Exhaust and territorialisation at the Washington Bridge Apartments, New York City, 1963–1973

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. See J. C. Ingraham, ‘New Bridge Links Planned Uptown’, New York Times (NYT), 1967. 2. See American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), ‘An information guide on air rights above and below interstate highways’ (October 7th, 1961), p. 10. 3. State of New Jersey, Department of Transportation, ‘Air rights Potentials in Major Highways’ (1969), p. 20. 4. AASHO (October 7th, 1961), p. 13. 5. AASHO (October 7th, 1961), p. 14. The Sutton Place apartment building is in one of New York City's wealthiest neighbourhoods and is partially built over the East Side Drive Highway. 6. US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Bureau of Public Roads, ‘A Study of Airspace Utilization’ prepared for the California Division of Highways by Real Estate Research Corporation in cooperation with the Office of Research and Development Bureau of Public Roads (1968), p. 2. 7. S. M. Lowenstein, Frankfurt on the Hudson (Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1989), p. 213. 8. I. Katznelson, City Trenches: Urban Politics and the Patterning of Class in the United States (New York, Pantheon Books, 1981), p. 97. 9. Ibid., pp. 96–97 10. In an advertisement in the NYT the developers put forward, most succinctly, their vision of the new development: ‘Opening Tuesday, September 4t…New York's spectacular middle-income housing achievement! Here are the first completely aluminum-clad tower apartment buildings in Manhattan, located on one of the highest points on Manhattan Island. These four 32-story aluminum towers are built directly over the bridge approach…offering you true “in-the-sky” living with unsurpassed views! Truly breathtaking! Bridge Apartments has spacious layouts, 20-foot balconies … modern conveniences and luxury touches everywhere. Here you will find living features usually expected in apartments renting for far more than $28 a room per month — yet it's all yours at real middle-income rentals. Bridge Apartments tenants will have available for their convenience, a block-long park, playground facilities, and restful sitting areas, all safely protected from street traffic. Transportation: the new Port Authority Bus Terminal is a block away; subways and busses to everywhere are readily accessible; unexcelled auto connexions to all highways and expressways.’: from NYT (September 2nd, 1962), p. 167. 11. C. Gerwitz, ‘Washington Heights Reverses Tide of Urban Decay’, NYT (July 1st, 1962), p. 169. 12. Ibid., p. 169. 13. F. Bernstein, ‘40-year watch: Bridge Apartments by Brown and Guenther’, Oculus, 65: 4 (2003), p. 47. 14. H. Henderson, interview with the author 02/02/06. 15. H. Henderson, interview with the author 02/02/06 and S. Roberts, ‘Fumes and noise plague tenants’, NYT (June 17th, 1967), p. 33. 16. S. Roberts, ‘Fumes and noise plague tenants', NYT’ (June 17th, 1967), p. 33. 17. H. Henderson, interview with the author 02/02/06 and S. Roberts, ‘Fumes and noise plague tenants’, NYT (June 17th, 1967), p. 33. 18. R. Tomasson, ‘Air rights building is 10, and struggling’, NYT (February 24th, 1974), p. 351. 19. D. Bird, ‘Kennedy warns of air pollution disaster’, NYT (June 20th, 1967), p. 41. 20. Kennedy proclaimed: ‘The second major source of pollution is carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide from cars and trucks comprises roughly one-thirds of the pollution in New York City's air. Although it currently is less of a threat to our health than sulfur oxides, the Public Health Service found that carbon monoxide reaches dangerous concentrations in a number of areas in the city, such as tunnels or heavily travelled streets and highways. One area is in the vicinity of the George W\ashington Bridge Apartments which I visited this morning. These apartments are located directly over the Manhattan approaches to the George Washington Bridge where clouds of carbon monoxide and other car exhausts constantly billow up to poison the surrounding air. Residents of these buildings are continuously exposed to excessive levels of carbon monoxide, an exposure that can lead to decrease in mental acuity, creates cardiac symptoms in patients with heart disease, promotes fatigue, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and can cause death.….The choice of this location for these apartments, astride one of the most heavily travelled highways in New York City, shows a total disregard for environmental factors on the part of our city planners. Immediate relief is needed for the residents of these apartments. I urge that Federal, State and City funds be used on a crash basis to build a vapor-proof barrier over the sections of this interstate highway that pass underneath these apartments.’ For the full copy of the speech see R. Kennedy ‘Statement of Senator Robert F. Kennedy to the citizens for clean air.’, June 19th, 1967. (Robert F. Kennedy Senate Papers, Speeches and Press Releases, 09/11/66–09/10/67, Box 3.) 21. For the report and the nature of the study see Environmental Protection Agency, ‘Indoor-outdoor carbon monoxide pollution study’, Office of Research and Monitoring (1972). 22. D. Shipler, ‘A Circular Urban Complex offered for Chinatown’, NYT (February 13th, 1969), p. 91. 23. See David Chen, ‘Learning to sleep as trucks roar through the basement’, NYT (June 18th, 2004), p. B2.