Spoken Wikipedia, Third_Avenue_Bridge_(New_York_City).ogg, date=2019-6-28