THE grand Manhattan Bridge plaza, which fronts the Bowery at Canal Street, was completed in 1916 and is the design of John M. Carrere and Thomas Hastings, who also built the New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street. They looked to two classic European monuments for inspiration: The Porte St-Denis in Paris (the arch) and the Giovanni Bernini Colonnade at St. Peter’s Church in Vatican City.
The Porte St-Denis and Porte St-Martin in Paris are triumphal arches that celebrate military victories by “the Sun King”, Louis XIV (note the words ‘Ludovico Magno’ atop the arch). The St-Denis arch was completed in 1674 by sculptor Nicolas François Blondel. Bas-reliefs on the top and sides commemorate war campaigns and victories. Both arches greatly influenced the later Arc de Triomphe in Paris and the Manhattan Bridge arch, which as you can see is a close homage.
The arch made a spectacular appearance until 1955 at the Third Avenue El Canal Street station.
Until the mid-1990s or so, the approach roads to the bridge surrounding the arch served as a kind of NYC lamppost museum, or lamppost graveyard if you wanted to look at it that way. In the title photo we see a Type 24-W Bishop Crook along the Bowery.
Even a few years into the Forgotten NY era after 1999, a couple of original 1950s octa-pole curved mast lamps, with their original SLECO incandescent “cuplight” fixtures remained in place.
A lone dayburning Type F , sporting a 1930s-era “gumball” hald fast until the mid-1990s.
Even in the triumphal arch you could find lamp sconces that supported a number of different fixtures over the years; here, they carry another Gumball fixture.
Between 1965 and 2001 the Manhattan Bridge walkways, on both sides of the bridge, were closed to the public. Indeed, as I was riding past in a BMT train I noted that the walkways had disappeared leaving just the metal framework.
The walkways were lit with the help of these fanciful sconces that echo the Manhattan Bridge architecture. Here one carries a Wheeler “crescent moon” under which was an incandsecent bulb. Beginning in the 1950s, the Crescents lit NYC side streets by the hundreds and they were almost adaptable as the “cups” as they were employed on telephone pole masts, octagonal poles, and Type G castirons. No doubt these sconces carried a number of fixtures, with the Crescents being the last.
In 2001 the walkways reopened with new lighting and fencing. Alas, all these sconces had been removed; I wish they could have retained them and added new retro Bell fixtures, but not to be.
Photos: Robert Mulero
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1/9/24
7 comments
They probably got the idea to close the walkway on the Manhattan bridge from that 50s
movie of the woman who tries to jump off it but the man prevents it and they go home
The year was 1948, “movie” was “Naked City; the bridge was the Williamsburg Bridge, not the Manhattan Bridge; scroll down for more information:
https://www.scoutingny.com/the-filming-locations-of-the-naked-city-1940s-nyc-vs-today-part-1/
There was a time when the arch was dismantled and removed. There was a plan to build a below ground freeway connection the upper level of the Manhattan Bridge with the Holland Tunnel. The only problem was the
original canal beneath Canal St. was still there. No one could determine the source of the water, and the canal couldn’t be drained. Admitting defeat the plan was dropped and the arch was was restored. The last time I was on the Manhattan Bridge there were traces of the proposed roadway still on the Bridge, near The Bowery.
Here’s another one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1643885453/manhattan-bridge-loop-edward-hopper-1928?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_a-art_and_collectibles-painting-oil&utm_custom1=_k_EAIaIQobChMI3cHozu_TgwMV_15HAR2oIQ9NEAQYBSABEgKT__D_BwE_k_&utm_content=go_1844702580_70388664635_346397695855_pla-353975737909_c__1643885453_5314483939&utm_custom2=1844702580&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3cHozu_TgwMV_15HAR2oIQ9NEAQYBSABEgKT__D_BwE
Gee,I wonder what became of those sconces after they were removed
Nah,I’m afraid not,RedStateRefugee.I know Naked City.That movie involved a man.The movie
I’m talking about centered around a woman.I also know what the Manhattan bridge looks like
having played a lot in that area as a kid.
Speaking of bridges and Naked City, I remember an episode where someone jumps or tries to jump off one of the Harlem River bridges, maybe Macombs Dam.