Archive for 2018
hitherto denied
Happy 115th birthday, Grand Street Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At a cost of $174,937, the newly constructed Grand Street Bridge – spanning the fantastic Newtown Creek – officially opened on this day in 1903 (although it had already been unofficially open to traffic since December of 1902). The Grand Street Bridge connects Maspeth in Queens with East Williamsburg/Bushwick in Brooklyn, and when it was built they had horse driven traffic in mind, as well as electric streetcars or trolleys. The City of Greater New York, with its familiar five boroughs and Manhattancentric political orientation was only a few years old at this point in time. Grand Street was part of a spate of bridge building that occurred in the years following municipal consolidation, both major and minor, which allowed the newly created Borough Presidents a chance to… ahem… share the wealth with their supporters.
The 1903 model, pictured above, is the third Grand Street Bridge. There were 1875 and 1890 models as well, but the historic record describes them as being shabbily constructed and “dilapidated.” The 1903 model has stood the test of time, although it did receive a bit of work and a fresh coat of paint during a rehabilitation project back in 1973.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Grand Street is the demarcation line between the so called “East Branch” tributary and the main stem of Newtown Creek. The intersection with another tributary, English Kills, is nearby. That’s part of the East Branch, pictured above. As a note, when Grand Street crosses northwards into Queens, it becomes Grand Avenue.
My understanding is that the 1890 model Grand Street Bridge was operated by hand cranking winches. It’s also my understanding that the presence of a nearby wharfage in this area (called White’s Dock) narrowed the navigational channel significantly, and that it was pressure from various Brooklyn based merchants and manufacturing associations which drove the Federal War Department into condemning that iteration of the bridge – and Whites Dock- setting the stage for the construction of the current model and the shaping of the modern bulkheads surrounding it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
End to end, Grand Street Bridge is nearly two hundred and twenty seven feet and one half inch in length. Horizontally it’s meant to be just over thirty two feet wide, with two lanes of vehicle traffic squeezing into a very tight nineteen feet and eight inch area. There are two sidewalks which are meant to be just under six feet wide, according to the NYC DOT, but that number sort of conflicts with my perception of them. Those tight lanes of traffic mean that anything bigger than a passenger car has to wait for traffic coming from the other side to cross over the bridge before they can do the same. This creates backups on both sides of the thing.
I think the sidewalks measurement must include the box girders visible in the shot above, which is actually from below.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Grand Street Bridge is a swing bridge, which means that the whole structure sits on a mechanical palette and can rearticulate itself ninety degrees to allow maritime traffic to pass to and fro. It’s a crying shame that there aren’t any customers in the East Branch who would require the presence of barge and tug, since the City is obligated to maintain the machinery here in functional order by the orders of the United States Coast Guard.
The DOT spends a bunch of money every year doing so, and the City has been petitioning the USCG to “delist” the East Branch for navigability, and to allow them to replace the 1903 Grand Street Bridge with something more appropriate for modern traffic needs – a static and far wider truss bridge – since at least 2002. The USCG remains adamant in its position, however, that all of Newtown Creek is a “SMIA” or Significant Maritime Infrastructure Area and all of its bridges must be maintained and be “moveable” on the waterway.
This brings up the questionable status of the MTA’s rail swing bridge “DB Cabin” on the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, but that’s another story.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last time I checked the numbers, Grand Street Bridge carried just under ten thousand vehicle trips a day. That was in 2011, it should be mentioned, and supposedly only 7% of that traffic was defined by DOT as being “trucks.” As always, you need to learn how to speak “government” when reading things like that. They mean heavy tonnage trucks – garbage, semis, tankers – not box trucks, pickups, or delivery vans which everybody else would call “trucks.” A significant causality of traffic congestion in both Maspeth and East Williamsburg/Bushwick, the Grand Street Bridge is structurally far too narrow for modern day needs.
Modern needs include accomodating the traffic generated by the MTA’s gargantuan Grand Ave Bus Depot & Central Maintenance Facility, which is found on the Maspeth side of the bridge. The entire bus company unit serving Brooklyn crosses this bridge at least once a week for cleaning, inspection, and maintenance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One such as myself always has his ear to the ground, or is probing away at the elected or appointed lords of the local vicinity in hope of gleaning some knowledge of their secretive plans for us all. The general impression gathered is that were there money available right now to replace the Grand Street Bridge with a newer model, construction would begin forthwith.
I’ll be sorry to see the old girl go when they find the cash, as the Grand Street Bridge is one of my favorite bridges found along the lugubrious Newtown Creek. At any rate, Happy Birthday, old lady.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
declared studies
When you live on an archipelago, you see a lot of bridges.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned recently, a humble narrator has been trying to make some sense of the photographic archives which he’s been assembling for the last decade or so. Separating wheat from chaff, as it were. Something which has been noticed is that my eye is continually drawn to the “night shots” of the infrastructure which the municipal leaders of the past erected around our great urban hive. Pictured above is mighty Queensborough, as seen from LIC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Certain points of view in my archive don’t exist anymore, or have been removed from public accessibility by the ravenous appetites of the Real Estate Industrial Complex. The former is the case with this shot of the East River/Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges at night, which was gathered from a landing at a former South Street Seaport structure. That landing was demolished along with the rest of the building, and has been replaced by yet another glass box which will – when opened – restrict the view to those who can afford the price of admission.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Kosciuszcko Bridge replacement project has been a particular pleasure to photograph, and no moment brought me more excitement than the lowering of the central span of its 1939 iteration. What a show, man.
A recent bout of Flu has left a humble narrator a bit worse for wear, and short on new content this week. Accordingly, shots from the archives have been pulled and will be presented thusly, as this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
when during
People walk around like they’re safe or something…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the childhood aphorisms which one carries about with him is the use of the word “accidentals” to describe traffic collisions. It’s taken me nearly half a century to control the urge to call tree rodents “Skwerlows,” as a note. Pictured above is a rare sight, an NYPD cruiser – throughly demolished – on the streets of Astoria. The shot is from 2012, and the story as it was transmitted to me involved the coppers responding to a call at high speed. They encountered one of those sudden elevations in the street which caused them to lose control of the car in a shower of sparks, whereupon they took out two parked cars and a tree in addition to a few street signs. The commander of the 114th pct., at the time, assured me his cops recovered from injuries they sustained during the crash.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Jackson Avenue in LIC is a heavily travelled road, and accordingly has a higher than average statistical number of “accidentals” than other streets. The odd sight pictured above was noticed and recorded in 2014 whilst a humble narrator was scuttling to or from the noisome Newtown Creek on some sunny day. The physics of what occurred here mystify one such as myself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The “Carridor” is what I call Northern Blvd. Tens of thousands of vehicle trips a day carry west and eastbound traffic through Western Queens on their way to and from Manhattan via the Queensborough Bridge. Sometimes I like to just stand there to watch and wonder, since unlike me, all these drivers have someplace to go.
A recent bout of Flu has left a humble narrator a bit worse for wear, and short on new content this week. Accordingly, shots from the archives have been pulled and will be presented thusly, as this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
in researches
A cholesterol festival.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Astoria has a reputation for being home to some of the best restaurants in NYC, which is something that I honestly cannot say that I agree with. There’s a few gems, just like in every neighborhood, but… “best?” Also, on the side of Astoria I live on, we ain’t got that many Greeks. People hailing from the former Yugoslavia actually seem to be the largest single “group” hereabouts, at least in my experience. Saying that, the population is so heterogenous that it’s hard to point at any one group that dominates, until you start looking at “racial” populations (Black, White, Latino etc.). Even then, things are pretty evenly distributed around here.
That’s actually pretty good news, as far as the restaurant thing goes, as there’s usually something new to try. I will always, however, regret trying the Bosnian Chicken Soup at some joint on 30th avenue which would have never be considered one of the City’s “best” we’re it still open. Feh… The dish above was served at a no longer extant operation called the Queens Kickshaw on Astoria’s Broadway nearby Steinway Street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is a Mediterranean lunch pie dealie, which was on offer at Sacs Pizzeria on Astoria’s Broadway. If you haven’t been, Sacs is highly recommended. The pie was basically spinach, feta, onions, and a few other hits of green veg baked in a pastry shell. They do “normal” pizza as well, and there’s a sit down side to the place where you can do a whole Italian meal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also on Astoria’s Broadway, and just down the block from Newtown Pentacle HQ is Muncan’s. This is an old school European smoked and cured meats shop, and they make all sorts of sausages, salamis, prociutto on site. They have a smoke house in the back yard of their shop and my practice is to be out drinking my coffee when they open the flues of the place in the morning. The bacon wind, as I refer to it, offers all the joy of smoked pork with zero cholesterol. Win!
A recent bout of Flu has left a humble narrator a bit worse for wear, and short on new content this week. Accordingly, shots from the archives have been pulled and will be presented thusly, as this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
other hand
Did a shave and a haircut ever actually cost “two bits,” also, what’s a “bit” worth in 2018 money?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in 2015, whilst bumming around the East River waterfront in LIC, one took a picture of a seaplane. That’s it, right up there. Difficult shot to pull off, this was, what with the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself hanging directly behind the venerable Empire State Building. The City really was shining that day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2017, I took a different photo, this time it was of a train. Specifically a Long Island Railroad train, crossing Borden Avenue in Long Island City and heading towards the Hunters Point Yard. This is one of my favorite spots in Queens, and a humble narrator will often be spotted while grievously squatting upon a pedestrian bridge over the track. Look for a corpulent vulture like thing with a camera, that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here in Astoria, this 1957 Pontiac Star-Chief was noticed and photographed on a lovely afternoon in 2013.
A recent bout of Flu has left a humble narrator a bit worse for wear, and short on new content this week. Accordingly, shots from the archives have been pulled and will be presented thusly, as this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 