BRIDGESPOTTING

The Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, connects the Upper East Side of Manhattan to the borough of Queens. It was constructed in 1909 and, until 1930, was the longest cantilever bridge in the United States. With its distinctive decorative caps on top of the support towers, the bridge is a readily recognized symbol of New York City, and its image is thus featured in many New York-based movies and TV shows.

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One unusual interior space present on some bridges is known as the down-under space, where enclosed structures have been developed underneath the bridge approaches. The space underneath the Queensboro Bridge overpass was walled in when the bridge was built in 1909 in order to create useable interior commercial space for a fruit and vegetable market. However, the Bridgemarket was more than just a store. It was designed by Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino, who specialized in designing interior spaces with tiled vaulted ceilings. Guastavino patented a method of using interlocking tiles to support vaulted ceilings and he designed decorative arcades for dozens of buildings in the northeastern United States from about 1881 to 1908. The original Bridgemarket closed in the 1930s, and the space was sometimes unoccupied, sometimes used by the New York City Department of Transportation, and sometimes housed retail and restaurant space. After being unoccupied for six years, the space was reopened as a Trader Joe’s grocery store in December 2021.

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There is a brief description of the history of the down-under space beneath the bridge approaches in Chapter 3 of my book, Bridgespotting Part 2: A Guide to Even More Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times.