Broadway Bridge (Manhattan)

Broadway Bridge
From the west
Coordinates	40°52′25″N 73°54′40″W / 40.87361°N 73.91111°W / 40.87361; -73.91111
Carries	6 lanes of US 9 (Broadway) (lower) 3 tracks of IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line ( train) (upper)
Crosses	Harlem River Ship Canal
Locale	Manhattan, New York City
Maintained by	New York City Department of Transportation
Characteristics
Design	Double-decked vertical lift bridge
Total length	558 feet (170 m)
Longest span	304 feet (93 m)
Clearance below	136 feet (41 m) (raised) 25 feet (7.6 m) (lowered)
History
Opened	Current span: December 26, 1960 (subway), January 1961 (highway)
Statistics
Daily traffic	36,027 (2016)[1]
Location

The Broadway Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge across the Harlem River Ship Canal in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It connects the neighborhoods of Inwood on Manhattan Island and Marble Hill on the mainland. The bridge consists of two decks. The lower deck carries Broadway, which is designated as U.S. Route 9 at this location. The upper deck carries the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, serving the 1 train.

The site was previously occupied by two successive swing bridges. The first, known as the Harlem Ship Canal Bridge, was built between 1893 and 1895 to cross the canal, which had been constructed to bypass a meandering alignment of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. By the first decade of the 20th century, the construction of the city's first subway line had made the original bridge obsolete, and a double-decker span called the 225th Street Bridge was built to accommodate the subway line above highway traffic. Between 1905 and 1906, the second bridge was installed, and the first bridge was relocated southward on the Harlem River, becoming the University Heights Bridge.

The current bridge was constructed between 1957 and 1962 to replace the second span. It contains a navigable channel 304 feet (93 m) wide. The bridge provides 136 feet (41 m) of vertical clearance when it is in the open position and 25 feet (7.6 m) of vertical clearance in the closed position.