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Henry Hudson Bridge Celebrates 75th Birthday

By Carla Zanoni | December 11, 2011 10:14am | Updated on December 10, 2011 4:39pm

INWOOD — When the Henry Hudson Bridge was envisioned along with the parkway of the same name, the concern was helping motorists avoid the horses and railroad cars that clogged 11th Avenue.

On Monday, the MTA is celebrating 75 years since the first vehicle crossed the span, the northernmost in Manhattan, which connects Inwood and The Bronx.  

The $5 million bridge, which opened to vehicular traffic on Dec. 12, 1936, was built as part of then-City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses’ West Side improvement project. 

The urban planner “envisioned a parkway that would allow cars to drive from the Battery to the Bronx without getting caught in 11th Avenue’s jumble of railroad trains and horses,” according to the MTA. 

Aerial view of Henry Hudson Bridge.
Aerial view of Henry Hudson Bridge.
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MTA Bridges and Tunnels

The road to building the bridge was tough at first as Moses fought opposition from a group he called “parlor conservationists,” who objected removing a tulip tree in Inwood Hill Park in order to build the bridge’s parkway approach. A plaque commemorating the tulip tree now stands at the entrance of the natural forest in the park.  

Other opponents included drivers who fought the dime toll the bridge would charge, arguing that the span should be free like the nearby Broadway Bridge. 

To this day, drivers bypass the bridge to avoid the toll, now $5, favoring the Broadway Bridge instead as a path to The Bronx. 

The bridge, which features a scenic view of the Hudson River and the Palisades, received a second deck 18-months after it first opened in order to accommodate more traffic, according to the MTA. 

The agency is in the midst of a three-year, $33 million project to replace the original 1930s steel supports for the upper level roadway.

In 2010, the authority completed an $86 million rehabilitation project that included replacing the original Depression-era lower level, Manhattan-bound roadway, the entire North approach structure at the Bronx end of the bridge, and refurbishing the pedestrian walkway. 

An historical exhibit celebrating the bridge at the Riverdale Public Library will open in the Bronx on Monday, Dec. 12. The month-long show will include more than a dozen photographs from the MTA's Depression-era collection. 

“The Henry Hudson Bridge links two important New York City communities and we hope that our neighbors from both Manhattan and Bronx communities will visit the library and share this important milestone,” said William McCann, the bridge’s general manager.