The Broadway Bridge is a lift bridge across the Harlem River Ship Canal in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.
It connects the neighborhoods of Inwood on Manhattan island and Marble Hill on the mainland. The bridge is named because
it carries Broadway, which is also designated as US 9 at this location.
The bridge carries the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway Seventh
Avenue Line (1 train) above the road. Three tracks of the IRT subway are carried on its upper deck, and a four-lane two-way roadway with sidewalks on either side is carried on its lower deck.
The first bridge at this approximate site, a then-shallow spot where the waters of the Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek joined, was built in 1693 and was known as the "Kings Bridge," as everyone except soldiers and other representatives of the king had to pay tolls to use it. The construction of the alternative "Free Bridge" by merchants and farmers in 1758 was considered a significant revolutionary act. Both the Kings and Free Bridges had draws to admit small craft. |