Daily News from New York, New York • 254

Manhattan and Bronx ir -rirmiiiiitni 'ninnran -n- -iimi iiii'n innir i-im i A ritlaii 1 Daily News, Sunday. September 27, 1981 tii tvv "i' -j, i. -K- j. .7 -i, -tt-. Night view of Queensboro Bridge, considered by some to be the ugly duckling of New York bridges because of its angular cantilever construction.

sentiment By GUS DALLAS on 60th St in Manhattan to the exit into Crescent St in Queens, the bridge is more than 7,000 feet long. Besides the trolley service, the Second Avenue EI was extended across the bridge. The effect on the opening of Queens to business and residents was dramatic. Land in Queens was still reasonably available and cheap. Middle and lower-class Manhattan residents rapidly migrated across the river.

Businesses and industrial plants blossomed in Long Island City. Automobile factories were the first to spring up in Long Island City. Ford, Packard, Pierce-Arrow, White Motor, Brewster and Standard Steel built there and soon after were followed by such major industries as food-processing, metal-working, marble and paints. By 1939, more than 1,400 industrial establishments paced the Long Island City area close to the bridge. WITH THE POPULATION flow and the new industries, traffic quickly created serious problems on the bridge.

Additional roadways and an upper deck were built. The feeling of many New Yorkers that no crossing between Manhattan and New York offers as dramatic a trip as ride across the Queensboro Bridge. The famous skyline stretches before the eye of a traveler to Manhattan. At the end of the day, the breathtaking beauty of the city's canyons in vermilion twilight makes the trip back to Queens a delight At night, the traveler has a view from the bridge perhaps unmatched anywhere in the world, the great towers silhouetted against a midnight velvet sky, sparkling with the lights of a million windows. Manhattan is between 59th and 60th on Second Ave.

was designated a national landmark in 1973. On April 14, 1929, the New York Times observed: "Brooklyn Bridge has the reputation, but Queensboro Bridge has the traffic." Obviously there is no fear today of Queensboro Bridge losing the traffic record. All that is lacking to top the Brooklyn Bridge's reputation, perhaps, is a MANHATTAN LANDMARK news story to the effect that some confidence artist succeeded in selling the Queensboro Bridge to an out-of-towner for a bargain price. A traffic count on Nov. 11, 1910, showed that 44,329 persons crossed the bridge in 1,751 trolley cars, 1,810 "other vehicles" and on foot A SIMILAR REPORT in 1940 indicated that New Yorkers were "marveling over the traffic increase.

it is overwhelming. no human vision could apparently foresee it The traffic count might seem to reflect a fantastic number of trolleys crossing the bridge every day, but at that time the trolley was the principal public transport across the span. Before the bridge, two ferry routes linked Queens and Manhattan. A traveler could cross the East River on a ferry from 34th St to Borden in Long Island City or between 92d St and Astoria in Astoria. If you measure the bridge's length from the entry flHE QUEENSBORO BRIDGE was opened to traffic on March 30, 1909 and dedicated offi-LJ cially with a weeklong festival two months later.

Looking back, a contemporary bridge crosser would be impressed by the fact that pedestrians outnumbered automobiles and horse-drawn vehicles 10-1 at that time. About 3,500 vehicles of all types used the cantilever span daily in 1909. Today, 175,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day and the span is presumed to be the busiest toll-free bridge in the world, according to a City Hall spokesman. "That's the word that's circulated for years, although I've never seen any documented evidence," the spokesman said. "But no one ever contradicted it!" TOLLS WERE CHARGED when the bridge was opened.

Five cents for one-horse rigs and 10 cents for team-drawn vehicles and horseless machinery. The tolls were abolished two years later at the insistence of then-Mayor William J. Gaynor. The Queensboro Bridge's outline is recognized by people across the United States and perhaps well across the world. The bridge which reminds some people of bridges they built with Erector sets as children has appeared as a dramatic background In many movies and television films set in New York.

It was a common backdrop in such TV series as "Kojak." The bridge popularly known as the 59th St Bridge because the lower-level roadway entrance in.