I have always been fascinated by the massive masonry arches (that cover a steel framework) that pop up around town. Probably the greatest concentration is in Astoria, where a series of arches span side streets and carry Amtrak tracks on the Hell Gate Bridge approach. Others can be found supporting the Grand Concourse over East 175th Street in the Bronx.
The Manhattan Bridge has a set of masonry arches on both the Brooklyn and Manhattan ends. One spans Water Street at Pearl Street in DUMBO, and there’s this one, at Cherry and Pike Streets at the Lower East Side. The arch is tall enough to allow a full size lamppost to illuminate the underside of the arch.
City planners and developers haven’t been kind to Cherry Street, or any of its parallel streets on the Lower East Side. Named for a long-vanished cherry orchard, it once ran continuously from Pearl and Dover Streets to the East River at Corlears Hook, and when the U.S. Capitol was in NYC from 1785-1790, George Washington resided at a mansion at #3 Cherry Street. Today, the street has been cut back from Catherine to Montgomery Streets and a short piece from Jackson Street to the FDR Drive, with the Al Smith and Vladeck Houses occupying its former route.
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6/20/24