Third Avenue Bridge
Third Avenue Bridge, 1907
Then
In March 1790, Lewis Morris was given permission to build a drawbridge over the Harlem River. In March 1795, he transfered his charter to John B. Coles. The Coles Bridge, a wooden structure with a turntable draw span, was opened in 1797. On April 1, 1858, ownership of the bridge passed from the Coles family to the state; it was by then in a state of disrepair. Its replacement, the Harlem Bridge, was opened for public use on October 16, 1868. The bridge included a 218 foot long swing span that operated under the force of water supplied by a Croton water main.
In disrepair, the Harlem Bridge was closed on June 20, 1894, with traffic diverted to a temporary bridge while the new steam-powered Third Avenue Bridge was built. The swing span was 300 feet long and was designed by Thomas C. Clarke. It opened on August 1, 1898 and was the largest and heaviest bridge of its type in the world at the time. It carried two walkways and two sets of trolley tracks laid down by the Union Railway Company.
Third Avenue Bridge, 2010
Now
The trolley tracks remained in place until 1953 when the Third Avenue Elevated train line was demolished. The tracks were then converted into automobile lanes.
The bridge served the city well until the night of November 7, 1999, when a two alarm fire broke out on the wooden fender surrounding the swing span, closing the bridge for several days. In 2001, the city Department of Transportation, which now has jurisdiction over the bridge, began a $119 million reconstruction of the Third Avenue Bridge as part of a nearly $1 billion program to rehabilitate or replace all of the movable Harlem River Bridges. The new bridge, a swing span like all of its ancestors, was designed to visually mimic as closely as possible the span it replaced, albeit with more modern construction techniques and materials. It carries two sidewalks and five lanes of Manhattan-bound traffic. It opened in 2004. More information about the Third Avenue Bridge can be found at bridgesnyc.com.