The History of The Cross Bronx Expressway

a look at the oldest original section of the cross bronx expressway

[@RRaquello]

My father lived in Throgg's Neck, at the other end of the Cross Bronx, and you could look out from the deck in his back yard and see the highway. Sometimes you'd see the westbound traffic at a standstill and say to yourself, "wow, the George Washington Bridge is really backed up today" because the Cross Bronx would be in a jam from the George Washington to the Throgg's Neck bridge, all the way across the borough. This is one real nightmare of a road.

[@visionist7]

When in his back yard, could you hear the Throggs go _ribbit ribbit_ Ok that was terrible

[@umarbentley4953]

You better off getting off the CBE at Jerome Av which is the first exit in the Bronx and taking Tremont Av way across to Throggs Neck, yes there will be traffic lights but not backed the hell up like a parking lot.

[@bowwinkle6651]

Oct 17 2020 It’s gotten worse and worse and worse and worse !

[@omparkashomkk2057]

1 IPL 1 pi⁶

[@mattycooldude6462]

You spelled Throggs Neck and Throggs Neck Bridge correctly

[@helenhoronzy9296]

I find the knowledge your sharing is awesome. For the younger generations to see & learn some of the history of our highways. I’m turning 63 in a couple of weeks & I find it interesting as well as educational. Keep up your great work. I was born & raised in the Bronx. Thank you

[@cjc4765]

We use to swim in the Bronx River "Leach Beach" we called it. I remember when the GW bridge was just one tier and the toll was 25 cents. The toll on the West Side Highway coming back to the Bronx from Manhattan was 10cents ( by the Cloisters and Grants Tomb)!! I use to drive the Cross Bx daily!! A new car ? 64 Mustang was $2500 , new Volks Beetle was $1800, a new Caddy was about 5K depending on the model. So many memories , GREAT VID, Thanks!

[@4kTrainVideos]

This is my favorite of all of your videos! 👍😀

[@bxdanny]

Most of those signs used to say simply "Upstate" as the destination. Then someone decided that "Upstate" couldn't be used as a "control city" for highway signs, since it is not a city. Within a short time, all the signs for the northbound Deegan were changed to read "Albany" instead. Signs on and for the New England Thruway (I-95 N) were likewise changed from "New England" to "New Haven". And some signs for the George Washington Bridge had the destination changed from "New Jersey" to "Trenton".

[@TheRobdock]

Dan Schwartz interesting! I remember the new sign changes

[@michaelgillispie8974]

Thank you for sharing! I live in Louisiana, have all of my life. I have never been to NYC, although it is on my bucket list. I found that video very interesting and entertaining! Again Thank You!!!!!

[@augustinecampbell7337]

Im 75 I remember as a kid my brother took us for a ride. There was a new amusement park called freedomland it was demolished for the cross bronx expressway . Thank you so much for all its history actually in the 60’s not 70’s

[@louk231]

Augustine Campbell, Freedomland was a great place. It actually wasn't demolished for the Cross Bronx Expwy but for Coop City. Wish I had seen Freedomland when I was young. I've only seen it on videos.

[@jimprior5700]

@@louk231 you are 100% right

[@dianne405]

Great video! Love the 70s era New York and I drove on the Cross Bronx Expressway coming in to NY from New England many times as a child. I will look for more of your videos. I also agree that old historic is much, much better than replaced with new. Thanks.

[@genethanthonyneff]

Great video I grew up in Bronx River Projects lived there most of my life. I can remember walking under the tunnel where the expressway runs over top.

[@rickdeckard8716]

I hear they call the Bronx River projects Park Versailles now .

[@firesurfer]

@@rickdeckard8716 That's an area someone came up with and goes from the Bronx River to Pugsley Ave and down to the Bruckner. It's an obsolete term. No longer in use.

[@JamesLewis-mp9zn]

I'm a New Yorker (69 years old) and remember in the mid 50s traveling on the EL seeing the building of the expressway. After living in the Castle Hill Projects from Nov 1959 to Oct 1965, we moved near the Bronx River Projects. From our home (Trio Apartments, 1670 East 174 st. It was about a few hundred feet from the expressway. Many memories. Haven't been back there since 2002.

[@biglo9889]

you must have seen some stuff in your life sir during that time period.

[@dianadundidit5343]

Ha! We were neighbors! I grew up in 1691E 174th (building on the street by itself with the wall in front of it). Moved there in the early 70's and my mom still lives there!

[@Khamomil]

I just learned that the Bronx River has been cleaned up over several years and now you can kayak, row a boat and do all sorts of fun things. The wildlife has returned and it's a nice place.

[@BLACKWOLFF.HIPHOP]

Khamomil. yes I was apart of that effort some fifteen years ago as a member of the bronx river alliance a non profit org. associated with the NYC parks dept.

[@gfriedman99]

I still wouldn’t drink it

[@melaniegonzalezart8506]

Thank the Bronx River Alliance for their good work on cleaning out the river! I kayaked in it this May and it was beautiful. Lots of progress and more work to be done.

[@TJ_918]

@@gfriedman99 Nobody is asking you to drink it, lol. OP shared the delight of the river’s overall improvement and benefit to the environment.

[@firesurfer]

There is a book about it. ''The Bronx River: An Environmental & Social History "

[@chrissymarieengland4917]

I think this is some awesome information. Robert Moses when he designed the crossbronx highway. Never imagined how many cars would be on the roads today! I was born & still live in Throggs Neck. And I am going to be 62 yrs.old. I think now being in the 21st century. There needs to expand or update this highway! I love watching these old stories on the Bronx. I wish it was still safer boro. Like it was back in the 50's & 60's. But all in all,it's still a great boro to live in. And plenty of places to shop. With the help of the transportation system!!! Thanks for all the old footage too. 🙏 Have a blessed day!

[@tommyd1542]

Does anyone recall the television show "Car 54 Where Are You"? The show was filmed entirely in the Bronx and features excellent black and white footage of the borough in the early 1960's. I recall an episode where patrolmen Toody and Muldoon are sent to evict the last tenant from a building which was supposed to be demolished to make way for "the new approach to the GW Bridge" which is really the newly opened CBE. I recall at least one other episode where Car 54 is pulled off to the side of the expressway for special duty Both episodes were filmed in and around the western section of the expressway and feature excellent footage of the newly opened highway. If interested you can watch these episodes for free right here on KZbin.

[@crazeenydriver]

Yes I know the exact episodes you mean and I love them. The ramp you spoke of in the "eviction" episode was closed and sealed up before I could drive, I guess about 1975. It lead onto the eastbound CBE by Arthur ave.

[@abcdef-kx2qt]

car 54 was filmed at Biograph Studios - Gold Medal Studios - 175th street & prospect av. bx . the same place as naked city !!!

[@rickdeckard8716]

One of the cops played Herman Munster after that series .

[@curllyboy]

How they cleared the area, the buildings and their occupants is also interesting. Great video. Waiting for the next one.

[@mixville2]

Wonderful piece, man, thank you so much. Those original pieces of highway are fascinating. And seeing all the much older stonework down around the Bronx River is incredible. Certainly 1800s I'm sure. A whole other story there. Anyway, thanks for a great video. I just discovered this- I'll have to look at your others.

[@roadtrip2943]

North side of 174 st and all the shops from morris to topping were leveled for the xpressway . And that killed the neighborhood

[@BradThePitts]

Just discovered this. I don't live in the area anymore and it's nice to hear that accent!

[@frankmaiorana66]

Thank you very much crazeenydriver. I am a native New Yorker, originally from Upstate. I like your comment on how you like the original overpasses and parts of the highway with the high steel guardrails that make NY unique. I also love the stone faced overpasses on our cars only parkways in New York. I enjoy driving NY very much and have done alot of it the last four years.

[@jimborghini2761]

I am a Bronx native of 38 years and am very familiar with these areas. Interestingly, and to many people's satisfaction, they have recently built foot and bike paths as well as parks alongside the Sheridan Expwy, that run alongside the Bronx River. Thx for the history lesson, I love to know about this stuff. I have a love/hate relationship with this place called Da Bronx!

[@warntheidiotmasses7114]

I lived on St. Lawrence avenue back in the 1960's. I can't remember the address but our landlord was named Cassella.

[@jimborghini2761]

@@warntheidiotmasses7114 Different time back then I'm sure.

[@jimm3370]

Great vids of my old stomping grounds, bud. Your knowledge is stunning.

[@helenhoronzy9296]

I like your videos of the Bronx. I was born & raised here. Going to turn 63 in a couple of weeks. I find your videos & the history very interesting as well, as educational to the younger generations. That has no knowledge of some of history here in the Bronx. I from Throggs Neck. But some of my family members lived along the service road of the Cross Bronx. Thank you for your knowledge & the stories of our borough! 👍🏻🙏🏻😎

[@theepicgamerultimate4831]

Thank you for these videos. I'm originally from 583 E.189th st. Between Hoffman and Arthur ave. I now live in Alabama it's a long story how I ended up here. But I can say this it's nice to see the Bronx on you tube rather than walking those dangerous streets again where the law favors criminals.

[@Lightningslick]

Nobody cared whern Robert Moses and NYC demolished San Juan Hill / The Tenderloin, a neighborhood of black and hispanic citizens, to build Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts. However, when Robert Moses tore up The Bronx to build the Cross/Bronx Expressway, cutting away neighborhoods housing European Americans, diverting its original route to avoid demolishing Borough President Lyon's mother's house, THAT became a turning point in Robert Moses's image and ultimate demise.

[@sbeallvln]

Thank you Crazeenydriver for this video. I have a strong (and probably unusual) passion for "original" highways. If you know anyone else who has historical footage of anywhere in america, feel free to let me know at your convenience. I have been on the Cross-Bronx Expressway (in 2006) and was delighted it had its original bridge guardrails.

[@mackdetroit4life]

Its nice to see that there some people who still do things old school!

[@lynnmacarthur793]

Talk about Infrastructure! The traffic is still a nightmare in 2020!

[@philliplyn2692]

Loving this one thanks for sharing very important information giving thanks blessed love to all knowledge is power hopefully everyone pays attention keep up the good work 🙏🙏🙏🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲💪💪💪

[@chipi1972]

This brings back memories when me and my cousins Used to explore and play men hunt all around that area back in the early 80's. It's been 30 years since I left the Bronx. Looks so different now.

[@sbeallvln]

5:39 Finally, someone else who feels the same way! Thank you!

[@davidvilabrera]

That area where the bus depot is used to have tracks for the New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad - now known as the NYC subway Dyre Ave. line - and the tracks used to connect to the railroad tracks that are in the area to the east. Did you find any remnants of the tracks that use to be there ?

[@angelnavarro2286]

Great job crazeendriver! Fantastic information.

[@elmontpat]

....i stumbled across yr vid & was very delighted with yr footage....keep up the good work:)...lol....

[@IvorPresents]

About 53 or 54 I was five and I lived with my Parents off of Topping Avenue. The construction for the cross Bronx was right down the block a bit. Later my family moved to Whitestone, saw the construction of the Throggs neck bridge, My Grandmother stayed in the Bronx a bit, before moving to Kew Gardens. I do not remember if her, Clay Street Shul, was hit by the construction I do remember playing with my friends at the construction site.

[@roadtrip2943]

174 th st was pre xpressway a thriving retail street morris to clay. It killed the neighborhood

[@tweetingsparks]

OMG. I saw a Pathmark. Now you know this video is vintage if we see a Pathmark.

[@myinnapeaceministries7545]

Thank you for posting. I love the awesome history of my boro

[@rangergun]

I live on Noble ave and Cross. BX. I love your video. I used to be under there with friends. back before the Bus Depot was built. you can get to its from the Metro North tracks :-) I always wonder what that Piller was in the river. i thought it was a old bridge.

[@TheRobdock]

rangergun funny you mention this I was a small kid around 10 years old and we used to drive on I-95 Cross Bronx Expwy where the new bus depot is and the tracks which is Amtrak Northeast corridor, not Metro north every building was burned out and abandoned, anyways I've always wondered if those Bridge pillars were from a Bridge that was demolished or planning to be completed and still I'm 43 and hasent changed except for the surroundings of the neighborhood.

[@rickdeckard8716]

rangergun I remember playing in the construction site when they were building 1500 noble.

[@Richardofdanbury]

As I like to tell people I was born and raised in the South, ...South Bronx! I really liked this video, I was born and raised just a 1/4 mile east of where the Sheridan come in, at Rosedale and the Cross Bronx Exprwy. The house is still there and there is now a gas station which was an empty lot when I was growing up. Do you take these road trips often? If so, do you need company? I be glad to tour the "old Neighborhood". Let me know.

[@butterflylovenj7300]

I remember when you would see stripped cars and other things on the Cross Bronx back in the day.

[@exrodriguez6074]

Does anyone have pictures of the buildings that were there before made the Cross Bronx?

[@lscarver5]

What would be really interesting are photos showing what certain sections looked like before the Cross Bronx Expressway was built. If you have them please share.

[@surrow6192]

The sections where it is looked like the sections where it isn't.

[@mikedevittorio4358]

The first indicator of my fathers dementia was the routes he used to take while driving or giving directions. The light bulb went off for me when we had to head into the City from Westchester. Get this, local roads from downtown Harrison to the Bronx River Parkway in White Plains to the Sheridan ( I've been driving since the early 80's and I've only used the Sheridan this one time) to the Cross Bronx to the Deegan and then to the Tri-Boro to the FDR. What a roundabout, it finally dawned on me that we had followed not the most direct or least congested route but the one from the early 50's which is what he could remember. I'd love to say that this was the only time but it started to happen regularly, it was as if there hadn't been a road built after 1965 or thereabouts that he could remember. He did tell me all about an amusement park that used to be where the Sheridan is now though.

[@firesurfer]

Starlight Park at 177th is now the new bus depot. It closed Dec 31 1937.

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Great video, thinking of doing a updated version of it since this upload is 10 years old?

[@AFR59]

I grew up near you, on Manor Ave & Westchester Ave near the #6 el. Went to PS47 between Beach & St Lawrence on 172nd st, a few blocks from your home.

[@kevinbergin9971]

Thanks, I like your nerves. Question, I want to see some photos/films of travel though the streets of The Bronx BEFORE the CBE went in. Where should I start?

[@4211video]

The ghost ramp you see was never built. The supports were put in at the same time as the rest of the interchange in anticipation of the Sheridan being built further north -- it was the ramps from the Cross Bronx Expressway EB to Sheridan Pkwy North. Check it out on HistoricAerials go back to 1954.

[@peteantonio1601]

one more comment the reason that 90% of the time this area going to jersey is always congested with bumper to bumper traffic is because since 911 trucks have to take the upper level on the GWB and right there between the Bronx and upper Manhattan traffic that is coming of the degan expressway into the cross bronx going to jersey TRUCKS have less than 300 feet to make a mad dash across 4 lanes of traffic to go to the far left lanes to take the upper level of the GWB. once traffic has to stop to let the trucks in it becomes a domino effect

[@butterflylovenj7300]

Don't know what Robert Moses was thinking.

[@captainbedworthy]

Very interesting study. I'm up here North of Boston and we have some curious structures as well. I feel inspired, and may respond with a similar look at some of the Boston highways. Good stuff!

[@Musicradio77Network]

How about you should do a history of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and the Gowanus Expressway. This would be a great idea. We used to drove the BQE and the Gowanus all the time a long time ago, but it does have a lot of history to it. This is another of the NYC highways as done by Robert Moses. Great guy, and pretty well done gentlemen who designed and build all of the NYC highways.

[@jab7168]

Moses destroyed this city.

[@louisyeostros4978]

@@jab7168 : not true…I’ve read the Power Broker several times and once I put aside the false paradigms, Moses was incredible

[@blick182]

Nice video, interesting how the Bronx bridge has stood the test of time. Later on in the 1970s in Birmingham, UK, the Aston Expressway was constructed along with Spaghetti Junction, the Bromford Viaduct (to straddle the Tame River and railway lines) and many miles of elevated highway cutting through the city. They all closely resemble the images above of the Bronx Expressway with high-rise housing and warehouses packed in tightly along the highways. It has and still is undergoing major reconstruction and maintenance because of a disease in the concrete pillars and consequences of rushed construction, while the adjacent high-rise housing and industrial works have largely been detonated since the 1990s! Would be interesting to know if the concrete structures in the New York elevated highways or anywhere else in America had similar issues with disease/major corrosion?

[@wowzer107]

Perhaps the humid weather in Britain causes the deterioration that you describe. I don't know if that kind of deterioration happens the same way in the American Northeast, but it probably does happen in the rainy American Northwest and probably in the humid South. I do remember concrete and brick wearing away on the walls along the below grade portion of the Cross Bronx Expressway when I was a kid, though.

[@donaldbartram6315]

Coming out of the apt. tunnel from NJ where they are trying to fix the concrete pillars that hold the overpass up. if you look at that overpass beam there is a 4' hole rusted thru it. All the concrete is broken & falling off everywhere around that area.

[@louk231]

Yeah, very scary looking around at all of the neglected and decaying infrastructure while stopped in traffic. Disasters just waiting to happen.

[@Freewayjim]

Nice work, enjoyed the info!

[@lebronpryor6677]

Make more videos your funny. Im from W Kingsbridge rd. I remember the I 95 CBxE. And the MajorDegan I 87 and those old Guard rails.

[@eddy820]

Thanks a bunch for this, as a /native New Yorker and Bronxite I know the area really well.

[@artmonk8596]

Crazebydriver - I find this stuff amazingly fascinating. I grew up in Bayside Queens (Bay Terrace - right over the Throgs Neck to be exact). But I spent all of my weekends from when I was 2 or 1977 to 1985 in the Bronx Sedgwick Ave near the resevoir then later on Paul Ave. (Scott Towers across the street from Bx Science/DEwitt Clinton Football Field) Keep up this amazing work I miss the old NY - dont appreciate the Disneying of 42 - the crapiness of the rest of Manhattan & the overexposure of BK

[@williamprocope9648]

Cool i grew up in Tracey Towers. Our Terrace faced your building.

[@florencechestnut2270]

nice video! thanks for telling the history of the Cross Bronx Expressway.

[@frankmunoz2232]

Great pictures I grow up on freeman st.

[@TheSupercat2468]

The entire bronx river section is now one giant park.

[@hank1519]

Amazing reportage! Thank you-

[@nathanlester9985]

There's a site called historical aerials, it's a Google maps layout were you can select different years like the 50s and even earlier, it's my go too to when I wanna connect old dots. check It out if you haven't heard of it.

[@melaniegonzalezart8506]

Excellent narrative thank you!

[@jprevete]

hey great stuff!.....we really need RM today.....very tough getting important stuff built.

[@phuturephunk]

That center divider, the steel plate. Is still there as of 2021. I dunno if it's gonna last much longer though because if the work they've been doing on the Deegan/Triboro approaches and Bruckner, the CBE may be next for upgrade.

[@musicom67]

0:44 - This Highbridge ramp was built in the late 1940's and was designed to allow traffic exiting the old Eastbound W178th St. tunnel (now defunct) to direct traffic to the Washington Bridge (181St Br) to cross the Harlem River, and existed as pictured up to a year or so ago, and has since been demolished and rebuilt using modern prefabricated steel box-frame construction. The cylindrical supports were re-used, and almost all of them now support the new ramp.

[@kope182]

love the video, just a side note razor wire is illegal in all uses in NYC; however with existing city uses you never know so be careful as it is extremely dangerous in any state. I feel Moses had something against the Bronx, either in the designing the the expressway or as a "happy accident".

[@leonardbrokowsky7773]

I grew up at the most northern part of the the Highbridge section of the Bronx They tore down my house to build the Cross Bronx Expy. I also remember the tunnels in Manhattan that connected the Washington Br. with the Geo. Washington Br. Back then US 1 ran over the Washington Bridge and then North on University Ave.

[@mikepierce1724]

I've been through there so many times omg and delivered so much stuff all over. Been over like 6 of big bridges . Produce seafood magazines. Christmas trees from Maine alot 1 time with gramp we had 48 foot tree on bottom load . Most went to queens on corner big nursery Dee's!

[@tommypetraglia4688]

Y'all get a load of the river of road debris in the median at 0:53 ?

[@farnk]

Like watching the Barret Jackson and Mecum from time to time. Appreciate the death defying effort in getting these shots. Interesting about the steel divider. I'll feel a little safer now on that section despite the curves, potholes, narrow lanes and crazier NY drivers :) Wish you luck getting into and out of that "parkland" alive. Shame it's not in some way open to the public and the river is disregarded. That area could use some green space.

[@mortalkombat1712]

It’s the most backed up between Jerome Avenue and Boston Road

[@johnnyd63]

No....It's always backed up between the New England Thruway and the George Washington Bridge....

[@wowzer107]

I grew up in North Jersey, in the 70s and 80s, and my parents are from The Bronx. We would go to visit my grandmother in the North Bronx regularly and would take the George Washington Bridge to the Cross Bronx Expressway to get to her house. As a kid, I was fascinated by the abandoned buildings and would stare up at them from the below grade portion of the Expressway. For at least a couple miles, most of the buildings had no windows and you could sometimes see through the rooves. After my grandmother died, when I was in high school, I made several trips with my parents to clean her house and move her furniture to our house in New Jersey. I was still learning how to drive and found the experience of driving over the G.W. Bridge to the Expressway terrifying the first few times. I hope the city and borough governments decide to clean up the Bronx River and open up that land for recreation with a trail. It would be a great improvement.

[@firesurfer]

Done. See Starlight park on maps.

[@recklessralphfromqueens8383]

Queens is the hideout. Brooklyn is the party. The Bronx is the adventure. Manhattan is the bank. Staten Island.... friggin Jersey!

[@elvisdone6094]

Awesome keep up the good work.

[@EVO_IX]

This was 9tears ago til this day some of the over pass on Bronx River and cross Bronx even the Bruckner Blvd expwy need to be rebuild

[@dmxdave12]

Great clear photos. What model camera were you using? I get blurred pics when I am taking moving shots.

[@nehronghamil4352]

I just remember the CBE as having a history of a lot of fatal accidents, several of which I witnessed. Especially between the GWB and 3rd Av. This is a fairly straight section that drivers love to speed on. As a small aside, the proper name for those support structures you refer to as pillars is pier or pier wall.

[@luissalcedo6493]

Love your videos!

[@distar97]

As a five year old I could not understand that grownups would ever want to lay down a highway in my hilly neighborhood (I was on Featherbed Lane ). Of course I didn't know it would connect New England to the NYC region and the rest of the country via the George Washington Bridge. It's a major reason why the GWB is the most heavily traveled in the world. The original bridge designers were aware of this and made a second deck possible at a later time. But the Cross Bronx with just six lanes was born as a bottleneck with no expansion provisions designed into it. As for the never ending traffic and future needs, I can imagine an 'express lane' TBM tunnel from lets say the Split Rock golf course in the NE Bronx straight to the NJ turnpike at Ridgefield Park NJ. Sounds crazy but it's a manageable 10 miles. Lets call it the Robert Moses Apology Tunnel. An added toll would apply only to those bypassing the city. Yeah I'm dreaming but less so than when the English dreamed of a channel tunnel.

[@MicroSoftner]

We read your comment and are gathering up men and women with shovels , dynamite (m-80's/firecracker's) to get started on your project! We'll let you know when we're done! Ok let's get at it!

[@firesurfer]

I've long thought of a tunnel from the Triboro straight across Manhattan (no exits) to the Turnpike in NJ. This takes all the traffic going to LI off of the Cross Bx and GW Br.

[@MicroSoftner]

@@firesurfer please when is that starting and what is the finishing time

[@firesurfer]

@@MicroSoftner As soon as I can get some VC money.

[@jamesstephens9702]

My first driving lessons was on the cross bronx expressway. I entered on Webster Avenue exit and exited on Jerome Avenue exit .

[@JacobGluck]

i love your italian accent! a real new yorke...

[@sonnypruitt6639]

I would like to propose the Cross Bronx Skyway. It would be an elevated highway over the existing CBE that would run from the GWB to Connecticut, with no NY exits except for I-287 near the CT state line. This highway would be elevated well above the CBE, and over most all buildings on either side of the CBE, as to cause the least amount of impact to the area. This highway would take more than half of the traffic off of the CBE, making the CBE more accessible to the people living in the Bronx, while making the trip into CT and New England an easier ride.

[@elfamoso2020]

i been saying that exact propose for a year already

[@sonnypruitt6639]

Vladimir Lachapelle I got the idea from the Pulaske Skyway, but my idea would be 20 miles of elevated highway with no exits.

[@santo2199]

I do not think this is possible. You have the 4 train in Jerome Ave, thr D train underground in GrandbConcourse, the 2 train in Boston Rd and then all those other over passes you've got in the Cross Bronx. Not possible. Not enough space fot that.

[@matthewfecica6441]

...not to mention the cost. Who is going to pay for it?

[@gfriedman99]

Matthew Fecica mexico

[@bxdanny]

Regarding those supports for ramps that aren't there - the ramps were never there. As I understand it, those supports were for part of the interchange that was never built, because the road it was to connect with - the Sheridan Expressway north of the Cross Bronx - was never built.

[@203_Boy]

I heard the Bronx Expressway messed everything up for South Bronx, and shortly after that is when the term "The Burning Bronx" began to appear...

[@JJ-mh3hb]

The South Bronx would have been burning whether or not the Cross Bronx was built

[@lscarver5]

The Cross Bronx Expressway was built section by section starting in the late 1940s. The South Bronx started to deteriorate and get burned down in the 70's.

[@abcdef-kx2qt]

@@lscarver5 > 1966

[@gfriedman99]

Mere coincidence. The Bronx got messed up when the liberals brought in all the welfare queens in the 60s

[@wowzer107]

The South Bronx started declining in the late 1940s, around the time the Cross Bronx Expressway started construction. But, I don't think that's why the South Bronx declined the way it did. I think the decline was because of the change in shipping patterns in New York Harbor and New York State. When the Erie Canal was in use, small boats would transport cargo up and down the Hudson River to terminals and piers in New York City, including to the South Bronx where related industry grew and crowded neighborhoods were built. Much of the cargo coming from upstate, or the goods manufactured in The Bronx from that cargo, would be loaded onto larger ocean-going vessels and vice versa. When they stopped using the Erie Canal in the middle of the 20th century, those shipments from upstate New York to the South Bronx largely stopped happening, reducing the need for industry to be there and eliminating the need for large ocean-going vessels to venture up the narrow waterways to shipping terminals and piers in The Bronx, so the economy of the South Bronx declined badly and the crowding and pollution didn't seem worth it anymore for working class residents when the nearby jobs weren't there anymore, and the lower middle class left in droves. The population of the South Bronx declined by about 75% between 1950 and 1975, creating one of the most blighted urban areas in the nation.

[@teetot5276]

Good stuff, keep it coming.

[@kevinwind7910]

I like the history aswell! Amazing

[@rengalafuze8700]

I find the Cross-Bronx Expwy to be depressing to look at. It's dirty, noisy, the roadway is crumbling and I would hate living around it. The story of how it was built is in the PBS documentary of New York, Episode 7 (The City and the World). It explains the power of Robert Moses and how he destroyed whole neighborhoods. We now also know that asthma is a big problem among residents that live in those areas. I always said "progress" is not progress if it hurts people.

[@margaritaramos3393]

With the name Moses, he was a heartless monster.

[@stevenquinn4641]

The day it opened it was a huge traffic jam Built by Robert Moses who never drove a car It decimated and cut through the heart of many cohesive neighborhoods Robert Moses ridiculed the people who laid down to stop the destruction Its been a disaster from day I He tried this through lower Manhattan but was stopped from more destruction A book was written about the tenacious lady who stopped him

[@scottlarsh3119]

Steven Quinn i have read that book.

[@TheLocalLt]

The Lower Manhattan was cancelled, the Mid Manhattan was cancelled (although several blocks of both were successfully built), the Trans-Manhattan was the only one built, adjescent to the west end of the Cross Bronx, and connecting to the GWB at the other end. And that road has 4 roadways like the highways in new jersey. Super ugly through Manhattan.

[@josephmore-w6f]

I used to live in New York. I now live in Colorado now. I am 70 years old and remember traveling on the Cross Bronx to get to Westchester from Long Island Traffic jams all the time I don't know how people do it now. Need four lanes probably on each side

[@dvharris75]

Great Video!

[@mattg7271]

Does anyone remember a white Chevy blazer that was left abandoned for years upside down along the side of the cross Bronx near Arthur ave? Must have been back in the mid 90s

[@alanhowitzer]

+Matt G Of course it took years four years, who would move something so scenic?

[@mattg7271]

Alan Fox lol do you happen to remember what years it was there? I would love to see pics of it reminds me of my childhood

[@Fljeff7]

Drove it many times

[@bullirish]

I remember when, during the construction, a retaining wall collapsed on the construction workers, killing many men. This happened near Eastburn Ave., where I lived. This expressway never went through minority neighborhoods unless you consider a primarily Irish/Italian/Jewish/Polish, "minorities" Claims of being "racist construction" is nonsense.

[@Supervillainmc]

Awesome

[@giraffesnbutterflies]

Fantastic!!

[@Ps51bx]

Thank you and please be safe

[@lsachs07]

The pictures from very biginning of this vidio, the stills, were taken form the Washingotn Heights , upper Manhattan of what would soon become the very short Tran Manhattan (Route I95/US1)highway which once it crossed the Harlam RIver would be come teh Cross Bronx Expressway.THe first picture, the tunnel was the original road form the GWB and went to Eastern edge of Washngton Heights and the Washingoton bridge off of Amsterdam Avenue..

[@louk231]

That tunnel at exactly 34 seconds in to this video is what I wanted to ask about. It shows a car entering a clean and newly built looking tunnel that goes below Amsterdam Ave and runs west under 179th street. It was closed and sealed off during my childhood in the 1960's. I always wanted to get in there and explore it but never got around to it..Anybody have any other pictures of what it looked/look's like?

[@cormaresca9564]

Love this video.

[@UptownChamps]

You seem to have like the fact that the dividers are safe, Are you saying these steel dividers are safe or not? Why is it bad section of "elevated highway?"

[@MuzixMaker]

That place is as gritty and grimy and grim as I remember, it’s been many years.

[@peteantonio1601]

i believe according to history were the buss depot is at now it use to be the new York coliseum but before that it was an amusement park with a huge pool i believe it was starlight something. don't quote me. the bridge that goes from the Sheridan expwy to where the bus depot is at use to be a heavy wood plank bridge back in the late 60s the building that was the coliseum was still up. the ghost pillars to my thinking MAYBE, lead to the amusement park that was once there .. just guessing!

[@Gdddghhrwscbkjgesdcc]

Rumor is people who live nearby will steal the wheels right off your car - while the car is still moving

[@34thstreetman]

+Fred Stiening Not before the expressway was built. After it was built it ruined the south bronx.

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

Don't surprise me none.

[@butterflylovenj7300]

Used to happen a lot in the 80s

[@Ricogrime]

Don't come to Bronx

[@williammorse8330]

@@butterflylovenj7300 in 1980 I had just moved to the Bronx, but had no car.... my uncle driving from/to Connecticut had a break down on the Cross Bronx, left the vehicle and walked to a gas station with tow service.... when he got back the car was stripped.... the tow truck operator said it was wise not to stay with the car, he could have been hurt..... maybe, maybe not.... was disappointed my uncle didn't call me.... not that I could have really helped.... 1980 - no gadgets, just your wits.... refreshing in a way.