New York City's Bridges: University Heights Bridge

Another swing bridge. This structure started it's life upstream in 1895 as the Broadway Bridge and was moved to University Heights (West 207th Street) in 1906. The swing span was eventually replaced in 1992. This bridge connects the University Heights section of the Bronx with the Inwood section of Manhattan. It is another highly ornamented bridge designed by Alfred P. Boller.

Gustav Linderhal, the newly elected chief bridge commissioner, wanted a lift bridge at this location, but the other commissioners were leery of the expense. A lift bridge was a new concept at the beginning of the last century. It really is a better idea since ships were routinely smashing into the pivot pier of the Harlem River swing bridges. A lift bridge would give these ships much greater horizontal clearance. However, the city jumped at the chance of using the discarded swing span of the Broadway Bridge instead.

New York City's Bridges: University Heights Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.