The Third Avenue Bridge was built between 1894 and 1898 and it replaced the Harlem Bridge that crossed Harlem River at the same location for less than 30 years. The bridge was composed of three deck sections with a steam powered swing span in the center and girders that connect the swing span with the abutments on both sides. The new bridge provided the required 24 feet clearance above high water. The swing span was 364 feet long and was built as a “large through truss structure with curved upper chords terminating at a sharp apex” (Bridges in the New York Metropolitan Area).
The bridge initially supported road traffic in both directions, carried two tracks for the trolleys of the Third Avenue Railway System, and had enough room for walkways on both sides. In 1941 the bridge was changed from bidirectional to one-way southbound traffic. In 1953 the trolley tracks were removed and the lanes were converted to automobile lanes. The trolleys had already been replaced five years earlier by buses. Most likely, northbound trolley traffic ceased to run over the bridge in 1941 and the lane with that track was used by automobiles from then on (see photo below).
Major reconstruction in the mid-1950’s reconfigured the bridge from four trusses (three deck sections) to three with two roadways of two lanes each. At the same time the Bruckner Boulevard approach ramp was added – an addition that changed appearance of the neighborhood considerably. In 2004 the old Third Avenue Bridge was replaced by a new one after a four-year construction period. The old bridge was heavily damaged when a wooden fender protecting the center pier caught fire in 1999.
Modeling Third Avenue Bridge
For the layout I will partially model the Third Avenue approach ramp between 134th Street and Bruckner (Southern) Boulevard but not the Bruckner Boulevard approach. I’ll then add the section sitting on the massive abutment built on the west river bank, and the girder bridge leading to the northern rest pier with the bridge house. For the details I can follow the existing photographs, although according to at least one source the bridge was modernized in 1953 and the “early iron ornamentation” removed. Most likely, the turrets that flanked the stone piers on both sides and that were an architectural signature element of the bridge were removed then as well.
To add some excitement, I will also add the trolley tracks even though they were removed by the mid-1950’s. I’ll see how much I can include of the swing bridge part of Third Avenue Bridge as my layout pretty much ends on the northern rest pier.