With two hours’ notice, a city-employed bridge tender can be summoned to the bridge operator’s house, a small brick structure, on the increasingly rare occasions when the Carroll Street Bridge needs to be opened.
Carroll Street Bridge can be opened with two hours' notice.
The Carroll Street Bridge will likely remain closed long past the currently-projected March 31 cutoff as federal and city agencies work to assess and address structural issues on the span.
2021 acknowledging likely delays in Carroll Street Bridge reopening.
From November 2020 until April 2021, workers will stabilize the Carroll Street Bridge ahead of dredging around it by sinking so-called pipe piles at the edges of the bridge bases on either side.
Carroll Street Bridge was originally closed in November 2020 for stabilization work. It was scheduled to reopen in April 2021. It ended up staying closed until June 2026.
It is not really a restoration; city agencies are subject only to comment, not regulation, by the landmarks panel. So the Department of Transportation is leaving the 1940's handrail and demolishing the brick engine house, although it says it will reconstruct it from the salvaged bricks. But the bridge will be repainted its original color - still undetermined - and it will be nice to see it glide closed on its 100th birthday.
1987-89 restoration of Carroll Street Bridge re-painted bridge to original color.
An existing Carroll Street Bridge was closed in 1887 and its replacement became an issue. Local property owners preferred the retractile type which slides the bridge back diagonally on rails to rest on one shore but this meant buying more land, which the City of Brooklyn was loath to do.
NYC had to buy property to make Carroll Street Bridge retractile.
The unusual 1889 retractile-type bridge - the oldest in the country - has been left open since 1986, but the department has been repairing it since last December and it should be working in time for its 100th anniversary on Sept. 19.
The Carroll Street Bridge opened on September 19, 1889.
There is an original Belgian block approach, and the bridge is wooden-planked.
Noting "original Belgian block approach" to Carroll Street Bridge.
The bridge is drawn in and out by cables from the engine or operator’s house on the west side of the canal and opens a 36-footwide channel in the canal.
Carroll Street Bridge operated from operator's house on west side of Gowanus Canal.
It continues to operate today essentially as it did when it first opened.
Carroll Street Bridge operates close to the same today as when it opened in 1889.
The Carroll Street Bridge is a retractile bridge crossing the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The bridge, which was opened to traffic in 1889, supports a 17 foot wide roadway and two 4.5 foot sidewalks.
Official Carroll Street Bridge facts from NYC DOT.
As recently as the 1990s, the Carroll Street Bridge was retracted almost twice daily in order to allow passage for waterborne traffic to and from the paint factories, oil depots, sand and gravel suppliers, and warehouses lining the canal, but with the decline of industry in the area these deliveries have since become far less frequent.
Carroll Street Bridge retracted almost twice daily as recently as the 1990s.
We begin our tour at the Carroll Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal. The cobblestone approach and wood planks attest to the fact that this is no ordinary bridge. In fact, it is the oldest of four retractile bridges in the United States (constructed in 1889), and it is the only wooden bridge in the city that carries cars.
Noting that the Carroll Street Bridge is the only wooden NYC bridge that still carries cars (no longer the case as of June 2026).
Five bridges span the canal at the main thorough- fares. All four of the bridges mentioned in the above table have recently been replaced by basculr bridges of the newest type, and are electrically operated. At Carroll Street, there is a slide bridge. There is thus practically no obstruction offered to traffic by the canal.
Article about the five bridges of the Gowanus Canal from 1906.
The Carroll Street Bridge, constructed in 1889, spans the 36-foot-wide (11 m) channel of the Gowanus Canal and has a total length of 107 feet (33 m). The bridge uses a wooden deck to support one traffic lane and two sidewalks. The steel superstructure uses a king-post truss. In plan, the span has a trapezoidal shape, due to the angled joint between the movable span and the fixed abutment. The operating machin- ery is contained in an adjacent control house, from which wire ropes connect to the movable span. Wheels, riding on rails, are mounted underneath the movable span. The rails allow the bridge to roll away from the channel at an angle of approximately 45° from the center of the roadway.
In-depth explanation of the mechanics of the Carroll Street Bridge in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
However, this type was once common in Boston, with a dozen examples and a handful of rolling retractile bridges remaining in service in the United States, including the historically land- marked Carroll Street Bridge in Brooklyn, NY. T
Noting the Carroll Street Bridge as one of the few examples of an extant rolling retractable bridge.
Ten bridges in New York City had been awarded some degree of landmark status, including seven that under DOT's jurisdiction: the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queensboro, Washington, University Heights, Carroll Street and Macombs Dam Bridges. The three landmarked bridges not operated by DOT are the George Washington Bridge (Port Authority), the High Bridge (NYC Department of Parks & Recreation), and Hell Gate Bridge (Amtrak).
List of the ten bridges in NYC with landmark status:
A notable civil engineer, Charles O.H. Fritzche, developed the mechanical system.
Charles O.H. Fritzche developed Carroll Street Bridge mechanical system.
Many notable names were involved in the construction of the Carroll Street Bridge. Robert van Buren, a descendant of U.S. President Martin van Buren and Chief Engineer of the Bureau of Construction, oversaw the project.
Carroll Street Bridge construction overseen by Robert Van Buren, a descendent of the 8th President of the United States, Martin van Buren.
It may be inferred through historic documents that the use of a retractable bridge at this span was possibly due to the fact that an earlier design for the bridge would have required acquiring a piece of private property that the Common Council was having trouble purchasing at the time. The Landmarks Preservation Commission noted that retractable bridges are “employed to provide channel clearance in locations where other bridge types are impractical.”
Speculation that Carroll Street Bridge was made to be retractable because other design ideas would have required Brooklyn to obtain more land.
It was originally powered by steam, but was converted to electric in 1907-08.
The Carroll Street Bridge was steam-powered from 1889 to 1907-08 and electric ever since.
Retractable, or retractile bridges, open to allow water vessels to pass through, and the Carroll Street Bridge uses a mechanism that takes the whole span of the bridge and rolls it diagonally on wheels along steel rails using pulleys and wire cables.
Explaining the mechanics of the Carroll Street Bridge in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
The unique style of the this bridge gained it landmark status in 1987, with the Landmarks Preservation Commission citing its “rare and unusual” qualities.
Carroll Street Bridge granted landmark status in 1987.
As a retractile draw, the bridge opens by physically sliding out of the navigation channel on a set of three steel rails, pulled by an electrically operated pulley system. The moving portion of the bridge is a 107-foot long trapezoidal deck, supported in the middle by an iron post-and-truss frame that gives the superstructure the appearance of a suspension bridge. The operating controls for the bridge are located in a polygonal brick house on the west side of the site. The house was built during the bridge’s overhaul project of bricks salvaged from the demolition of the old operating house. One of the more interesting features of the bridge, a sign threatening a five dollar fine for anyone driving over the bridge faster than a walker’s pace, was also added during the overhaul.
Explaining the mechanics of how the Carroll Street Bridge in Gowanus, Brooklyn, opens.
The bridge was built between 1888-1889 by the New Jersey Steel & Iron Company. It replaced a wooden swing bridge that had become so rotten over the years that city engineers were forced to close it in early 1887 to everything but pedestrian traffic, fearing it would collapse under anything heavier.
The Carroll Street Bridge was built between 1888-1889 by the New Jersey Steel & Iron Company to replace a rotting wooden swing bridge that had been closed in 1887.
Construction of the new one was begun at the end of the year. It opened in September the following year, completed at a cost of $29,600.
The Carroll Street Bridge in Gowanus, Brooklyn, was completed at a cost of $29,600 from 1888-89.
The Department of Transportation closed the bridge in 1985 after an inspection revealed multiple holes in the road deck, seriously corroded steel, and a broken operating mechanism. After a $1.5 million overhaul by city workers, the bridge was able to reopen to traffic just in time for the 100th anniversary of its initial opening in 1989.
The Carroll Street Bridge was closed in 1985 due to "holes in the road deck, seriously corroded steel, and a broken operating mechanism." It was reopened for its 100th anniversary in 1989.
The Carroll Street Bridge is a retractile drawbridge that crosses the Gowanus Canal in the borough of Brooklyn. It is notable as the oldest surviving retractile bridge in the United States, with only three others still in existence: two non-operational draws in Boston, and one carrying Borden Avenue over Dutch Kills in the borough of Queens.
The Carroll Street Bridge, which crosses the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, is the oldest surving retractile bridge in the United States (1889).
for - adjacency - curiosity of the other - polarization - Common Human Denominator - the sacred - TED Talk - Can curiosity heal division? - Scott Shigeoka - 2024 Dec - othering - self and other - adjacency - deep curiosity - Deep Humanity Common Human Denominators (CHD) - awakening to the sacred - a good transition - social tipping points for complex contagion - wide bridges
Extremwettereignisse als Folgen.der globalen Erhitzung haben viele Brücken in den USA beschädigt. Jede vierte der 80.000 Stahlbrücken droht bis 2050 einzubrechen. Vor allem aber gefährdet die hitzebedingte Erosion des Bodens die Stabilität der Pfeiler. Neue Standards für klimaresilienten Brückenbau vergrößern den ohnehin enormen Investitionsbedarf fürdie Erneuerung der US-Infrastruktur. Allein in Colorado düfte das Vier- bis Fünffache der vorhandenen Beträge gebraucht werden. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/02/climate/climate-change-bridges.html
hat kinds of individuals or teams or communities or systems cognitively are like the early canary in 00:39:47 the coal mine that you think are ready to transform or somebody who like might hear something about a system they're involved in and think actually yeah that sounds like my organization or self might be at this sort of transition 00:39:58 point
Though we do not pursue this point here, it is logical to considerthat poor people will be found to experience a greater psychological pressure to identify with theirpersonware as this reduces the overwhelming cognitive load they are subject to.) The task is then onlyto take care that the personware remains consistent with the social roles available—and to steer clearof anything that reminds one of what has thus been lost
!- insight : poor identify with their personware * it just brings too much pain to know what one is denied
!- for : social tipping points * building wide bridges requires uniting diverse groups * understanding this self denial as a form of survival is important to understand the psychology of the oppressed