Today, the Queensboro Bridge (aka 59th St. Bridge) turns 100 years old!  It was officially completed on March 30, 1909 when it was first opened to traffic.  "Queens devotees say that the bridge was the single most important force in the borough’s development. .. When we think of the modern Manhattan skyline, it came up in the 1920s and 1930s...Those are the years people were moving into Queens and Brooklyn and the Bronx. Most of those people were moving into suburban-style housing. So you have this anomaly: The most urban symbol in the world, the Manhattan skyline, is going up when the population is spreading out and moving to what were essentially suburbs in places like Queens.”





Some random facts about the bridge:

• The bridge opened to the public at a cost of approximately $20 million and 50 lives.
• Two elevated railway lines were provided on the north side of the upper level. Service on the IRT elevated lines began in 1917, providing connections from the IRT Second Avenue elevated line to Astoria (via the current N line) and Corona (via the current #7 line). The bridge's elevated railway tracks were removed in 1942.
• Two trolley lines were provided on the outer lanes of the lower level. The trolley service, operated by the Queensborough Bridge Railway, went back and forth between stations at each end of the bridge. The trolleys also stopped at two other stops on the bridge: one above Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, the other above Roosevelt Island. From these stations, trolley riders descended a small staircase to a catwalk underneath the roadway, where they entered an "upside down building" (the entrance was on the roof) in which they took elevators to street level. There was also a vehicular elevator to transport cars to and from Roosevelt Island.  Trolley service ended with the completion of the Roosevelt Island Bridge in 1955. The old elevator buildings were demolished in 1970.
• The bridge was originally known as the Blackwell's Island Bridge, from an earlier name for Roosevelt Island (also known as Welfare Island from 1921 to 1973.)
• In the early years, the Queensboro Bridge epitomized elegance. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the Queensboro Bridge played an important role in the travels of wealthy Long Islanders to Manhattan. Over the years, however, this crossing played a more utilitarian role, transforming Queens from a rural outpost into a borough with a population of over one million by 1930's, and swelling to over two million by the 1950's.
• Begun in 2003, the most recent of the six contracts focuses on repainting the bridge and approach spans with an exopy-based paint. Prior to repainting, workers are sandblasting the old lead-based paint from the bridge. The work area is covered with a canvas tarpulin to prevent the old paint from entering the air or falling to the ground. Despite a fire in the construction zone that shut down the bridge for a day in October 2005, work still is scheduled for the completion this year in 2009.
• The bridge carries approximately 200,000 vehicles per day, making it among the most traveled bridges in the world.  Nearly a century later, its main cantilever span remains the 12th longest in the world.
  

Happy Birthday and don't party too hard...