Robert Moses Stopped

Robert Moses built almost all of the highways and bridges that circumnavigate the City of New York as well as many of the access roads into the city. There is much controversy around many of those roads due to neighborhoods being blighted, lack of sympathy for the residents of those neighborhoods, and disregard for the environment. While most people did not have the power or political clout to stop Moses from building a highway through their neighborhoods, there are a few that did get stopped or the course altered from the original design. The highways that did not get built are the Brooklyn Battery Bridge and two crosstown expressways he proposed in Manhattan. The neighborhood association of Brooklyn Heights was able to prevent Moses from building the Brooklyn Queens Expressway directly through their neighborhood.

The Harbor Crossing

Looking out from Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan, there are sweeping views of New York Harbor. From just about anywhere in the park close to the waterfront, one can see the Statue of Liberty and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Barges, ferries, and pleasure boats criss cross the water. There is also the view of Jersey City on the west side of the Hudson River and the port of Bayonne, New Jersey out almost on the horizon. The cranes at the port remind you of the endless commerce that comes through there on the way to all points across the country, including New York City. Ellis Island also looms out on the harbor, reminding us, along with the Statue of Liberty, of the beckoning call that New York Harbor had for so many immigrants to the United States as they begun a new life. The borough of Brooklyn with much of its industrial past still in tact along the shoreline of Red Hook is to the east where the East River meets the harbor. The view of the harbor never ceases to amaze and it is ever changing.

Now imagine those views being interrupted by a long almost 100 foot high bridge crossing the harbor from Brooklyn to the western side of Manhattan. In the late 1930’s there was just such a discussion to build a bridge across the harbor rather than a tunnel, for which the city had already drawn up plans. The proposal for a bridge came from the man who is considered the master builder of New York as we know it today, Robert Moses.

Moses’ proposal would have placed one of the concrete towers for the bridge right in the middle of Battery Park and another one likely on Governors Island. A support pillar would also have been placed directly in front of Castle Clinton, blocking the majesty of the old fort that once served as the immigration control center for New York and is a now a National Park Monument that also houses ticket offices for the ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. And, there would certainly have been concrete supports for the bridge in the water blocking the joy of gazing out across the harbor. Cars and trucks would have been soaring above the park, constantly interrupting the serenity of the park and blocking much of the gentle breeze that consistently flows across it, even in the summer. Additionally, approach roads with their serpentine like arcs flowing down to the highways on either side of Manhattan would have further interrupted the green space of the park.

Several prominent figures of the time lobbied against the proposal for the bridge. The city government had already drawn up plans for a tunnel, as the harbor crossing was a vital link in the completion of the circumferential highway system circling New York City. The problem was that the city government did not have the money to complete the tunnel along with all the connecting roads. The Triborough Authority, which was solely under the control of Robert Moses, did have the money. Moses, however, according to Robert Caro, didn’t like building tunnels because he felt that bridges are one of the most beautiful structures man can build and they also served as a monument to him.

The lobbying against the bridge was eventually unsuccessful; it wasn’t until some prominent businessmen of the time contacted President Franklin Roosevelt to ask the War Department to intervene about whether a bridge or a tunnel would be better for shipping navigation. Ultimately, the War Department stated that a tunnel would be less disruptive, citing that having such a massive bridge seaward of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, located a few miles up the East River, would be a prime target for enemy attacks. The department also noted that fog could impact the flow of traffic going across the bridge. With that notice, the city was able to secure the funds, with help from the federal government, to build the tunnel. The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, now the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, officially opened on May 25, 1950 and at 9,117 feet is the longest continuous underwater tunnel in North America. A ventilation shaft for the tunnel sits on the southern end of Governors Island, most likely where one of the bridge pillars would have been built. But, the ventilation shaft does not distract from the view of the island or the harbor.

Brooklyn Heights Promenade

When the Brooklyn Queens Expressway was built in the 1940’s and 1950’s, Robert Moses basically drew a straight line through Brooklyn and Queens to ultimately connect the Triborough Bridge to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The path of the new highway cut straight through neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Red Hook, and Brooklyn Heights. Williamsburg and Red Hook were working class neighborhoods built around the industry that lined the waterfront. The residents of those neighborhoods were not able to stop Moses from building his highway through them, though they tried. The residents of Brooklyn Heights, however, were considerably more affluent as the neighborhood is one of the oldest in the city and where wealthy merchants had built large elegant homes. Brooklyn Heights was the first official suburb in America, following the launch of the Fulton Ferry connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan in 1814.

In order to build his highways, Robert Moses had to clear a massive amount of buildings and relocate large numbers of residents. The residents of Brooklyn Heights were able to successfully lobby for the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to be rerouted to prevent it from slicing through their neighborhood. For the residents of Williamsburg and Red Hook, it meant that a large swath of buildings, both residential and commercial, were destroyed and the neighborhoods were forever changed.

To accommodate the highway getting across Brooklyn Heights, Moses agreed to build the road into the cliff that rises 85 feet above the East River, for which the neighborhood is named. He did this by building a steel triple cantilevered deck with one level for the southbound lanes, one level for the northbound and southbound lanes, and the top level for a promenade. For the residents of Brooklyn Heights, they now had a magnificent place to walk and gaze across the river to Lower Manhattan, a view that before was only visible from the ends of the streets that led down to the bluff.

To this day, Brooklyn Heights remains one of the most desirable and wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. The Brooklyn Heights promenade, being so close to the Brooklyn Bridge, is also still a a popular place to visit for the excellent views of Lower Manhattan and the harbor.

Cross Manhattan Expressways

Moses proposed building two highways across Manhattan: the Lower Manhattan Expressway, connecting the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges to the Holland Tunnel, and the Mid-Manhattan Expressway, connecting the Queens-Midtown Tunnel to the Lincoln Tunnel. The Mid-Manhattan Expressway would also have had connecting ramps to the West Side Highway (12th Avenue) on the west side and to the FDR drive on the east side.

The Lower Manhattan Expressway would have run along Broome Street and Canal Streets through the neighborhoods of SoHo and Little Italy. It would have cut through Washington Square Park, which terminates the southern end of 5th Avenue. Until 1958, traffic on 5th Avenue went through the park. One of Moses’ early ideas was to redesign the road so that it went around the park, which would have reduced the size of the park on each side. When he proposed the Lower Manhattan Expressway in the 1950s, his plan was to trench it through the park along with the expressway being elevated just south of the park.

In the 1960s, these neighborhoods were vastly different than they are now. Both were deemed slums as part of the slum clearance ordinance as part of the Housing Act of 1949. Little Italy was mostly tenement apartment buildings. SoHo was full of abandoned light manufacturing buildings and sweatshops. But, the buildings in SoHo also had something that artists craved: vast, open spaces. Artists of all kinds were starting to move into area beginning in the late 1950s, buying space in the abandoned buildings for cheap. The proposed highway would have decimated Little Italy and leveled the iconic 19th century cast-iron architecture of many the buildings in SoHo.

Jane Jacobs was a writer who lived, at the time, in a house on Hudson Street. She admits that the house could have, in some respects, been considered a slum. But, she and her husband, an architect, spent considerable time and money renovating the place. She writes about the camaraderie and the vitality of the neighborhood that took place mostly on the sidewalks. The proposed expressway would have gone right past Hudson Street, very close to her home.

Jacobs became a community activist opposing the proposed highway, partly because she could wrote well and was articulate. Jacobs ultimately was asked to chair the Joint Commission to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which recruited prominent figures of the day, including Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Mid-Manhattan Expressway would have mostly been an elevated highway running along 30th Street and would have required the demolition of a number of existing office buildings. The proposal would have allowed for buildings to be constructed above and below the highway by selling air rights.

Both highways were proposed to solve the ever increasing problem of car traffic in the city. They were both favored by several mayors and were ultimately permanently shelved by Mayor Nelson Rockefeller.

Credits:
Caro, Robert: The Power Broker, Robert Moses and The Fall of New York

Jacobs, Jane: The Death and Life of Great American Cities