Tag: Infrastructure

Environment in New York

Being one of the largest cities in the U.S. since it was established, New York City owes its popularity to its large port. The city also benefits from the fact that it is not in an area of climate extremes (barring the occasional hurricane). However, throughout most of the city’s history, pollution and sanitation were major issues. While at one point New York was more polluted, the city has today literally and figuratively cleaned up its act.

As mentioned in a previous entry, sanitation was and is a major concern in New York, with the city creating over 10,000 tons of refuse every day. The bringing of water into town (also the subject of a previous entry) is important, as the city (or life) cannot be sustained without the billions of gallons of water that are piped into the city daily. In terms of emissions, air pollution has been on a downward trend for decades due to stringent federal, state, and local regulations, the purpose of which is supported by increasingly lower asthma rates among New Yorkers. As an added aside, a large portion of the city’s electricity comes from hydroelectric or nuclear power from facilities far outside of the city. Additionally, many structures in the city are built to be “green” to reduce pollution. Many older buildings (and famous landmarks such as the Empire State Building) are being updated with more environmentally-friendly fixtures.

Due to the low presence of heavy industry and a large reliance on public transportation, New Yorkers tend to emit a lower carbon footprint when compared to the denizens of most other American cities. This is helped by many taxicabs, city buses, and municipal vehicles (along with many environmentally conscious residents’ private vehicles) being powered by hybrid engines or low pollution vehicles. The city, under the auspices of the municipal Department of Environmental Protection, works to remediate pollution and other environmental concerns. Other areas, such as Newton Creek or Gowanus Creek (both in Brooklyn) are being returned to a more pristine state with state and federal assistance. While there are still ongoing environmental issues, New York City (despite some surface appearances) is a much cleaner city per capita compared to many across the country and world.

This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam walking tour, where guests can always experience good, clean fun.

Lincoln Tunnel

Linking Midtown Manhattan with Weehawken,NJ, the Lincoln Tunnel transports over 120,000 vehicles in one of the most important transportation links in the region and the country. Constructed between 1937 and 1957, the tunnel is actually made up of three separate tubes—all over 7,000 feet long. It gained its presidential name to put in on par with the then-recently completed George Washington Bridge up the Hudson River.

A major commission of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the governing body used their in-house engineer, Ole Singstad, as the chief of construction. When the initial tube opened, it was seen as a way to alleviate pressure on the Holland Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge. Due to high demand for the tunnel, two other tubes were completed by 1957. The tunnel was at one point going to form the western end of a planned expressway through Manhattan linking the Lincoln Tunnel with the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. While some renderings of this planned expressway had it going through the Empire State Building, the project was cancelled in the early 1970s.

Starting in the 1970s, the toll for using the tunnel began to be collected heading into New York City only. The tunnel is also famous for helping to transport commuter and intercity buses into the city and to Port Authority Bus Terminal with an exclusive bus lane (XBL) into the tunnel—bringing over 60,000 people into the city every weekday. This is they type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Triborough Bridge

Connecting Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens, the Triborough Bridge links these three boroughs and forms an important transportation link between Long Island, New England, New Jersey, and the city. The bridge was a marvel of engineering and led to the rise and fall of Robert Moses.

The three bridges come together on Wards and Randalls island. Built between 1929 and 1936, the bridge complex was designed by Othmar Amman connecting the island to Manhattan with a lift bridge, the Bronx with an arch-type bridge, and a suspension bridge connecting Queens. The project actually almost never happened until Robert Moses was placed in charge, getting the complex and politically charged bridge finally completed. You can read more about the Triborough Bridge on the Sights by Sam entry on Robert Moses.

In 2008, the bridge was renamed after assassinated New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The bridge typically handles over 160,000 cars every weekday. It is one of the most popular routes for motorists to get to LaGuardia Airport in Queens. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Port Authority Bus Terminal

On the west side of Midtown is one of the most important transportation centers in the city. The very aptly-named Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) is managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Its construction was meant to consolidate the various smaller bus terminals around the city into one unit, of which close to a dozen were believed to exist in the city limits at one point.

Constructed between 1950 and 1979, the PABT has 223 slips to allow large intercity buses to bring passengers into Manhattan. Many of these arrivals and departures are for New Jersey Transit commuter buses that bring thousands of commuters into the city from New Jersey. These commuter buses are bolstered by fleets of smaller buses (jitneys or vans) that help to bring in more people. Long distance buses from the East Coast and all over the country also call on PABT. During the morning, so many buses make their arrival into PABT, which is near the NY entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, that the buses have an exclusive lane from the New Jersey side that brings them directly to the terminal.

With the proliferation of Chinatown buses and other transportation providers operating (sometimes illegally) curbside bus pickup, the city’s Department of Transportation estimates that it would take at least four PABT-sized terminals to completely clear the streets of the city of intercity bus traffic. Although it has been talked about for some time, an immediate solution to crowding at PABT is still several years away. This is the type of information that you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Connecting the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge spans 13,700 total feet (with a main span of 4260 feet) and is one of the longest suspension bridges in the United States and in the world. The bridge is instrumental in connecting the two boroughs, forming a major transportation corridor between the mainland U.S. and Long Island, as well as leading to the development of Staten Island.

The bridge was completed in 1964 after five years of construction. It was designed by Othmar Ammann, who also designed the George Washington Bridge and the Bayonne Bridge, among others. The bridge gained its hyphenated name due to lobbying by Italian-American citizens to name the structure after famous explorer Giovanni da Verrazano, who discovered New York Harbor in 1524 and crossed through the Narrows with his ship. It sees nearly 200,000 vehicles crossing it per day and remains popular with truckers—who do not pay the toll that people traveling west on the bridge do as they leave the city via one of the Manhattan crossings into New Jersey.

The Verazzano-Narrows Bridge is indeed an engineering marvel. The towers of the bridge are not exactly parallel to each other as they had to account for the curvature of the Earth as the bridge was so long. Its construction helped lead to a population boom on Staten Island, from slightly over 220,000 in 1960 to nearly 475,000 today. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Queensboro Bridge

Built in 1909, the Queensboro Bridge (also called the 59th Street Bridge or the Ed Koch Bridge) spans the East River and connects Queens with Manhattan. The bridge was the third across the East River and designed by Gustav Lindenthal, with collaboration by Henry Hornbostel and Leffert Buck, who designed the Williamsburg Bridge. The Manhattan approach to the bridge has space under it done up in Guastavino tiling.

The Queensboro Bridge is over 3700 feet long and is distinctive as it is a cantilever bridge. It connects two formerly industrial areas—the East River frontage of Manhattan and Long Island City in Queens. The bridge also has anchorages on Roosevelt Island. Between 1930 and 1955, an elevator existed midway on the bridge to allow streetcar passengers to access Roosevelt Island (streetcars would stop midway on the bridge to pick up and drop off passengers who would then access the island this way). Like other bridges in New York, this bridge suffered from decay, but was restored between the late 1980s and 2000s. It was named after former Mayor of New York Ed Koch in 2010.

Today, over 170,000 vehicles use the nine lanes of traffic on this bridge to pass between the two boroughs daily. As there is no toll for this bridge, its traffic volume is considerable. It is believed (though unsubstantiated) that one of the first indoor baseball games took place under the Manhattan end of the bridge in the 1910s using the Queensboro Bridge as a “roof.”This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Madison Square Garden

The home of the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, and the site of countless events, Madison Square Garden (MSG) was opened in 1968 and is the oldest and busiest event center in the region. The arena, which can seat between 18,000 and 20,000, is the fourth to bear that name.

The first two incarnations of MSG sit where the New York Life Insurance Tower sit—at the northeast corner of Madison Square Park. Entrepreneur P.T. Barnum had a hand in building the first MSG, which stood from 1879 to 1890. It was demolished after it was deemed impractical (it had no roof) and replaced by a structure designed by McKim, Mead, and White, which was pattered off of the Cathedral of Seville in Spain. The Second MSG was noted for being the site of the murder of Stanford White, its designer, by Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw, due to a love triangle with Thaw’s wife, Evelyn Nesbit. The resultant legal trial would be dubbed the “Trial of the Century” and lead to Thaw being committed to a mental institution. This version of MSG was abandoned in 1925 as the arena was rebuilt on the West Side on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, and in use between 1925 and 1968. This MSG was built by New York Ranger’s owner Tex Rickard and was the site of many famous boxing matches. Un-memorably, the third MSG was the site of a pro-Nazi rally in 1939 that was held by the German-American Bund.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the current MSG was built as the result of the demolition of Penn Station. Being one of the oldest arenas in the NBA and NHL, this structure has been rehabilitated and renovated several times. Due to a desire by the city to rebuild Penn Station, it is entirely possible that MSG will be relocated within the next decade—likely to near the Jacob Javits Convention Center or to property currently owned by the U.S. Postal Service. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Robert Moses

Nowadays, the name Robert Moses conjures up displaced families, highway construction, the departure of he Brooklyn Dodgers, and even accusations of racism for some. Despite the negative associations that Moses brings up, Moses is also responsible for the Lincoln Center, World’s Fairs in Queens, and a number of bridges that help to connect the city.

Moses was born in Connecticut and moved to New York as a child with his family. He earned degrees from Yale, Oxford University, and Columbia University. With expertise in urban planning, he soon caught the attention of Al Smith, governor of New York. Moses worked as a planner for Smith and later his successor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in building parks projects throughout New York State—including Jones Beach in Long Island. Moses soon became associated with the city government, working on planning and construction projects around all five boroughs. He met with public approval as he worked to rehabilitate parks and playgrounds across the city in addition to building new crossings such as the Triborough Bridge. At his zenith of power, he held multiple chairmanships of important city and state commissions that were responsible for building infrastructure across the city. His chairmanship of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority helped give him access to capital to fund other infrastructure projects. Like former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, Moses had de-facto final say over many projects despite not being the leader of a political entity.

Moses’ reputation began to take a hit during World War II. A proposal for a massive suspension bridge from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan was shelved in favor of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Moses also favored massive clearance projects that demolished dilapidated tenements, but displaced hundreds of thousands of people all across the city. These were most evident in highway construction projects (the BQE and the Cross-Bronx Expressways were the two most notable). Moses earned the ire of New York residents, led by Jane Jacobs, over the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. This highway would have cut a massive swath through SoHo, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side. The project was eventually abandoned, leading to a wave of freeway revolts across the country. Moses is probably best remembered outside of the city for his battle with the Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley—which caused the team to decamp for Los Angeles.

Moses gradually lost power as public perception of him diminished. The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority was folded into the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. With the publication of The Power Broker by Robert Caro in 1974, his reputation lay in tatters. Despite this, his mark on the current city is undeniable. In addition to seeing several places directly connected with Robert Moses on a Sights by Sam tour, this is the type of information you will learn.

The Javits Center

New York is a year-round destination for not only tourists, but also conventioneers. With a storied history and landmarks in every corner, the city and region are also home to a large number of headquarters and home offices of companies and other organizations. To accommodate the high volume of conventioneers who want to come to the city, the Jacob K. Javits Center (Javits Center) was constructed to handle the great number of people who come to the city for everything from trade conventions to gatherings of TV show fans.

Completed in 1986, the convention center sits on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan. It is named after the longtime New York State senator who was born in the Lower East Side and lived in the northern reaches of Manhattan later in life. The Javits Center was built in this formerly industrial area by architect I.M. Pei’s firm. The Javits Center replaces the New York Colosseum, which was where the Time Warner Center now stands. The convention center has about 1.8 million square feet of exhibition space. The center has been expanded many times over its history, most recently in the first decade of the century. There are reports that it may be expanded agaIn. While the neighborhood around the Javits Center has long been an industrial area, it will soon be near the center of the new Hudson Yards development.

New York is one of the top convention destinations in the country, keeping pace with other popular destinations such as Chicago, Las Vegas, and New Orleans. Some of the most notable conventions in the country, such as New York Comic Con, take place at this facility. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Airports of the City

Airports have today replaced train stations as the gateways into the city.  Each year, millions of people stream into New York’s two airports: LaGuardia (LGA) and John F. Kennedy International (JFK), both located in Queens.  Additional travelers make their way into the city from Newark-Liberty International (EWR), close by in New Jersey.  All three make it into the top ten most used in the U.S., with JFK being the nation’s main international gateway.  All three airports are today managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

EWR, sitting just south of Newark, New Jersey, was the first airport constructed in the metro area in 1928.  It retained the title of the world’s busiest until 1939, when LGA was opened.  It was briefly used as a military base during World War II by the Army Air Force.  EWR was renamed Newark-Liberty International after the attacks of September 11, 2001.  In the mid 2000s, it was briefly the site for the world’s longest nonstop flight—a run by Singapore Airlines to Singapore that took between 18 and 19 hours.  This flight was phased out due to being unprofitable.

LGA  has a colorful history.  It was the site of an amusement park in its earliest stages, later becoming a civil airfield.  On the way back from a meeting of mayors in Chicago in the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia raised a tantrum on a flight terminating at Newark as he claimed his ticket was for New York and not New Jersey.  This flight was flown (with LaGuardia being the sole passenger) to the military field at Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn.  LaGuardia made getting a major airport built in New York as one of his primary objectives.  After he was unable to construct larger airports at Floyd Bennet Field and build an airport on Governor’s Island (both military areas), the civilian airfield in North Queens was expanded for commercial use.  This site was ultimately picked for its closeness to the World’s Fair site at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and that it could be linked up to Manhattan via the Triborough Bridge and Queens-Midtown Tunnel.  A favorable consideration was that flying boats (which was then how transoceanic flights flew) could land right in the Long Island Sound.  Due to his advocacy for the airport, the city’s Board of Estimate named the airport after LaGuardia, while he was still the sitting mayor, for his advocacy for the airport.  After being the busiest airport in the U.S. for a number of years, the airport was deemed too small in the 1940s.  To cope with increasing traffic, regulations were made that limited the size of commercial airliners and distance they could fly, much like Reagan-National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.  In 2015, the State of New York and the Port Authority announced an aggressive program to completely renovate the airport and build a new terminal.

Around the 1940s when LaGuardia was reaching capacity, the city quietly bought the Idlewild Golf Course in Jamaica, Queens, and began construction of a new airport.  In 1963, the New York International Airport was renamed after President Kennedy, who had been recently assassinated.  Traffic increased at JFK as flights were transferred there from LGA.  The jet age witnessed many extravagant air terminals constructed at JFK—such as the TWA Flight Center and a terminal designed by I.M. Pei for National Airlines, and a Pan-Am Airlines “worldport.”  The TWA Flight Center was saved from demolition, but preservationist efforts to save other terminals failed.  JFK was also the site of a robbery of over $21 million (in today’s value) of cash and jewelry from a Lufthansa Airlines warehouse in 1978.  The crime has never been solved and the goods never found.  Today, 70 airlines flying to every inhabited continent call on JFK.

Although the closest you’ll get to the airports on a Sights by Sam tour is seeing jetliners ascend or descend in the sky going to and from the airports, understanding the history of these facilities helps to gain a greater appreciation for the various systems that make New York function.  This is the type of information you will learn on one of my tours.