Blackwell's Island (Queensboro or 59th Street) Bridge

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A bridge to connect Manhattan and Queens, using Blackwell's Island as a mid-point, is a recurring theme in William's diary for 23 years. William served as president of the responsible company, the New York & Long Island Bridge Company, for a time. Finally built between 1901 and 1909 the bridge was renamed the Queensboro Bridge. William's nephew, Charles H. Steinway, was a member of the committee established to organize the grand celebration for the opening. Just as William had envisioned, the bridge fostered a real estate and commercial boom in Queens, increasing its population from 275,000 to half a million in only 10 years.(21, pp. 10. 85)(40)

From his first diary entry on the subject on March 3, 1873, to his last on January 13, 1895, William's interest was evident. His most intense involvement with the project began when he was elected President of the New York & Long Island Bridge Company.(Diary, 1875-07-14) As was often the case with William's business ventures, Charles F. Tretbar, a Steinway employee and intimate friend of William, was also one of the Directors. William's tenure as President of the company ended late in 1877.(Diary, 1877-11-14)

A bridge between the islands held out the promise of commercial transformation of sparsely populated Queens, home to only 45,000 inhabitants in 1870 compared to 942,000 in Manhattan.(13) Not surprisingly, the prospect of moving people and freight more easily over a bridge, rather than exclusively by ferry and barge, was appealing to business leaders in Queens who had land to develop and products to manufacture and sell.

Despite its many dedicated promoters, lack of funding and legal issues plagued the project for years. Dr. Thomas Rainey, who replaced William as president of the bridge company, spent 25 years of his life and his entire fortune trying to make it a reality.(17) Ultimately, it was the emergence of the consolidated City of New York in 1898 that led to the construction of a bridge spanning the East River at Blackwell's Island, now known as Roosevelt Island. The City began construction on the bridge in 1901. It was completed in March 1909 and celebrated with eight days of a multiplicity of events. The western span from Manhattan to Blackwell's Island is 1182 feet; from Blackwell's Island to Queens is 984 feet. Considered "a work of art" the bridge has been designated a national monument, and is, according to the Greater Astoria Historical Society, "an exuberant piece of the urban fabric."(21, p. 102)(40)

The Need for a Bridge

William's interest in seeing a bridge built to connect Manhattan and Queens on the western tip of Long Island is a recurring theme in his diary for 23 years – from his first diary entry on the subject on March 3, 1873, to his last on January 13, 1895. His involvement waxed and waned over those decades as did the project's prospects.

Advantage of Blackwell's Island

The specific bridge project of interest to William involved spanning the East River using Blackwell's Island as an intermediate point. This idea dated back at least to 1804 and again in 1838 when such a bridge was proposed to link the east side of Manhattan with Long Island City in Queens.(40)(41)

The idea gained renewed currency in the early 1850s when famed bridge builder John Roebling determined that the East River between Manhattan and Queens indeed could be bridged using Blackwell's Island as an ideal intermediate point. This meant that one span over the west channel of the river between Manhattan Island and Blackwell's and another over the east channel between Blackwell's and Queens, would simplify the engineering by eliminating the need for one long suspension bridge that would need to cross the width of the entire river, requiring cables at both ends to support the roadway.(16)(40)

In the mid-1850s Roebling was invited by businessmen and financiers to provide such a design. In 1856 he put forth a proposal with a cost estimate of $1.2 million. The project, however, did not move forward, and Roebling soon became an advocate for connecting Manhattan and Long Island by constructing a bridge to Brooklyn – rather than Queens. Brooklyn, like Queens, is on the western end of Long Island but is opposite lower Manhattan.(16)(40)

The New-York and Long Island Bridge Company and Initial Legislation

William was interested in the commercial development of Queens and thus became interested in the formation of the New York and Long Island (NY &LI) Bridge Company, that, at the instigation of other Long Island business interests, was granted a charter on April 16, 1867, by the New York State legislature "... for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a permanent bridge over the East River between the city of New York and Long Island."(21, p. 13)(25, pp. 940-45)(44)

The enabling legislation did not mention Blackwell's Island. On the Manhattan side it says the "... bridge shall commence between the Third avenue and East river and between Fiftieth and Ninety-second streets...." The location on Long Island was not specified other than that it should be constructed "... as to cross the river as near opposite as practicable to Long Island ...." While the company was granted broad rights to acquire land, as railroads did, through court proceedings if necessary, there was no provision for public funding. The initial stock capitalization was set at $2 million with each share valued at $100. Once built, the owners were authorized to collect tolls to produce a net profit not to exceed 15 percent.(25, pp. 940-45)

Interestingly, The New York Times on June 27, 1867, published the initial report of what was termed the NY & LI Bridge Co.'s "Committee on Organization." The article highlighted the benefits the bridge would bring to Brooklyn as well as to communities in Queens, including Ravenswood and Astoria. But the report did not specify any proposed location for building. Indeed, the article is headlined the "Bridge to Brooklyn."(31)

There was, however, a contemporaneous project to build a bridge to Brooklyn, perhaps causing some editorial confusion. The New York Bridge Company was chartered by New York State on the same date as the NY & LI Bridge Co.(16)(25, p. 948) The section of Manhattan identified in the NY&LI legislation as the New York end of the span is, however, closer to Queens.(25, pp. 940-45)

The NY Bridge Co statute was similar to the one for the bridge to Queens with one very significant difference: funding. Unlike the Queens effort -- which would have to rely on private investment -- the language creating the NY Bridge Co. authorized the "... cities of New York and Brooklyn ... to subscribe to the capital stock of said company ... and to issue bonds in payment of such subscriptions, payable in not less than thirty years, or may guarantee the payment of the principal and interest of the bonds of the company...." This provision, along with Brooklyn's vastly greater population and the financial spoils the project provided to Boss Tweed and his cronies who dominated New York politics, were critical differences in the ultimate fates of the two competing bridge projects.(8)(25, p. 948)

A Formal Proposal

The idea of using Blackwell’s Island as a way-station for the bridge spanning the East River to Queens was formally introduced the following year – 1868 – when W. P. Trowbridge, Vice President of the Novelty Iron Works, produced a plan to build “… a bridge suitable for carrying rail-cars, carriages, and loaded teams, as well as foot passengers, across the East River at Blackwell’s Island ….”(47 p. 3)

The proposed location of the bridge was described as “… upon a line drawn from about the middle of the Central Park to Flushing, Long Island ….” Trowbridge noted that the 10,000-acre district on the Queens side, “… the center of which lies only three and a half miles from the river, and four miles from the Central Park …,” was – despite its proximity to New York -- still farm land and sparsely settled, except for the villages of Hunter’s Point, Astoria, and Newtown. He also noted that it was the only area so close to the heart of New York that had not been laid out into streets and divided into building lots.(47 p. 10-11)

Trowbridge’s observation about the undeveloped land gets to the heart of why businessmen – including William – would back the project. Trowbridge set the value of the ten thousand acres at “… probably not more than one thousand dollars an acre; making a total valuation of ten millions of dollars.” He estimated that the value would jump to five thousand dollars an acre or fifty million once the bridge was built. He forecast that “… within a few years this region, which is now unoccupied and unimproved, would probably become densely populated.” These commercial prospects would motivate bridge backers for the rest of the century.(47, p. 10-11)

While the enabling legislation that gave birth to the NY & LI Bridge Co. said the bridge “… shall be commenced within two years of the passage of this act, and shall be continued, without unreasonable delay, until it is completed, or this act and all rights and privileges granted hereby shall be null and void,” the project stalled.(25, pp. 940-45)

Delays Lead to More Legislation

Five years after the NY & LI Bridge Co. was founded, the New York State Legislature once again turned its attention to spanning the East River to Queens when in 1872 it chartered the New York and Queens County Bridge Company. The bridge would have one ramp south to Brooklyn and the other to Long Island. The legislation (which does not mention a specific location for the span), was similar to the bridge statutes adopted in 1867. While it too did not receive public funding, the company is granted the potentially valuable right to “… operate or dispose of the right to operate a passenger railroad over the said bridge …” – a matter that would become crucial for the Blackwell’s Island project in following decades. The planned bridge would be a railroad link to Long Island.(27)

The original 1867 statute authorizing the NY & LI Bridge Co. was amended by the New York State Legislature in 1871. The new language granted the company additional rights to obtain underwater property; directed it to construct the bridge within two years; and required construction to be completed by June 1, 1879. Thus, the original requirement for the bridge to begin within two years (i.e., 1869) was superseded.(25)(26)

Blackwell's Island Bridge: William Steinway's Involvement

Blackwell's Island Bridge: Legislation, Legal Challenges, and Finally, a Bridge