When John Donne wrote those words back in 1642, he never could have imagined the bridge debate brewing up on City Island. 260 years later in 1899 a new 950 foot bridge was begun to link the fishing villages of City Island to the Bronx mainland.
The City Island Bridge has decorative features reminiscent of the Macoons Dam, featured here,
...and that makes design sense. They are contemporaries.
The MacoonsDam opened in 1895, the City Island just five years after that. But the CityIsland Bridge is falling apart now and is slated for replacement, and that makes the Islanders cross. Why?
They love their little bridge.
“People call it the Nantucket of New York City,” said Barbara Hoffman, the president of the City Island Garden Club. “Here they’re going to put this monstrosity up.”
NewYorkTimes
This “monstrosity” is actually a “new mast-type structure with the tower and the cables — it imitates the sailboats that are in the City Island community,” said Craig Chin, a Department of Transportation spokesman.
It’s postponed because of budget concerns but the Islanders really don’t want it.
“If they’ve already sent out and awarded the contracts, there’s probably not a lot we can do other than lie down on the bridge when they bring the bulldozers in,” a board member of the City Island Civic Association said with a smile.
Let’s all hope when a new bridge is built...
everyone can get over it. :-)
I have to say, that is ugly, it looks more like half a football field then the mast of a sailboat.
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