All posts tagged: High Bridge

It’s Official!

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So, it’s official!  The High Bridge will in in fact be restored and reopened. On Friday, January 11th, Mayor Bloomberg along with city officials, such as my Congressman Jose Serrano, gathered at the Highbridge Park’s Bronx entrance to the span to announce the groundbreaking of this historic crossing.  According to DNAinfo.com, the $61 million dollar project is expected to be completed in 2014. This past Saturday evening, I photographed the span from the Harlem River Speedway and it was clear that the restoration work had begun. On a very sad note, however, only a few days after the mayor’s announcement an engineer working on the bridge fell and died.  The cause of his fall is still under investigation.

A Bird’s Eye View above the Harlem River

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Here’s a fantastic new find!  It’s a wonderful illustrated view of the Harlem River reportedly from Fort George, which was the site of a popular amusement park that bore its name.  Beginning in the foreground is the Washington Bridge and then, continuing south is the High Bridge, followed by what I believe is the no-longer extant Putnam Bridge, and ending with the distant Macombs Dam Bridge.  King’s View of New York was one of several popular guidebooks by editor and publisher, Moses King, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This image was reprinted in color and sold as postcards too!

The City Concealed: High Bridge

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Here’s a wonderful brief video produced by PBS’ online video series – The City Concealed – that focuses on the High Bridge, the oldest existing bridge in New York City. Restoration work was supposed to have begun by now, but from what I can see during my recent visits there no work has yet started.

William Henry Jackson

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In my extensive research of the Harlem River, I have learned a lot about its role in the political, economic, and social history of New York City. At the same time, I’ve also made a concerted effort to learn about its artistic history (not surprisingly). How have artists – both past and present – tried to represent this part of of the city? As a photographer, it’s surprising that I hadn’t thought to explore how past photographers (in particular those from the late 19th and early 20th centuries) answered this question. Until this epiphany, I had focused solely on painters, illustrators, sketch artists, and others of which there are many. I’ll write more about this in a future post. Photography, however, was added into the mix after I stumbled upon this remarkable photograph – High Bridge and Washington Bridge (1890) by William Henry Jackson – online. Romantic and grand, this image by Jackson is a gem. All that I know about Jackson so far is from what I found on Wikipedia, so I’m curious to …