What’s in a name? Plenty, especially among certain factions of New Yorkers at the turn of the last century.
That’s when the city began building a great bridge that would link Manhattan to Queens. City officials planned to name it the Blackwell’s Island Bridge, after the spit of land (now Roosevelt Island) it would skip over in the East River.
But real estate bigwigs from Manhattan and Queens objected; they felt the name had bad connotations. Blackwell’s Island at the time was infamous for its poorhouse and prison.
The real estate guys were afraid New Yorkers would shy away from the bridge—and their neighborhoods—to avoid the unsavory assocation.
On the other hand, many Irish residents were opposed to the Queensboro name because they felt it sounded too British.
The leader of one Irish group even suggested calling it the Montauk Bridge, thinking it had a more American ring to it.
In the end, Queensboro was selected as the official name before the bridge opened in 1909. And it’s stuck ever since.
Tags: Blackwell's Island Bridge, East River bridges, Great bridges of New York City, New York City in 1909, New York in 1900, old postcards of New York City, Queensboro Bridge
Ephemeral New York 
May 8, 2010 at 7:33 pm |
in manhattan tho’ it’s known as the 59th street bridge. not official perhaps, but that’s the name i grew up hearing [/manhattan chauvinist 🙂 ]
May 9, 2010 at 12:31 am |
And what you call the bridge if you grew up hearing that Simon and Garfunkel song….
May 9, 2010 at 1:33 am |
This topic is making me feel groovy
May 10, 2010 at 1:09 pm |
There’s another bridge with a bit of a naming controversy. The Triboro Bridge is now called the RFK Bridge.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/triborough-bridge-is-renamed-for-rfk/
May 10, 2010 at 5:08 pm |
I grew up in Queens and we called it the 59th Street bridge. So did Simon & Garfunkle and they also grew up in Queens. I’m feeling groovy!
May 11, 2010 at 3:26 pm |
my officemate is from kew gardens and he also calls it the 59th street bridge.
May 10, 2010 at 5:36 pm |
[…] the Queensboro Bridge (aka 59th Street Bridge) opened in 1909, City officials actually had another name in mind for the span. Blackwell’s Island Bridge [Ephemeral […]
May 11, 2010 at 2:24 pm |
It had a bad association with Blackwells Island, a place that housed an insane asylum. Hence Queensboro, a generic name if there ever was one. Calling it the 59th Street street is accurate only to the tastes of Manhattan centric people.
May 24, 2010 at 4:18 pm |
I grew up in Queens and alternately called it the Queensboro or the 59th Street, depending on where I was going or coming from (and also which popped into my mind first-it was almost like a slot machine). And, Paul, I certainly wouldn’t refer to myself or my family as Manhattan centric.
December 27, 2011 at 4:35 pm |
Regrettably, it has been renamed the Edward I. Koch bridge. Mayor Koch had no particular connection whatsoever to Queens.
June 25, 2012 at 5:01 am |
[…] alone (and recently fenced off) on a concrete island off Second Avenue and 60th Street, where the Queensboro Bridge approach […]
July 12, 2012 at 6:07 pm |
I’m a Queens native and I, and virtually everyone that I knew, always called it the 59th Street Bridge.
January 7, 2013 at 6:44 am |
[…] before the Manhattan-side entrance to the circa-1909 Queensboro Bridge is this beautiful bronze […]
June 2, 2013 at 3:15 am |
Not only was it ALWAYS called the 59th Street Bridge (except on signage) I remember the defunct trolley tracks that exited into an underground station at the Manhattan side.
November 16, 2015 at 6:27 am |
[…] was even a push to name it the Montauk Bridge (Queensboro sounded too British to some Irish New […]
June 2, 2016 at 6:36 am |
[…] Almost two decades after the Brooklyn Bridge opened, and only a few years since Brooklyn and Queens became part of greater New York City, plans for a bridge were drawn up again . . . resulting in the graceful cantilever span known as the Queensboro Bridge in 1909. […]
February 4, 2019 at 7:09 am |
[…] cantilever span itself is graceful and elegant, of course. But what sets the Queensboro apart might be the smaller design motifs and decoration the bridge architects insisted on before it […]
May 18, 2020 at 6:29 am |
[…] York, too, where he captured the congestion and manufacturing happening on the Queens side of the new Queensboro Bridge in “Tugboats in the East River, New […]