EXPRESSWAY WALKWAY POSTS

by Kevin Walsh

I haven’t devoted a page exclusively to a specific variety of lamp that was installed exclusively on pedestrian walkways that spanned expressways built in the 1950s; this variety, sort of a very simplified Bishop Crook, I have noted on such walkways that bridge the Long Island Expressway, Clearview Expressway in Bayside (seen here) and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Carroll Gardens. I can also point to a few on pedestrian bridges located in Tudor City (on two occasions I have shot a number of photos there but haven’t figured out a context for them; eventually I will present them in some way. Currently all such lamps use Holophane “bucket” lights that shine bright yellow, installed mostly in the 1980s.

Sadly, a few of these lamps that still sported their original Westinghouse “cuplights” that found their way to most NYC lampposts in the 1950s have been removed. This one lit a unique walkway that carried pedestrians beneath the Long Island Rail Road just south of 39th Avenue in Bayside. A pedestrian walkway just south of it, spanning the Clearview, was left in place. I imagine the walkway was deteriorating and the DOT likely thoughit it wasn’t sufficiently patronized to repair.

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3/11/23

1 comment

Anonymous March 11, 2023 - 2:52 pm

I used to live down the street from the equestrian walkway over the Clearview Expressway…which stood, virtually abandoned from it’s first day… Cunningham Park to Hollis Hills Boulevard….

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