The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published prior to 1995 by City Merchandise of 68, 34th. Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. The card has a divided back.
The photography was by Alan Schein.
On the back of the card is printed:
'Queensboro Bridge
New York.'
Queensboro Bridge
The Queensboro Bridge, officially named the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City.
Completed in 1909, it connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with the Upper East Side in Manhattan, passing over Roosevelt Island. The bridge is also known as the 59th. Street Bridge, because its Manhattan end is located between 59th. and 60th. streets.
The Queensboro Bridge carries New York State Route 25, which terminates at the bridge's western end in Manhattan.
The western leg of the Queensboro Bridge is flanked on its northern side by the freestanding Roosevelt Island Tramway. The bridge was, for a long time, simply called the Queensboro Bridge, but in March 2011, the bridge was officially renamed in honor of former New York City mayor Ed Koch.
The Queensboro Bridge is the northernmost of four toll-free vehicular bridges connecting Manhattan Island to Long Island, along with the Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn bridges to the south.
It is the first entry point into Manhattan in the course of the New York City Marathon, and the last exit point out of Manhattan in the Five Boro Bike Tour.
Queensboro Bridge Details
-- Carries 9 lanes (4 upper, 5 lower) of NY 25, and 1 lane for pedestrians/bicycles
-- Maintained by New York City Department of Transportation
-- Design Double-decked Cantilever bridge
-- Total length 3,724 ft 6 in (1,135.2 m)
-- Width 100 ft (30 m)
-- Height 350 ft (110 m)
-- Longest span 1,182 ft (360 m) (west span)
-- 984 ft (300 m) (east span)
-- 630 ft (192 m) (center span)
-- Clearance above 12 ft (3.7 m) (upper level)
-- Clearance below 130 ft (40 m)
-- Architect Henry Hornbostel
-- Designer Gustav Lindenthal
-- Engineering design by Leffert L. Buck
-- Opened March 30, 1909
-- Daily traffic170,277 (2016)
-- Toll-Free
-- U.S. National Register of Historic Places
-- Architectural style Beaux-Arts.
Queensboro Bridge in Popular Culture
(a) Literature
-- In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway traverse the bridge on their way from Long Island to Manhattan. Nick says:
"The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge
is always the city seen for the first time, in its
first wild promise of all the mystery and the
beauty in the world".
-- In E.B. White's novel Charlotte's Web, Charlotte tells Wilbur that the bridge took eight years to build, while she could have built a web in a night.
-- In the climax of Truman Capote's novel Summer Crossing, the main character commits suicide and murders three passengers by crashing her car into the Queensboro Bridge.
-- In the climax of Norm Macdonald's memoir Based on a True Story, Adam Eget is found, making a living underneath the Queensboro Bridge, servicing punks for fifteen dollars a man.
(b) Music
-- The title of the Simon & Garfunkel song "The 59th. Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" refers to the Queensboro Bridge.
-- Harpers Bizarre covered the song in 1967, with the record rising to No. 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the musical group's best-selling hit.
-- The Australian group, The Seekers, covered the Simon classic on their 1967 album, Seekers Seen in Green.
-- The bridge is also cited in the Jack's Mannequin song "Diane, the Skyscraper," on the Dear Jack EP.
-- The bridge is also mentioned by rapper and Queensbridge native MC Shan in his song "The Bridge".
-- It is also the title of a track from the album Indiana by singer-songwriter David Mead.
(c) Music Videos
-- Billy Joel's video for his 1985 single "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" was primarily filmed on the bridge.
-- Pink Floyd's original video for "Us and Them" prominently features footage of the bridge.
-- The Queensbridge, Queens Hip Hop group Mobb Deep filmed the music video for "Shook Ones (Part II)" on the bridge.
(d) Film
-- In the 1932 Paramount Pictures light comedy film No Man of Her Own, starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Lombard's character looks out of her hotel window to a view across the East River and the Queensboro Bridge, and refers to "Blackwell's Island", now known as Roosevelt Island.
-- In the 1936 screwball comedy My Man Godfrey, the bridge is seen several times as the location of the city dump where the "forgotten men" live.
-- In the 1948 film Sorry, Wrong Number, Leona Stevenson (Barbara Stanwyck) is an invalid. Through her open bedroom window we see the bridge with frequent trains crossing, and on the telephone she overhears a murder plot in which the killer tells someone that he will wait till the train is crossing the bridge in case her window is open and she should scream.
-- In another 1948 film, Sleep, My Love, the main characters' Sutton Place apartment overlooks the bridge, which can be seen in the background through a bedroom window.
-- In the 1958 Warner Brothers' film Auntie Mame, the bridge serves as a backdrop for Mame Dennis' Beekman Place apartment.
-- The bridge appears prominently in several scenes of the 1966 comedy film Any Wednesday, which starred Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, and Dean Jones.
-- In Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan, the characters played by Allen and Diane Keaton relax on a bench in front of the bridge at dawn. The shot became the film's poster image.
-- The final chase in the 1981 film Escape From New York takes place on the bridge. It is previously named by the President's kidnappers in a ransom note left in his briefcase in Central Park as where they'll release the President if their terms are met.
-- The climax of the 1985 film Turk 182! takes place on and around the Queensboro Bridge.
-- The bridge is seen in the opening credits scene of the 1985 film Death Wish 3.
-- In the 1991 film New Jack City, Nino Brown and the Duh Duh Man hang a man over the side of the bridge because of a drug debt he owes. Eventually they throw him off it to his death.
-- In the 1992 family comedy film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the protagonist Kevin is seen taking a taxi over the bridge upon his entrance into New York City.
-- In the 1993 romantic comedy film For Love or Money, the main protagonists Doug Ireland (Michael J. Fox) and Andy Hart (Gabrielle Anwar) reunite on opposite sides of the Queensboro Bridge and call out to each other on what they found out about unscrupulous billionaire Christian Hanover (Anthony Higgins).
-- In the 1997 American action thriller film Conspiracy Theory, directed by Richard Donner, the bridge is crossed many times throughout the film.
-- In the 2002 superhero film Spider-Man, the climax of the film where Spider-Man battles against his archenemy, the Green Goblin, takes place around the bridge.
-- In the 2003 slapstick comedy film Anger Management, Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) and Dr. Buddy Rydell (played by Jack Nicholson), stop their car in the middle of the bridge to sing "I Feel Pretty", thereby holding up huge numbers of angry motorists.
-- In the 2003 American comedy film Elf, when Buddy is ostracised by his father, he goes to the Queensboro Bridge to brood. It is from there that he sees Santa's sleigh out of control, on its way to Central Park.
-- The 2010 movie Salt has a scene that takes place on, and was filmed on, the Queensboro Bridge.
-- The Queensboro Bridge was featured in 2012 as one of the few remaining bridges in The Dark Knight Rises after Bane has taken control of the city.
-- In the 2013 movie Now You See Me, a car chase across the bridge leads to a crash in which the death of a character is faked.
-- The bridge was featured in the 2014 film A Most Violent Year, in which there is an attempted hijacking of a fuel truck on it, followed by a short shootout and foot chase that leads down one of the bridge's service staircases. The bridge is referred to as the "59th Street Bridge" in the film.
-- In the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War, Peter Parker is on a school bus driving over the Queensboro Bridge. When he sees an alien spaceship over Manhattan, he changes into Spider-Man and exits the bus, swinging towards the spaceship.
(e) Television
-- The Queensboro Bridge has been shown in the credits of the television series Archie Bunker's Place, The King of Queens, Rescue Me and Alphas.
-- The opening sequence of Taxi depicts a Checker Taxi cab driving out of Manhattan on the upper deck of the bridge.
-- George and Louise Jefferson are shown riding in a taxi on the bridge's lower deck in the opening sequence of The Jeffersons.
-- The bridge is referred to in the opening theme of The King of Queens, in the line "...sitting here in traffic, on the Queensboro Bridge tonight."
-- The bridge is also referred to in The Simpsons episode "You Only Move Twice", when Hank Scorpio destroys it to show that he's not bluffing.
-- An illustration of the bridge by Aurore Giscard d'Estaing is used in the main title of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery.
-- The bridge is referenced often on the Internet television program and podcast Norm Macdonald Live, when host Norm Macdonald tells his guest about how he discovered his co-host Adam Eget.
(f) Video Games
-- The bridge was destroyed in the video game Crysis 2 when a facility on Roosevelt Island exploded, causing the bridge to violently collapse.
-- The bridge appears in the game Driver: Parallel Lines and is able to be traveled on foot or by car. During the mission "Kidnap" the player must blow up a billboard on the Manhattan side to block traffic.
-- The bridge is part of the Nintendo DS game C.O.P.: The Recruit.
-- The bridge appears in The Crew and The Crew 2.
