Manhattan Bridge

Let's talk about this bridge. Sadly, this bridge is ignored by tourist a lot because they mostly admiring the Brooklyn Bridge. Manhattan Bridge is the second bridge to be built on the East River in 1901-1912. The bridge is not far apart from the Brooklyn Bridge. But this bridge mostly design to carry trolleys and trains across the river. The Upper level is for the trolleys, lower level is for subway trains and cars. At that time, there was only 3 lanes for cars and 4 tracks for Subway and 4 for Trolleys. To this day, the bridge carries over 80,000 subway riders to work everyday. Plus 90,000 vehicles including trucks and buses. It's a really busy bridge. Also the worst bridge to drive on. Way too much road traffic. They have to keep the bridge well maintain everyday. Why? Lots of trucks and buses uses this bridge and also 4 subway lines. Just imagine, this bridge is taken a lot of beat. Sometimes they have to close down the one of the subway lines and reroute the trains by via tunnel to go into the city during the weekends. 

Everyday when tourists hop on board N or Q train(These trains run on south side of the bridge and you can see the Brooklyn Bridge), they just mostly admire the Brooklyn Bridge from a well distance to get a better view.

Also, this bridge was a part of the Interstate 78 extension project, which it never built. It's called the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The project was made in 1941, planning to connect Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge and Holland Tunnel for faster travel to avoid traffic jams. Sounds like a great idea, but. The city protested about this project because at that time, Lower Manhattan was a big immigrate neighborhood. That's where all the immigrates settled at that time. But to built this highway, they have to forced them out of their homes and closing down businesses to demolish the buildings just for the highway. Plus cost, it would cost them $100 million just to built it (1961 currency). That was the reason it was never built. This highway project was canceled in 1962.