Results tagged “manhattanbridge”

Yesterday, a truck hit a Chinatown business near the Manhattan Bridge—and it was the second time this year wireless store has been hit. The Post reports that a "runaway cement truck" which "apparently lost its [brakes] at about noon on Canal Street near the Manhattan Bridge, careen[ed] out of control along the busy street" and "sideswiped half a dozen cars -- including one filled with children -- and then crashed through the front of a wireless-phone store." (See this picture.) One witness said of the scared children, "They were very distraught. It was traumatic. The truck was bearing down on them. They were both crying." Ten people (no pedestrians) had minor injuries; no criminality was involved.

The Manhattan Bridge has been plagued with problems since it was constructed 100 years ago... and the ol' gal still isn't perfect after all this time. The NY Times reports that a $150 million project will soon be underway to replace all of the vertical suspension cables on the bridge, causing disruptions in weekend subway service (B, D, N and Q lines), closing the bikeway and even shutting down some traffic lanes... for the next four years. (The cyclists will have to share a pedestrian walkway.)

       

Yesterday was the Manhattan Bridge's centennial and the celebrations were capped off by fireworks. Check out these photographs from our readers.

The 6855-foot-long Manhattan Bridge is turning 100! With a newly reopened archway on the Brooklyn side, it's hardly looking like a centenarian, but the ol' girl's been through a lot, and has a fairly flawed history behind her. The construction for the bridge began in October of 1901, but wasn't open to traffic until December 31, 1909. Once it was put to use, Time Out notes it was realized that designer Leon Moisseiff "didn’t incorporate sufficient support, and placed the subway and streetcar lines on the outer edges of the roadway, putting too much strain on the deck."

The pitched street battle between cyclists and drivers (and pedestrians) just won't let up! Cyclist Anna Letitia Mumford says that she was punched in the face by a driver yesterday during her evening commute in Brooklyn. Here's her story:

I had just crossed the Manhattan Bridge and was biking south on the bike path on Jay Street. The traffic was backed up, but the bike lane was open. Right in front of me, a car peeled out of the traffic and began to cruise up the bike lane. At Willoughby, the light was red so the car stopped. I tapped on the trunk to let the driver know that I was trying to pass.

Continue reading "Driver Punches Cyclist in the Face After Blocking Bike Lane"

There was great excitement in the cycling community last month when the DOT finally finished turning the treacherous Sands Street approach to the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn into an elegant, elevated bike lane. Transportation Alternatives even held an opening celebration, dubbing the Sands Street lane the "Budnick Bikeway," after Noah Budnick, a T.A. advocate who almost died riding his bike on Sands Street in 2005.

       

On the first non-rainy night in what seemed like centuries, DUMBO Fight Night made its outdoor debut under the recently-reopened Manhattan Bridge Archway. Fighters from DUMBO’s Gleason’s Gym and other corners of the Tri-State area hopped into the red, white, and blue ring for 16 bouts of amateur boxing to raise money for the DUMBO Improvement District.

Sometimes things are just really cool to watch, like this video of the Manhattan Bridge moving along with the subway traffic.

Some concerned readers wrote in a little bit after 11 a.m. when a large fire appeared on the Manhattan Bridge. Turns out it's a tractor trailer fire, and the newswire reports that it's on the Brooklyn bound side and they're currently awaiting a structural engineer. More details as they come in, but the subways still seem to running over the bridge. Did you see the blaze? UPDATE: Around 12:15 p.m. the truck was being towed off the bridge, and structural evaluation is complete.

   

A helicopter and police boat rushed to the East River near the Main Street section of Brooklyn Bridge Park this afternoon, where a man miraculously survived after jumping from the Manhattan Bridge. A firefighter at the scene in DUMBO told us it was believed to be a suicide attempt, but it was unclear how the man had survived the fall into the icy waters and was still able to walk to a waiting ambulance.

Chances are you're not trying to ride your bike anywhere today in this mess, but anyone who's tried to pedal over the bridges connecting Brooklyn with Manhattan this week was in for a treacherous trip, because the city has yet to adequately plow or salt the bike and pedestrian paths. As of last night, much of the Williamsburg Bridge path (pictured) remained impassible on two wheels, and commenters on Streetsblog say both the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge remained unsalted and icy.

The Manhattan Bridge archway reopened in September to the applause of many local pedestrians (and those who interpreted it as a parking lot!). However, for the past couple of weeks the space has been closed off. We sent an inquiry to the DUMBO Improvement District, and they told us, "To ensure public safety, the Archway is closed temporarily while its historic Belgian block roadbed is restored. This work is...part of our plan to return the Archway to the public as a pedestrian plaza." So sit tight DUMBO-ites, the archway will be back up and running (hopefully by next year)...until then, you'll just have to make do with stabber alley.

At a hearing about how the MTA could address its budget problems, some old and new ideas were tossed around. One notable suggestion, from former city transportation commissioner Luicius Riccio, was, per the NY Sun, "that the city should consider selling the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges for $1 to the MTA, which could then charge tolls on commuters and use the revenue to finance mass transit improvements." Theodore Kheel, of Nurture New York's Nature (and good friend of Charles Rangel), also suggested some components of congestion pricing and reiterated his call to make the subways free. The Ravitch Commission, convened by Governor Paterson, will reportedly look at all the ideas--including "congestion pricing lite"--and will issue a report later this year about the state's growing transportation issues. Two more hearings will be held this month.

Well, that didn't take long. Just hours after the grand reopening of the Manhattan Bridge archway, a "non-vehicular" zone, someone has found a pretty sweet parking spot. Tip: Just move the planter guarding either entrance!

       

The Manhattan Bridge Archway in DUMBO has reopened today, giving the neighborhood more public space. The DUMBO Improvement District, who is helping to secure funding for the $500K project, noted that the historic, 46-foot-wide archway below the Manhattan Bridge will be "for public, non-vehicular use, granting access to a spacious but long-inaccessible public space and connecting two parts of DUMBO that had been separated for 17 years."

After a dump truck crashed into a Fung Wah bus in Chinatown and killed a pedestrian, it was discovered the truck was unsafe, with a number of brake problems. Now, the president of the truck firm was charged with "unlicensed collection of trade waste," according to the NY Times.

More unfortunate details about the dump truck that crashed into a parked Fung Wah bus, killing one person and injuring others: It turns out the truck was unsafe, per the Times, "three brake hoses that were severely deteriorated...inoperable brake lamps, a loose brake air reservoir, a loose brake chamber and a defective brake warning device." Great to know these vehicles are on the road.

Yesterday morning, a dump truck speeding off the Manhattan Bridge onto Canal Street lost control and hit a Fung Wah bus waiting to pick up passengers. The bus then jumped the curb and crashed into a building. One woman died and four others were injured, and here are some new details:

It's simply a lovely photograph of fog meeting the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. And today looks like it'll be beautiful.

As of 8 this morning the starting points for this year's Idiotarod had already been changed twice. As with every year, the effort to dodge police and the scramble to find the most updated starting line is still underway, but the carts should be off soon...and we'll keep you updated. In the meantime, check out Team Danger Zone's ride!

It's official. Today the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate DUMBO a historic district, pending City Council approval.

Last year WNBC got up close and personal with the Civic Fame statue atop the Municipal Building, and this week The NY Times looks at the woman who modeled for that statue, and many others -- Audrey Munson, "a long-forgotten New York celebrity whose face and figure continue to grace the contours of statues all around Manhattan."It was Ms. Munson’s eyes that stared stoically from the marble forms of the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive,...

Back in June, we looked at a fascinating article from Scientific American titled "An Earth Without People." The article was based on the premises of a book by Alan Weisman called "The World Without Us." Both focus on what would happen to the earth if humans vanished from the planet immediately. The SA article even has some cool animation of what would happen to NYC here. This obviously inspired other artistic renderings of what a post-human world would have in store for the city, like the one above.

A New York state legislator stood at the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge yesterday and blamed confusing signage and roadways for the death of Sam Hindy, who was killed last week. Hindy was killed when he struck a barrier and plunged to the lower roadway of the Manhattan Bridge and struck by a car. The 27-year-old was riding from Manhattan to Brooklyn with a friend, Benjamin Price last Friday evening when they found themselves on...

The bicyclist who died while riding on the Manhattan Bridge Friday night was identified as 27-year-old Brooklyn resident Sam Hindy. Hindy's father Stephen, a former Middle East correspondent for the AP and Newsday reporter who later co-founded the Brooklyn Brewery, said, "We're just devastated. This is the worst thing that could happen to any parent. It's any parent's worst nightmare." Sam Hindy and a friend were riding back from Manhattan to Brooklyn on the upper...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a scaffolding collapse on 127th St. and Morningside Ave. in Manhattan, a stabbing at East 96th St. and Rutland Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on Guy R. Blvd. in Queens.
• That huge fire visible across the Hudson last night was a blaze that consumed a sailboat docked in Weehawken, NJ.
• A cyclist was hit by several different cars while on the Manhattan Bridge this week.
• Rev. Al Sharpton marched in DC this week to call for widespread racial justice.
• Muddy paths and trails through the woods may not be NYC's strong suit, but NYU has a nationally ranked cross-country track team.
• The B Train only scored a "C-" in the MTA's most recent survey of riders.
• First Lady Laura Bush visited the city to honor an elementary school teacher.
• Almost 15,000 families stand to lose their homes in the ongoing credit-crunch sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

Yesterday morning, two Bangladeshi brothers jumped off a freighter ship that was leaving the Port of Newark, "somewhere between the Kill van Kull and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge." One brother was found, while the other is still missing.

In August Judith Supine added some flare to the Manhattan Bridge by hanging a 50-foot piece of art off of it. As a follow-up he brings another work to go "bathing" in the East River with him...

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt, who has completely covered her house in mosaic tiles.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large fight on Fordham Rd. and Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, police activity in the employee parking lot at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck on East 57th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan.
• Donald Trump owns almost 20% of Brooklyn's Starrett City that his dad bought for him when he graduated from business school. He now advises lower-income residents of the development that "This is not Communist China," in response to protests against a proposed sale and probable eviction.
• New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer points to the obvious conclusion of recent trends: two Duane Reade drug stores directly across the street from one another. What, no Chase banks nested inside?
• CSI: Egypt. The Brooklyn Museum catscanned a mummified body from Egypt and analysts determined that it died a completly normal and uneventful death.
• A former East Village drug kingpin is now busy getting West Village residents high on endorphins as a personal trainer.
• New York tap water may be proclaimed as the best by Mayor Bloomberg, but the city still pays $1 million annually for Poland Spring and other delivered water.
• The city is re-opening the bike-only lane on the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn notes that it's been closed since October 2006.
• And a City Council member wants Councilman Dennis Gallagher, indicted on rape charges, to resign.