New York City's Bridges: High, Alexander Hamilton, and Washington Bridges

After crossing under eight movable bridges, we reach the northern part of Manhattan where three arch bridges span high above the Harlem River. This is in the Washington Heights area, a ridge that rises to 265 ft above sea level (where Fort Washington stood during the American Revolutionary War).

The first (southernmost) structure is the High Bridge, which has been closed for many years. However, Mayor Bloomberg promised during an Earth Day celebration that he would allocate resources to reopen this pedestrian bridge (and former aqueduct).

The next structure is the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, which is part of the Trans-Manhattan Expressway. This 12-lane expressway carries traffic from the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River across Manhattan to the Alexander Hamilton Bridge across the Harlem River.

The third (northernmost) structure is the Washington (Heights) Bridge a very old (1888) historic structure that currently carries 181st Street traffic across the Harlem River.

We will look at each of these bridges in more detail over the next few days.

New York City's Bridges: High, Alexander Hamilton, and Washington Bridges by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.