TRIBOROUGH BRIDGE

The Triborough Bridge crosses the East River on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and consists of three different bridges or branches:  the Harlem Life Span (links the Harlem River Drive, the FDR Drive and 125th Street), the Bronx Crossing Span (a link to the South Bronx neighborhoods) and the East River Suspension Span (link to Queens, the Grand Central Parkway and the BQE (the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway).  These three branches meet at Randall’s Island (in the East River) where traffic runs in 12 different places.  The bridge was officially renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge on November 19, 2008. 

Robert Moses' original proposed location for this bridge had been at 100th Street.  But, the very powerful publisher, William Randolph Hearst, owned real estate near 125th Street that he wished to sell to the city.  Therefore the bridge was built at this location instead.  Construction on this bridge began on the same day of the market crash on the Great Depression of 1929.

Other bridges crossing the East River are:  the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, Hell Gate Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, Queensboro Bridge, Roosevelt Island Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge.