Five bridges cross the East River connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn or Queens. Yet there’s only one bridge crossing the Hudson.
More would have been built if certain plans panned out. Like those for a suspension bridge linking 23rd Street to Hoboken.
Designed in 1887 by Gustav Lindenthal, who helped build the Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Queensboro Bridges, it would have been twice as long as the Brooklyn Bridge.
The plans fell apart when funding never materialized.
In the 1920s, Lindenthal had a new idea: a 57th Street Bridge.
This one also died. Instead, a bridge connecting 181st Street to Fort Lee went forward, opening in 1931. (The GWB of course, above and below)
Next up in 1954 was the proposed 125th Street Bridge, a double-deck suspension bridge spanning the Hudson.
That plan was shelved too. The Port Authority had so many projects cooking then, like the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, they lacked the cash.
Tags: 125th Street Bridge, Bridges over the East River, bridges over the Hudson River, George Washington Birdge being built, George Washington Bridge opening, Gustav Lindenthal, NYC bridges never built, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
Ephemeral New York 
December 23, 2010 at 12:37 pm |
Speaking of the bridge linking Hoboken to 23rd Street – here is the link to Weird NJ showing the proposed design and the corner stone.
http://books.google.com/books?id=J6TxcT7N9RgC&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=weird+nj+bridge+hoboken&source=bl&ots=ttlO0hXRSl&sig=pUxhGGnuuYdDMgEMPCUI8d6BDqw&hl=en&ei=NkITTYi9EMP98AabnOHKDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
December 23, 2010 at 2:54 pm |
That’s cool, thanks for sending. Quite a massive structure!
December 28, 2010 at 9:23 pm |
[…] of taking the underground route, maybe the city should take a look back at what could have been! Ephemeral New York has some insight into the bridges that were suppose to connect NYC to it’s neighboring […]
January 16, 2011 at 1:13 pm |
[…] This description is good as far as it goes, which isn’t very far. Gustav Lindenthal, despite being a successful bridge designer, spent decades redesigning a railroad suspension bridge for the Hudson River. His version was never built, but his promotion of a Hudson River bridge is one of the origins of the George Washington Bridge, which unfortunately does not carry rail. […]
April 27, 2011 at 2:07 am |
[…] the fantasy category are the Hudson River bridges proposed in the 1880s and then the 1950s for 23rd Street and 125th […]
June 15, 2012 at 5:44 am |
NY/NJ needs a new bridge to midtown!!!
June 12, 2014 at 4:38 am |
[…] The Arcade Railway is just one of many ill-conceived mass transit-related ideas that didn’t materialize, like these bridges never built. […]
June 21, 2015 at 8:57 am |
Imagine if no bridges over the Hudson had ever been built, all crossing for pedestrains and land transport being tunnels. Bridges are a highly visible land link between the banks of the river, while tunnels aren’t noticable.
June 2, 2016 at 6:36 am |
[…] York is a bridge proposal graveyard, as these images of other bridges never built […]