Macombs Dam Bridge

Macombs Dam Bridge is a bridge that connects West 155th street, Manhattan with East 161st Street and Jrerome avenue in the Bronx and a significant from Manhattan to the Yankee Staduim. Being the oldest extant swing-type bridge and the city's third oldest bridge overall in New York City, it is an official designated landmark as of January 1992.

On its way, the bridge crosses Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue), the Harlem River Drive, the Harlem River, the Oak Point Link and the Major Deegan Expressway.

The mainline structure is a through-truss swing span, is a dual-carriageway and the roadway (curb to curb) width on the swing span is about 12.19 m. The pavement width varies from 1.83m to 2.90m.

History

In 1810, Roberyt Macomb first had the idea that this site would be a good place to build a bridge and the Legislature awarded him the right to erect a dam; one-half of the toll for crossing the bridge was to be donated to the poor, and boats were to pass freely through a lock. The bridge was finally constructed in 1814. This new dam however wasn't without its difficulties. It flooded meadows upstream and obscured boat navigation.

In 1839 a group of citizens breached the dam with a coal-carrying vessel and the courts maintained that "it was a public nuisance to obstruct the navigation". A new swing bridge was commissioned and opened in 1861 as the Central Bridge but this structure required many repairs and modifications due to the wooden components rotting. In 1892 the Passaic Rolling Mill Company was awarded the contract for a new bridge, designed by Alfred P. Boller. It officially opened in 1895 at a cost of $2,537,312.Renamed in 1902 to its current name, new ramp connections were constructed on the Bronx side in 1920, in response to the Yankee Stadium being built.