Right before the Manhattan-side entrance to the circa-1909 Queensboro Bridge is this beautiful bronze lamppost.
On its base is a sweet touch: the names of four boroughs (sorry Staten Island) carved into it, symbolizing the recently united city.
The lamppost no longer lights the way, but that’s okay.
Just the fact that it managed to survive more than a century is a significant achievement.
Here it is in a NYPL photo, left, dated 1910-1920.
It used to have a twin on the other side of the bridge entrance. That lamppost vanished in the 1970s, but no one knew what had happened to it (theft? Moved to make way for the Roosevelt Island Tram?)—until it was found in a Department of Transportation signal yard in Queens last year.
The Roosevelt Island Historical Society plans to restore it and display it there, next to a renovated trolley kiosk once part of the bridge.
Tags: 59th Street Bridge Lamppost, Antique lamppost New York City, building Queensboro Bridge, missing lamppost Queensboro Bridge, Old relics New York City, Queensboro Bridge 1910, Queensboro Bridge lamppost, Roosevelt Island Historical Society
Ephemeral New York 
January 10, 2013 at 5:02 pm |
i believe the lip on the south side of the bridge is the old trolley path? it runs one way, from manhattan to queens, but behind you as you get on it, it descends into what then would have been the trolley station.
“until it was found in a Department of Transportation signal yard in Queens last year.”
hiding in plain sight!
January 6, 2014 at 6:48 am |
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March 18, 2019 at 1:49 am |
Would you believe these lampposts were UPSIDE DOWN for many years? The lamp holders, that is. Not the pillars that supported them.