It predates the George Washington Bridge by 43 years and has a simple beauty all its own.
Still, the tiny Washington Bridge—connecting 181st Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights to University Avenue in the Bronx—is like a neglected kid brother to the enormous and iconic GWB.
This is the Washington Bridge circa 1907. The Harlem River looks like a country brook. The “Speedway” referred to in the postcard was the Harlem River Speedway, a three-mile road for racing horses and carriages. It eventually became today’s Harlem River Drive.
Here’s another view of the Speedway.
Tags: bridges over the Harlem River, George Washington Bridge, GWB, Harlem River Drive, Harlem River Speedway, University Avenue Bronx, Washington Bridge, Washington Heights
Ephemeral New York 
July 7, 2009 at 6:42 pm |
I have a picture of my father that was taken in 1942 with the Washington Bridge in the background, he was home from Air Cadet Training from the Army Aircorps WW2. He live on W187St. NYC. He was a Lt. in the 8th Army Aircorps. Very cool to find out where exactly it was taken.
August 15, 2009 at 3:30 pm |
[…] passed under the Washington Bridge, (known as “the other” Washington Bridge,) then the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and finally the High Bridge, a pedestrian crossing that is New […]
May 12, 2011 at 3:07 am |
[…] of all, New York City already had a Washington Bridge, a smaller span over the Harlem River connecting Washington Heights to the […]
August 1, 2011 at 5:09 am |
[…] the landscape of today’s Washington Heights and Inwood. In this 1913 painting, he gives the Washington Bridge linking Manhattan and the Bronx at 181st Street a dramatic and romantic moonlit […]