54TH STREET BRIDGE, TURTLE BAY

by Kevin Walsh

As Forgotten NY readers know I am an infrastructure buff and FNY is at its heart an infrastructure blog, so when something like a new pedestrian bridge opens, I’m usually on the scene. Probably the biggest such bridge to open in recent years is the New Kosciusko Bridge, which opened in two parts, the first auto-only bridge in 2017 and the span with the pedestrian-bicycle walk in 2019.

Thus, when the new East River Greenway opened in late 2023 I showed up soon after Thanksgiving, shortly after it opened, and duly shot several photos. Sergey requested to do a piece, using some of my photos, and that item appeared in late December.

However, I thought Sergey didn’t spend enough time on what I think is the Greenway’s piece de resistance, a new pedestrian arch bridge spanning the FDR Drive. Here’s an article in ENR New York from 2021 (sorry if it’s paywalled from you) explaining the engineering behind the. bridge and the Greenway. It’s still young enough to be gleaming chrome and white in color, with the streamlined lampposts so in vogue today: LEDs with no reflector bowls, of course.

I’m calling it the 54th Street Bridge, until the City Council gets around to naming it for a politician or local luminary.

The bridge is similar in design to the Denny Farrell Bridge spanning the Henry Hudson Parkway, way uptown.

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4/29/24

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