See these majestic granite eagles? They adorn what was then known as the First Avenue overpass, built in 1912 as part of Brooklyn’s Shore Parkway.
The overpass was torn down in 1941 to construct the Belt Parkway. And luckily, the eagles didn’t end up in landfill.
They were repurposed and moved to the Central Park Zoo, where they still stand, now proudly guarding the Sea Lion Pool.
“The provenance of the eagles was largely unknown until researchers working with the Parks Department Photo Archive uncovered photographic evidence of the eagles in their original spot,” writes nycgovparks.org.
“And the Parks Monuments division discovered a cryptic journal entry from 1941 that noted an unnamed administrator directed the Monuments division to install the eagles at the zoo.”
[Bridge photo: nycparksgov.org; eagle photo: centralpark2000.com]
Tags: Bay Ridge street, Belt Parkway, Central Park Zoo eagles, First Street Overpass, New York statues, Shore Parkway
Ephemeral New York 
April 10, 2012 at 4:20 pm |
Are those the Bush Terminal Buildings in the background of the older photo?
April 10, 2012 at 5:17 pm |
Good eye. It looks like them, but the parks department info about the bridge says it was in Bay Ridge, and the Bush Terminal Buildings are pretty clearly within the borders of Sunset Park. But maybe the boundary between neighborhoods was blurrier years ago?
April 10, 2012 at 8:20 pm |
Seems like it should be the 1st AVENUE Overpass. Looks like it is SW of the Army Terminal.
April 10, 2012 at 8:22 pm |
Thanks, that makes more sense. I mislabeled it but will fix.
April 11, 2012 at 12:47 pm |
I am wondering: are those the freight line tracks in the photo? Did the trains go over that overpass?
April 19, 2012 at 7:34 pm |
Go to this site and scroll down to Owl’s Head Park – there are two aerial photos – looks like the bridge may have connected to something that had gone across the rail yards at one time. It is a dead end in the 30’s.
http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/before-they-were-parks/brooklyn
August 22, 2012 at 4:53 pm |
Any idea where more photos of the bridge can be found?
July 30, 2012 at 9:11 pm |
[…] further about that bridge, I was directed to an Ephemeral New York listing that discussed […]