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163-641: The parkway opened in 1972 as the Richmond Parkway . It was renamed the Korean War Veterans Parkway in 1997; however, the highway is still widely known as the Richmond Parkway. As originally planned, the parkway would have continued northeast to an interchange with Interstate 278 (I-278) in Sunnyside , and would have also connected to Wolfe's Pond Park on Staten Island's South Shore by way of

326-452: A Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1914, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics. At the start a committed idealist , Moses developed several plans to rid New York of patronage hiring practices, including authoring a 1919 proposal to reorganize the New York state government, which was ultimately not adopted but drew the attention of Belle Moskowitz ,

489-738: A bridge. He also clashed with the chief engineer of the project, Ole Singstad , who preferred a tunnel instead of a bridge. Only a lack of a key federal approval thwarted the bridge project. President Roosevelt ordered the War Department to assert that bombing a bridge in that location would block East River access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard upstream. Thwarted, Moses dismantled the New York Aquarium on Castle Clinton and moved it to Coney Island in Brooklyn, where it grew much bigger. This

652-462: A component of I-278. The conversion of Gowanus Expressway to a six-lane freeway configuration was completed in 1964 at a cost of $ 100 million (equivalent to $ 751 million in 2023 ). The NY 27A designation was removed from the Gowanus Expressway by 1970. By 2000, an HOV lane was added to the eastbound Gowanus Expressway to serve traffic heading toward Manhattan. Over the years,

815-578: A freeway connecting the Goethals and Verrazzano-Narrows bridges that was a part of a comprehensive system of freeways and parkways for the borough of Staten Island. In 1945, Robert Moses took over planning for the freeway and called it the Clove Lakes Expressway . The plan received approval in stages through the mid-1950s, and construction on the expressway began in 1959. By this time, the SIE had received

978-614: A friend and trusted advisor to Governor Al Smith . When the state Secretary of State's position became appointive rather than elective, Smith named Moses. He served from 1927 to 1929. Moses rose to power with Smith, who was elected as governor in 1918, and then again in 1922. With Smith's support, Moses set in motion a sweeping consolidation of the New York State government. During that period Moses began his first foray into large-scale public work initiatives, while drawing on Smith's political power to enact legislation. This helped create

1141-585: A long period and she may have changed the will of her own accord, and implies that Robert's subsequent treatment of Paul may have been legally justifiable but was morally questionable. During the last years of his life, Moses concentrated on his lifelong love of swimming and was an active member of the Colonie Hill Health Club. Moses died of heart disease on July 29, 1981, at the age of 92 at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York . Moses

1304-553: A member of the Temporary Long Island Railroad Commission, installed after the Richmond Hill train crash on November 22, 1950, that claimed 79 lives. The Commission recommended the state purchase and operation by non-profit public authority of the railway service. Moses had influence outside the New York area as well. Public officials in many smaller American cities hired him to design freeway networks in

1467-463: A minimum 55-yard (50 m) length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials. To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the Streamline Moderne and Classical architectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes. Construction for some of

1630-629: A move that city officials said could prolong the viaduct's life by 20 years. The city also planned to ticket overweight vehicles. There was still no long-term plan for the viaduct by mid-2022, but three preliminary plans for the highway's reconstruction were announced in December 2022. NYCDOT formally presented the three plans to the public in February 2023, and city officials began issuing summonses to overweight vehicles in August of that year. In February 2024,

1793-511: A new executive budget system, and the four-year term limit for the governorship. During the Depression , Moses, along with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia , was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those in Jacob Riis Park , Jones Beach , and Orchard Beach . He devised a list of 23 pools around the city. The pools would be built using funds from

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1956-481: A panel to formally evaluate each alternative and that the panel's evaluations would end by mid-2019. In February 2020, officials proposed a three-mile (4.8 km) tunnel from the Gowanus Expressway to Flushing Avenue. The proposal was expected to cost $ 11 billion, to be paid by tolls. In late 2021, the section between Atlantic Avenue and the Brooklyn Bridge was reduced from three to two lanes per direction,

2119-460: A residential complex specifically designed for these veterans, and purportedly trying to make swimming pool water cold in order to drive away potential African American residents in white neighborhoods. People had come to see Moses as a bully who disregarded public input, but until the publication of Caro's book, they had not known many details of his private life—for instance, that his older brother Paul had spent much of his life in poverty. Moses

2282-519: A role in the merged authority, Moses declined to challenge the merger. On March 1, 1968, the TBTA was folded into the MTA and Moses gave up his post as chairman of the TBTA. He eventually became a consultant to the MTA, but its new chairman and the governor froze him out—the promised role did not materialize, and for all practical purposes Moses was out of power. Moses had thought he had convinced Nelson Rockefeller of

2445-528: A small two-lane road just east of the overpasses. The road continues as a non-public asphalt roadway used for construction vehicles. The parkway that exists today represents less than half of the highway that was originally planned. From Richmond Avenue, the parkway would have continued northeast to Staten Island's Sunnyside neighborhood, where it would connect to the Staten Island Expressway . The 4.5-mile (7.2 km) section west of Richmond Avenue

2608-491: A spur known as Wolfe's Pond Parkway . The section of the Richmond Parkway east of Richmond Avenue was canceled sometime after the 1960s as a result of community opposition; likewise, Wolfe's Pond Parkway was canceled in the 1970s. Today, the part of the Staten Island Greenbelt where the parkway would have run is still known as Richmond Parkway. The Korean War Veterans Parkway begins concurrent with NY 440 at

2771-465: A spur of the expressway, the Richmond Parkway , to follow the central ridge of the island, connecting with the Outerbridge Crossing in the southwestern part of the island. However, there was massive local opposition to this spur, and, unlike previous projects by Moses, the northern half of the spur was canceled when Mayor John Lindsay took office in 1966. The southern half of this proposed spur

2934-409: A standalone facility at Tompkinsville Pool . Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke , created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums. The pools were to have several common features, such as

3097-585: A temporary six-lane highway in the location of the promenade while they repaired the underlying structure. Under this option, lanes would be widened, and shoulders would have been added. In conjunction with the project, NYCDOT hoped to unify Van Voorhees Park, improve safety at the interchange with Atlantic Avenue, and possibly build a pedestrian bridge from Brooklyn Bridge Park to the promenade. The other, more expensive option, which would cost $ 3.4 billion to $ 4 billion (equivalent to $ 4.06 billion to $ 4.78 billion in 2023 ) and take over eight years,

3260-559: A truck-only highway between Hamilton Avenue in Carroll Gardens and the Brooklyn Bridge. Under the plan, only the bottom level would be rebuilt and then be decked over by a linear park and boulevard. The report expected passenger vehicles to be diverted into the underused Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, whose tolls might be lowered when congestion pricing in New York City was implemented. In early April, de Blasio announced that he would create

3423-490: A tunnel connecting Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan . A 1941 publication from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority claimed that the government had forced them to build a tunnel at "twice the cost, twice the operating fees, twice the difficulty to engineer, and half the traffic," although engineering studies did not support these conclusions, and a tunnel may have held many of the advantages Moses publicly tried to attach to

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3586-545: A tunnel. LaGuardia and Lehman as usual had little money to spend, in part due to the Great Depression , while the federal government was running low on funds after recently spending $ 105 million ($ 1.8 billion in 2016) on the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and other City projects and refused to provide any additional funds to New York. Awash in funds from Triborough Bridge tolls, Moses deemed that money could only be spent on

3749-639: A westbound interchange at 86th Street. Turning more to the north, I-278 comes to an partial interchange at 65th Street, with an exit eastbound and entrance eastbound. The road curves northwest at this point and comes to a directional interchange providing access to 3rd Avenue and the Belt Parkway. The Gowanus Expressway turns northeast again at the interchange with Belt Parkway, and it continues along an elevated alignment above Third Avenue, running through urban residential and commercial areas. Along this viaduct, I-278 has interchanges with 38th Street/39th Street and

3912-469: A year. The Authority was thus able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by selling bonds, a method also used by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to fund large public construction projects. Toll revenues rose quickly as traffic on the bridges exceeded all projections. Rather than pay off the bonds, Moses used the revenue to build other toll projects, a cycle that would feed on itself. In

4075-457: Is also a Robert Moses Playground in New York City. There are other signs of the surviving appreciation held for him by some circles of the public. A statue of Moses was erected next to the Village Hall in his long-time hometown, Babylon Village, New York . During his tenure as chief of the state park system, the state's inventory of parks grew to nearly 2,600,000 acres (1,100,000 ha). By

4238-633: Is blamed for having destroyed more than a score of neighborhoods by building 13 expressways across New York City and by building large urban renewal projects with little regard for the urban fabric or for human scale. Yet the author is more neutral in his central premise: the city would have developed much differently without Moses. Other U.S. cities were doing the same thing as New York in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; Boston , San Francisco , and Seattle , for instance, each built highways straight through their downtown areas just as Moses wished to do in New York. The New York City architectural intelligentsia of

4401-458: Is maintained by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), has six lanes on the lower level and seven lanes on the upper level which includes one HOV lane. In addition to local traffic on Staten Island, the expressway provides the most direct route from Brooklyn and Long Island to New Jersey. It is widely known throughout the New York City area as one of the most congested roads in

4564-814: Is not in danger of collapse. In 2019, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) took over maintenance of the Gowanus Expressway from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). The BQE was initially planned in 1936 as the Brooklyn–Queens Connecting Highway, a link between the Gowanus Parkway and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge . The brief portion of I-278 on the Grand Central Parkway, connecting

4727-467: Is now SoHo . This plan and the Mid-Manhattan Expressway both failed politically. One of his most vocal critics during this time was the urban activist Jane Jacobs , whose book The Death and Life of Great American Cities was instrumental in turning opinion against Moses's plans; the city government rejected the expressway in 1964. Moses's power was further eroded by his association with

4890-475: The 1964 New York World's Fair . His projections for attendance of 70 million people for this event proved wildly optimistic, and generous contracts for fair executives and contractors made matters worse economically. Moses's repeated and forceful public denials of the fair's considerable financial difficulties in the face of evidence to the contrary eventually provoked press and governmental investigations, which found accounting irregularities. In his organization of

5053-800: The Bronx River Parkway . Continuing east, the road has an exit serving White Plains Road and Castle Hill Avenue. I-278's eastern terminus is at the Bruckner Interchange further to the east. Here, the Bruckner Expressway becomes I-95 and continues towards the New England Thruway. At this interchange, I-278 also has access to the Clearview Expressway ( I-295 ), the Hutchinson River Expressway ( I-678 ), and

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5216-520: The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel . restricted to buses, carpools, and vehicles with three or more occupants. On weekdays, this HOV lane carries eastbound traffic in the morning and westbound traffic in the afternoon. The lane is closed at other times, including certain New York City government holidays. The Gowanus Expressway continues northeast into urban residential neighborhoods and reaches an eastbound interchange at Fort Hamilton Parkway and

5379-781: The Hutchinson River Parkway itself. Legally, the New York section of I-278 is defined as part of Interstate Route Connector 512 and all of Interstate Route Connector 518 in New York Highway Law § 340-a. The New Jersey portion of freeway was planned in 1955 as the Union Freeway and designated as I-278 in 1958. It was to connect the Goethals Bridge west to I-78 at the tripoint of Springfield , Union Township , and Millburn . The western part of this planned freeway faced strong opposition. Even though it

5542-907: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority operate along I-278: The S79 SBS , S53 and S93 local routes operate over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. In addition, the B24 local bus operates on the Kosciuszko Bridge; the Q70 SBS operates over a small section of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway; and the M60 SBS operates on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981)

5705-635: The New York City Department of Transportation , makes a sharp turn to the east away from the East River and comes to an interchange serving the Brooklyn Bridge and Cadman Plaza . The freeway continues on an elevated alignment and makes a turn southeast as it comes to ramps accessing the Manhattan Bridge . As of 2022, the city portion is planned to be rebuilt. North of the bridges, the highway becomes state-maintained again and reaches at an exit serving Tillary Street and Flushing Avenue . At this point,

5868-706: The New York Mets , who played at Shea until 2008, when the stadium was demolished and replaced with Citi Field . The NFL's New York Jets also played its home games at Shea from 1964 until 1983, after which the team moved its home games to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey. Moses's reputation began to fade during the 1960s. Around this time, Moses's political acumen began to fail him, as he unwisely picked several controversial political battles he could not possibly win. For example, his campaign against

6031-525: The Outerbridge Crossing toll gantry east of the New Jersey state line on Staten Island . NY 440 and the parkway remain overlapped to Pleasant Plains , where NY 440 splits from the parkway and heads north on the West Shore Expressway . Past NY 440, the four-lane parkway heads northeast, gaining frontage roads as Drumgoole Road begins to run along both sides of the highway. Not far to

6194-466: The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge ) opened in 1936, connecting the Bronx , Manhattan , and Queens via three separate spans. Language in its Authority's bond contracts and multi-year Commissioner appointments made it largely impervious to pressure from mayors and governors. While New York City and New York State were perpetually strapped for money, the bridge's toll revenues amounted to tens of millions of dollars

6357-846: The Robert Moses Causeway on Long Island, and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant in Lewiston, New York . The Niagara Scenic Parkway in Niagara Falls, New York was originally named the Robert Moses State Parkway in his honor; its name was changed in 2016. The Moses-Saunders Power Dam in Massena, New York also bears his name. Moses also has a school named after him in North Babylon, New York on Long Island; there

6520-598: The Route ;24 interchange in Springfield, New Jersey . This was canceled because of opposition from the communities along the route. The segment that does exist in New Jersey was opened in 1969. There were also plans to extend I-78 east across Manhattan and into Brooklyn via the Williamsburg Bridge ; this would have been a second interchange between I-278 and its parent highway, but these plans were also thwarted. I-78

6683-792: The Staten Island Expressway ( SIE ) across Staten Island ; the Gowanus Expressway in southern Brooklyn ; the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway ( BQE ) across Northern Brooklyn and Queens ; a small part of the Grand Central Parkway in Queens; and a part of the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx. I-278 also crosses multiple bridges, including the Goethals , Verrazzano-Narrows , Kosciuszko , and Robert F. Kennedy bridges. I-278

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6846-554: The Throgs Neck Bridge , as well as several major highways. These roadways and bridges, alongside urban renewal efforts that destroyed huge swaths of tenement housing and replaced them with large public housing projects , transformed the physical fabric of New York and inspired other cities to undertake similar development endeavors. Moses's reputation declined after the publication of Robert Caro 's Pulitzer Prize -winning biography The Power Broker (1974), which cast doubt on

7009-623: The Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects. Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. These comprised ten pools at Astoria Park , Betsy Head Park , Crotona Park , Hamilton Fish Park , Highbridge Park , Thomas Jefferson Park , McCarren Park , Red Hook Park , Jackie Robinson Park , and Sunset Park , as well as

7172-433: The federal government found itself with millions of New Deal dollars to spend, yet states and cities had few projects ready. Moses was one of the few local officials who had projects shovel ready . For that reason, New York City was able to obtain significant Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and other Depression-era funding. One of his most influential and longest-lasting positions

7335-456: The subway system . Moses opposed this idea and fought to prevent it. Lindsay then removed Moses from his post as the city's chief advocate for federal highway money in Washington. The legislature's vote to fold the TBTA into the newly created Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) could have led to a lawsuit by the TBTA bondholders. Since the bond contracts were written into state law, it

7498-408: The "development scheme" mentality cultivated by Moses even though it was the impoverished Pennsylvania Railroad that was actually responsible for the demolition. This casual destruction of one of New York's greatest architectural landmarks helped prompt many city residents to turn against Moses's plans to build a Lower Manhattan Expressway , which would have gone through Greenwich Village and what

7661-552: The 11 pools began in October 1934. By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week. Combined, the facilities could accommodate 66,000 swimmers. The eleven WPA pools were considered for New York City landmark status in 1990. Ten of the pools were designated as New York City landmarks in 2007 and 2008. Moses allegedly fought to keep African American swimmers out of his pools and beaches. One subordinate remembers Moses saying

7824-673: The 1930s to the 1960s, Robert Moses was responsible for the construction of the Triborough , Marine Parkway , Throgs Neck , Bronx-Whitestone , Henry Hudson , and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridges . His other projects included the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Staten Island Expressway (together constituting most of Interstate 278 ); the Cross-Bronx Expressway ; many New York State parkways ; and other highways. Federal interest had shifted from parkway to freeway systems, and

7987-747: The 1930s to well into the 1960s because the parkways and expressways that were built replaced, at least to some extent, the planned subway lines. The 1968 Program for Action (which was never completed) was hoped to counter that. Other critics charge that he precluded the use of public transit, which would have allowed non-car-owners to enjoy the elaborate recreation facilities he built. Caro's The Power Broker also accused Moses of building low bridges across his parkways to make them inaccessible to public transit buses, thereby restricting "the use of state parks by poor and lower-middle-class families" who did not own cars. Caro also wrote that Moses attempted to discourage Black people in particular from visiting Jones Beach,

8150-408: The 1940s and 1950s, who largely believed in such proponents of the automobile as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe , had supported Moses. Many other cities, like Newark , Chicago , and St. Louis , also built massive, unattractive public housing projects. Caro also points out that Moses demonstrated racist tendencies . These allegedly included opposing black World War II veterans to move into

8313-551: The 1940s and early 1950s. For example, Portland, Oregon hired Moses in 1943; his plan included a loop around the city center , with spurs running through neighborhoods. Of this plan, only I-405 , its links with I-5 , and the Fremont Bridge were built. Moses himself did not know how to drive an automobile. Moses's highways in the first half of the 20th century were parkways—curving, landscaped "ribbon parks" that were intended to be pleasures to travel on, as well as "lungs for

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8476-607: The BQE and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, had opened in the 1930s. A part of the Brooklyn–Queens Connecting Highway, namely the Kosciuszko Bridge and the viaducts leading to the bridge, opened in 1939 between Meeker Avenue/Morgan Avenue and Queens Boulevard (NY 25). In 1940, Moses proposed an expressway between Queens and Brooklyn to relieve local streets of congestion from the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges. The section between

8639-407: The BQE continues east through residential areas and turns northeast upon coming to the Wythe Avenue/Kent Avenue exit. The road passes through the Williamsburg neighborhood on a depressed alignment, reaching an interchange that serves the Williamsburg Bridge , with an exit at Metropolitan Avenue a short distance later. I-278 becomes elevated again as it passes through more neighborhoods and comes to

8802-422: The Bruckner Boulevard alignment in order to provide a connection between the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and a freeway leading north into Westchester County . Moses took over planning for the road in 1951 and called for an elevated freeway between the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and the Bronx River and a depressed freeway east of there. Construction on the elevated segment of the Bruckner Expressway began in 1957 and on

8965-464: The Bruckner Expressway past there) before the current numbering took place by 1970, with I-895 designated onto the Sheridan Expressway (which was subsequently downgraded to a state highway in 2017). The New Jersey segment of I-278 begins in Linden , Union County , at the junction with US 1 and US 9 ( US 1/9 ), where it merges into the southbound direction of that road. The freeway heads east and carries two lanes in each direction, with

9128-401: The Federal Highway Administration rejected the city's request for $ 800 million to redesign and rebuild the cantilever. By the next month, no design had been finalized, and the start date for the triple cantilever's reconstruction had been postponed to 2028. The Bruckner Expressway was originally Bruckner Boulevard, designated as part of NY 1A . In the 1930s, a freeway was planned on

9291-405: The Goethals Bridge, opening to traffic in 1969 at a cost of $ 11.5 million (equivalent to $ 73.3 million in 2023 ). The Union Freeway Extension was revived in the late 1960s and was to start at US 1/9 but end at I-287 in Hanover Township , following Route 24 between I-78 and I-287. However, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) rejected the proposal in 1970, thus ending

9454-419: The Gowanus Expressway, from the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel to the Prospect Expressway ( NY 27 ), was opened in May 1950. The freeway was initially planned to be twelve lanes, with two three-lane roadways in each direction, but it was ultimately reduced to a six-lane highway to reduce disruption to the Bay Ridge neighborhood. The Gowanus Expressway was incorporated into the Interstate Highway System and became

9617-500: The I-278 designation. The construction of the SIE was particularly noted for the massive movement of earth required to build the section of the highway between Clove Road and Price Street (now Narrows Road North, a service road of the expressway) between Grymes Hill and Emerson Hill . The earth removed from the cut in the hill was placed in a remote section of central Staten Island adjacent to Sea View Hospital and has since been nicknamed "Moses Mountain". Originally, Moses intended for

9780-428: The I-278 project. The original four-lane Goethals Bridge, which predated the I-278 designation, was replaced with two new three-lane cable-stayed bridges , each carrying traffic in one direction. The new eastbound bridge opened to both directions of traffic in June 2017, and westbound traffic was shifted to the new westbound bridge in May 2018. The SIE was first planned in 1941 as the Cross-Richmond Express Highway,

9943-410: The Kosciuszko and Williamsburg bridges opened on May 25, 1950. A further extension between the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel and the Brooklyn Bridge, which included the Brooklyn Heights Promenade , was opened on June 23, 1954, connecting to the Gowanus Expressway. This was followed by a mile-long (1.6 km) section between the Williamsburg Bridge and Flushing Avenue on September 1, 1958. Two sections of

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10106-506: The Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges using the triple cantilever structure, which would be tolled. At the same time, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade was deteriorating significantly and was set to undergo renovations starting 2020. The structure is supported by steel rods inside rebar, which is corroding due to the seeping of road salt into widening cracks. If nothing was done on the roadway by 2026, weight restrictions would have to be implemented, with trucks diverted to local roads, and, by 2036,

10269-467: The New Jersey Turnpike, Conrail Shared Assets Operations ' (CSAO) Chemical Coast Secondary line, a Staten Island Railway freight line that is used by CSAO, industrial areas, CSAO's Bayway Industrial Track line, and finally Arthur Kill on the six-lane Goethals Bridge into Staten Island , a borough of New York City . This bridge is maintained by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). Upon coming onto Staten Island, I-278 becomes

10432-434: The Northeast Corridor. Along this section, there is a westbound exit and eastbound entrance for East 138th Street. Sheridan Boulevard ( NY 895 ) splits from the eastbound direction of I-278 as the Bruckner Expressway makes a turn to the east into residential and commercial neighborhoods on a surface alignment, crossing the Bronx River on a drawbridge . The road has an interchange at Hunts Point Avenue before coming to

10595-418: The Prospect Expressway ( NY 27 ). After the interchange with the Prospect Expressway (NY 27), the freeway widens to eight lanes and heads north, coming to an interchange with the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel approach (officially the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, I-478), with the exit ramps splitting from the median of I-278. Westbound access to the tunnel is provided by the Hamilton Avenue exit. In this area,

10758-416: The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge carries the route over the Bronx Kill into the Bronx , where westbound tolls are collected electronically. In the Bronx, I-278 becomes the Bruckner Expressway and reaches an interchange with the Major Deegan Expressway ( I-87 ). At this point, the Bruckner Expressway heads northeast on a six-lane elevated alignment through industrial areas with some residences, paralleling

10921-421: The SIE. After the Goethals Bridge, the highway passes under the Travis Branch railroad line that is owned by the Staten Island Railway and operated by CSAO and has a toll plaza serving the bridge. At this point, the freeway becomes eight lanes and maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), coming to an exit for Western and Forest avenues before reaching a directional interchange with

11084-442: The Sheridan Expressway and I-678 from there to I-95. Later, I-278 was planned to follow the Bruckner Expressway from I-87 to the Sheridan Expressway, where it would continue on that freeway to I-95, while the Bruckner Expressway was not designated an Interstate north of there. By 1970, I-278 was routed onto its current alignment, with I-895 (now NY 895) created along the Sheridan Expressway. Multiple express buses operated by

11247-431: The Soviet Union, were all BIE members and they declined to participate, instead reserving their efforts for Expo 67 in Montreal . After the World's Fair debacle, New York City mayor John Lindsay , along with Governor Nelson Rockefeller , sought to direct toll revenues from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority 's (TBTA) bridges and tunnels to cover deficits in the city's then financially ailing agencies, including

11410-411: The Taconic State Park Commission, who favored the prompt construction of a parkway through the Hudson Valley . Moses succeeded in diverting funds to his Long Island parkway projects (the Northern State Parkway , the Southern State Parkway and the Wantagh State Parkway ), although the Taconic State Parkway was later completed as well. Moses helped build Long Island's Meadowbrook State Parkway . It

11573-400: The United States. Never elected to any office, Moses held various positions throughout his more-than-40-year career. He held as many as 12 titles at once, including New York City Parks Commissioner and chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission . By working closely with New York governor Al Smith early in his career, he became expert in writing laws and navigating and manipulating

11736-709: The United States. The road runs 35.62 miles (57.32 km) from US Route 1/9 (US 1/9) in Linden, New Jersey , northeast to the Bruckner Interchange in the New York City borough of the Bronx . The majority of I-278 is in New York City, where it serves as a partial beltway and passes through all five of the city's boroughs . I-278 follows several freeways, including the Union Freeway in Union County, New Jersey ;

11899-671: The West Shore Expressway ( New York State Route 440 (NY 440). NY 440 forms a concurrency with I-278, and the road heads into residential neighborhoods. The road carries four lanes eastbound and three lanes westbound as it comes to the exit serving Richmond Avenue . Immediately after, NY 440 splits from the SIE at a large interchange, heading north on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway. This interchange also provides access to Victory Boulevard . East of this point,

12062-435: The anti-development sentiment was now insurmountable and in 1973 Rockefeller canceled plans for the bridge. Moses's image suffered a further blow in 1974 with the publication of The Power Broker , a Pulitzer Prize –winning biography by Robert A. Caro . Caro's 1,200-page opus (edited down from 2,000 or so pages) showed Moses generally in a negative light; essayist Phillip Lopate writes that "Moses's satanic reputation with

12225-691: The bridge option. This had not been the first time Moses pressed for a bridge over a tunnel. He had tried to upstage the Tunnel Authority when the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was being planned. He had raised the same arguments, which failed due to their lack of political support. Moses's power increased after World War II after Mayor LaGuardia retired and a series of successors consented to almost all of his proposals. Named city "construction coordinator" in 1946 by Mayor William O'Dwyer , Moses became New York City's de facto representative in Washington . Moses

12388-490: The bridge was opposed by the Regional Plan Association , historical preservationists, Wall Street financial interests, property owners, various high society people, construction unions , the Manhattan borough president , Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia , and governor Herbert H. Lehman . Despite this, Moses favored a bridge, which could both carry more automobile traffic and serve as a higher visibility monument than

12551-477: The bridge. Formerly, the frontage road of the Grand Central Parkway between the BQE and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge served as a truck route, since large trucks are not permitted on the parkway. Exemptions are provided for smaller trucks that conform with strict regulations, but only on the section of the Grand Central Parkway that overlaps with I-278. In December 2017, the state concluded a $ 2.5-million (equivalent to $ 3.06 million in 2023 ) project that lowered

12714-556: The builder who can remove ghettos without moving people as I hail the chef who can make omelets without breaking eggs." Additionally, there were allegations that Moses selectively chose locations for recreational facilities based on the racial compositions of a neighborhood, such as when he selected sites for eleven pools that opened in 1936. According to one author, Moses purposely placed some pools in neighborhoods with mainly white populations to deter African Americans from using them, and other pools intended for African Americans, such as

12877-548: The bus lanes were opened to high-occupancy vehicles during rush hours. In July 2008, officials announced a $ 50-million (equivalent to $ 69.5 million in 2023 ) project to improve the severe traffic conditions on a 1.8-mile (2.9 km) stretch of the expressway. Included in the project is the construction of six new on- and offramps, improvements to and relocations of existing on- and offramps, and other improvements to surrounding roads. This followed numerous minor alterations to alleviate traffic, such as time/distance displays and

13040-531: The centerpiece of the Long Island state park system, by such measures as making it difficult for Black groups to get permits to park buses, and assigning Black lifeguards to "distant, less developed beaches". While the exclusion of commercial vehicles and the use of low bridges where appropriate were standard on earlier parkways, where they had been instituted for aesthetic reasons, Moses appears to have made greater use of low bridges, which his aide Sidney Shapiro said

13203-600: The city and removed the Zoning Commissioner from power in the process. Moses was also empowered as the sole authority to negotiate in Washington for New York City projects. By 1959, he had overseen construction of 28,000 apartment units on hundreds of acres of land. In clearing the land for high-rises in accordance with the towers in the park concept, which at that time was seen as innovative and beneficial by leaving more grassy areas between high-rises, Moses sometimes destroyed almost as many housing units as he built. From

13366-502: The city has grown around them and it's not an option to just say we can't deal with that traffic." City Council Speaker Corey Johnson called for the city to study alternatives, including the removal of the BQE in its entirety, in his State of the City address . On March 13, 2019, Stringer issued a plan calling for converting the triple cantilever structure and the open cut in Cobble Hill into

13529-534: The city would have to shut down this section of the BQE. In late 2018, NYSDOT proposed rebuilding the double-decker, 1.5-mile (2.4 km) section of I-278 running under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which had deteriorated severely over the years. Two options were proposed. The cheaper option, which would cost $ 3.3 billion to $ 3.6 billion (equivalent to $ 3.94 billion to $ 4.3 billion in 2023 ) and take six years, entailed building

13692-537: The city". However, post–World War II economic expansion , and notion of the automotive city , led to the creation of freeways , most notably in the form of the vast, federally funded Interstate Highway network . When the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers , Walter O'Malley , sought to replace the outdated and dilapidated Ebbets Field , he proposed building a new stadium near the Long Island Rail Road on

13855-535: The city. After the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, I-278 continues into Brooklyn on the Gowanus Expressway. Immediately after the bridge, the freeway comes to an eastbound exit and westbound entrance for the Belt Parkway . After this, a full interchange serves 92nd Street at which point I-278 becomes a single-level six-lane freeway. Soon after, one of the eastbound lanes becomes an HOV lane, continuing east to

14018-619: The construction of Jones Beach State Park , the most-visited public beach in the United States, and was the primary architect of the New York State Parkway System . As head of the Triborough Bridge Authority , Moses had near-complete control over bridges and tunnels in New York City as well as the tolls collected from them; he built, among others, the Triborough Bridge , the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel , and

14181-459: The corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue (next to the present-day Barclays Center , home of the NBA 's Brooklyn Nets ). O'Malley urged Moses to help him secure the property through eminent domain, but Moses refused, having already decided to build a parking garage on the site. Moreover, O'Malley's proposal — to have the city acquire the property for several times as much as he had originally said he

14344-587: The day. O'Malley vehemently opposed that plan, citing the team's Brooklyn identity. Moses refused to budge and, after the 1957 season, the Dodgers left for Los Angeles and the New York Giants left for San Francisco . Moses was later able to build the 55,000-seat multi-purpose Shea Stadium on the site. Construction ran from October 1961 to its delayed completion in April 1964. The stadium attracted an expansion franchise,

14507-534: The depressed segment in 1959. The depressed portion was opened in 1961 while the elevated portion of the Bruckner Expressway was opened in 1962. In 1972, the large Bruckner Interchange was finished, completing the route. Over the years, the I-278 portion of the Bruckner Expressway has had different designations. When the Interstate Highway System was first created, the road was to be part of I-895 from I-87 to

14670-478: The designated bus lanes. Construction started in November 2010, with the project then expected to cost $ 75 million (equivalent to $ 102 million in 2023 ). A new exit 15, which served Lily Pond Avenue and Bay Street on the eastern end of Staten Island, opened to traffic on July 9, 2012, replacing a former exit further to the east. Signage was also changed to display Fingerboard Road and Lily Pond Avenue as

14833-487: The development of Jones Beach State Park . Displaying a strong command of law as well as matters of engineering , Moses became known for his skill in drafting legislation, and was called "the best bill drafter in Albany ". At a time when the public was accustomed to Tammany Hall corruption and incompetence, Moses was seen as a savior of government. Shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933,

14996-404: The east, the parkway runs along the southern edge of Bloomingdale Park and connects to Maguire Avenue by way of ramps leading to and from Drumgoole Road. The parkway continues slightly northeastward through Pleasant Plains to Huguenot , serving Huguenot Avenue with southbound exit and northbound entrance ramps. From Huguenot Avenue, the highway takes a more pronounced northeasterly track through

15159-566: The eastbound direction widening to three lanes. I-278 runs between urban residential areas to the north and the Bayway Refinery to the south as it continues into Elizabeth . In this area, the road meets Route 439 and the New Jersey Turnpike ( I-95 ) at the only intermediate interchange that I-278 has in New Jersey. This short length is sometimes called the Union Freeway. After this interchange, I-278 turns southeast and crosses

15322-757: The estates of the rich, but told owners of the family farms who lost land that it was an unbiased decision based on "engineering considerations." The book also charged that Moses libeled officials who opposed him, attempting to have them removed from office by calling them communists during the Red Scare . The biography further notes that Moses fought against schools and other public needs in favor of his preference for parks. Moses's critics charge that he preferred automobiles over people. They point out that he displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in New York City and destroyed traditional neighborhoods by building multiple expressways through them. The projects contributed to

15485-471: The exit for Broadway and Roosevelt Avenue . I-278 heads back onto a viaduct and comes to a single-point urban interchange at Northern Boulevard ( NY 25A ). A short distance past Northern Boulevard (NY 25A), the freeway splits into east and west segments with four lanes each that respectively merge into the Grand Central Parkway east- and westbound. Astoria Boulevard is accessible from either leg. Both legs receive Interstate funding, though only

15648-497: The expressway gains a bus lane in each direction. The six-lane I-278 turns to the east past this point, with Gannon Avenue South and Gannon Avenue North serving as frontage roads , and reaches the Bradley Avenue exit. The next interchange the SIE is with Todt Hill Road and Slosson Avenue. This exchange was the original terminal of the bus lane in each direction that also serves as a high-occupancy vehicle lane (HOV lane) that

15811-469: The expressway opened on August 26, 1959: a segment between the Brooklyn Bridge and Tillary Street in Brooklyn and between the Grand Central Parkway and Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. The expressway between Tillary Street and Flushing Avenue , around the Brooklyn Navy Yard , was opened shortly thereafter on January 6, 1960. The road in its entirety was completed on December 23, 1964 at a cost of $ 137 million (equivalent to $ 1.03 billion in 2023 ), with

15974-519: The expressway, the two-tiered promenade section in Brooklyn Heights that was designed by Moses, was originally planned to go straight through Hicks Street, then connect to the Brooklyn Bridge at Adams Street. Another route that was proposed by Moses would have continued up Hicks Street past Atlantic Avenue , removing all the buildings on one side of Court Street, then curving east into Tillary Street (at Cadman Plaza ). The Brooklyn Heights Association

16137-460: The fair, Moses's reputation was now undermined by the same personal character traits that had worked in his favor in the past: disdain for the opinions of others and high-handed attempts to get his way in moments of conflict by turning to the press. The fact that the fair was not sanctioned by the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), the worldwide body supervising such events, would be devastating to

16300-537: The first nine years of his life living at 83 Dwight Street in New Haven, two blocks from Yale University . In 1897, the Moses family moved to New York City, where they lived on East 46th Street off Fifth Avenue. Moses's father was a successful department store owner and real estate speculator in New Haven. In order for the family to move to New York City, he sold his real estate holdings and store, then retired. Moses's mother

16463-565: The free Shakespeare in the Park program received much negative publicity, and his effort to destroy a shaded playground in Central Park to make way for a parking lot for the expensive Tavern-on-the-Green restaurant earned him many enemies among the middle-class voters of the Upper West Side . The opposition reached a climax over the demolition of Pennsylvania Station , which many attributed to

16626-552: The freeway has is with Hylan Boulevard . A short distance later, the SIE comes to a large interchange that serves Lily Pond Avenue and Bay Street. Immediately after, I-278 reaches the former toll plaza for the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge , where electronic toll collection is in effect. Following the toll plaza area, I-278 goes onto the Verrazzano Bridge linking to Brooklyn over The Narrows . This bridge, which

16789-465: The freeway makes a turn to the east, passing over homes before crossing over New Calvary Cemetery. The road turns northeast through more urban neighborhoods and reaches an interchange at Queens Boulevard ( NY 25 ). At this point, I-278 becomes city-maintained again and passes under the Long Island Rail Road 's Main Line as it continues into a depressed alignment. The BQE turns north as it approaches

16952-661: The freeway passes over the Gowanus Canal , an extremely polluted canal that was once used for shipping. The site has been designated a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency . After the exit for the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, I-278 heads north onto the six-lane BQE, passing through urban neighborhoods near Downtown Brooklyn on a depressed alignment. The next interchange the highway reaches serves Atlantic Avenue . After Atlantic Avenue,

17115-475: The highway heads north through Wards Island Park and passes to the east of Manhattan Psychiatric Center as it passes over the border onto Randalls Island , which is connected to Wards Island by land. I-278 passes through the bridge's former toll plaza before an interchange that provides access to FDR Drive by way of another segment of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge over the Harlem River . After this interchange,

17278-488: The initial funding approved by the New York State legislature, knowing the legislature would eventually have to fund the full project to avoid appearing to have provided ineffective oversight ( fait accompli ). He was also characterized as using his political power to benefit cronies, including a case in which he secretly shifted the planned route of the Northern State Parkway large distances to avoid impinging on

17441-467: The intention of using it for the terminus of the Richmond Parkway. However, this never came to be finished and the interchange was demolished in 2012 as part of a project to widen the Staten Island Expressway. Wolfe's Pond Parkway, a spur route connecting Richmond Parkway to Wolfe's Pond Park on Staten Island's South Shore, was proposed by Robert Moses in 1941. The highway never advanced past

17604-504: The interchange with 31st Street, and I-278 continues northwest along the tolled, eight-lane Robert F. Kennedy Bridge , which passes over Astoria. Eastbound tolls are collected electronically at this point. I-278 crosses the East River on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, which maintained by the TBTA . It then enters Wards Island , which is a part of the borough of Manhattan . On Wards Island,

17767-594: The interchange with Humboldt Street/ McGuinness Boulevard . The BQE enters more industrial areas as it comes to the Meeker Avenue/Morgan Avenue exit. I-278 crosses the Newtown Creek into Queens on the Kosciuszko Bridge . Upon entering Queens, the BQE runs north between residential neighborhoods to the east and Calvary Cemetery to the west before coming to an interchange with the LIE ( I-495 ). After I-495,

17930-427: The late 1930s a municipal controversy raged over whether an additional vehicular link between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan should be built as a bridge or a tunnel. Bridges can be wider and cheaper to build, but taller and longer bridges use more ramp space at landfall than tunnels do. A "Brooklyn Battery Bridge" would have decimated Battery Park and physically encroached on the financial district, and for this reason,

18093-452: The need for one last great bridge project, a span crossing Long Island Sound from Rye to Oyster Bay . Rockefeller did not press for the project in the late 1960s through 1970, fearing public backlash among suburban Republicans would hinder his re-election prospects. A 1972 study found the bridge was fiscally prudent and could be environmentally manageable (according to the comparatively low environmental impact parameters of that period), but

18256-403: The neighborhoods of Woodrow and Annadale , meeting Arden Avenue by way of an interchange in the latter community. The parkway continues as a four-lane freeway to Greenridge , where the road merges with the northern half of Drumgoole Road to create a four-lane, two-way surface street with a Jersey barrier in the median. The Korean War Veterans Parkway ends at the merge; however, NY 909C,

18419-562: The new Long Island State Park Commission and the State Council of Parks. In 1924, Governor Smith appointed Moses chairman of the State Council of Parks and president of the Long Island State Park Commission. This centralization allowed Smith to run a government later used as a model for Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal federal government. Moses also received numerous commissions that he carried out efficiently, such as

18582-475: The new roads mostly conformed to the new vision, lacking the landscaping or the commercial traffic restrictions of the pre-war highways. He was the mover behind Shea Stadium and Lincoln Center , and contributed to the United Nations headquarters . On November 25, 1950, Governor Thomas E. Dewey appointed Moses along with former Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and former Justice Charles C. Lockwood as

18745-527: The one in Colonial Park (now Jackie Robinson Park ), were placed in inconvenient locations. Another author wrote that of 255 playgrounds built in the 1930s under Moses's tenure, only two were in largely Black neighborhoods. Caro wrote that close associates of Moses had claimed they could keep African Americans from using the Thomas Jefferson Pool , in then-predominantly-white East Harlem , by making

18908-480: The opening of a mile-long (1.6 km) underpass connecting Queens Boulevard with Roosevelt Avenue. The major interchange with the Long Island Expressway was rebuilt in 1966 for $ 32.7 million (equivalent to $ 235 million in 2023 ). The construction of the BQE, overseen by Moses, tore through many residential neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens instead of following the East River. One portion of

19071-399: The outlet for the new exit, rather than Lily Pond Avenue and Bay Street. On January 17, 2013, westbound exit 13 was permanently closed in favor of a new interchange setup, which involved two new ramps: exit 13B for Richmond Road and Targee Street and exit 13A for Clove Road. The Gowanus Expressway was initially the Gowanus Parkway, first planned in the 1930s. Construction of

19234-547: The planning stage, and it was ultimately cancelled in the 1970s. In 1997, the Richmond Parkway was renamed the Korean War Veterans Memorial Parkway; however, when signs announcing the change were erected, the word "Memorial" was inadvertently omitted. The entire route is in the New York City borough of Staten Island .  Interstate 278 Interstate 278 ( I-278 ) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Jersey and New York in

19397-411: The pools should be kept a few degrees colder, allegedly because Moses believed African Americans did not like cold water. Although Moses had power over the construction of all New York City Housing Authority public housing projects and headed many other entities, it was his chairmanship of the Triborough Bridge Authority that gave him the most power. The Triborough Bridge (later officially renamed

19560-399: The portion east of Richmond Avenue—much of it from environmentalists —because the parkway's planned route would have bisected the Staten Island Greenbelt and would have required the condemnation and razing of miles of private property. The 4.8-mile (7.7 km) section of the parkway between Richmond Avenue and the proposed Staten Island Expressway interchange ended up never being built, and

19723-472: The project, $ 1.7 billion in city funding was allocated, with the remainder to be footed from the state and federal governments. Because of sizable opposition to demolishing the promenade, mayor Bill de Blasio later stated that his administration was open to considering other ideas, including routing the expressway over Brooklyn Bridge Park . Hundreds of people, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Comptroller Scott Stringer, rallied on

19886-484: The promenade, calling for more public review. Local residents are strongly opposed to the construction of the temporary six-lane highway as it would run right up against their homes. In response, the Brooklyn Heights Association came up with an alternate plan, which called for the construction of a temporary bilevel roadway running besides the promenade on land including a parking lot. Support for reducing

20049-656: The public can be traced, in the main, to ... Caro's magnificent biography". For example, Caro describes Moses's lack of sensitivity in the construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway , and how he disfavored public transit . Much of Moses's reputation is attributable to Caro, whose book won both the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1975 and the Francis Parkman Prize (which is awarded by the Society of American Historians ), and

20212-451: The purported benefits of many of Moses's projects and further cast Moses as racist. In large part because of The Power Broker , Moses is today considered a controversial figure in the history of New York City as well as New York State. Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut , on December 18, 1888, to parents of German Jewish descent, Isabella “Bella” (Cohen) and Emanuel Moses. He spent

20375-644: The road runs along the East River harbor in Downtown Brooklyn/ Brooklyn Heights and is partially covered to create the Brooklyn Heights Promenade . As of October 2021 , the roadway has been reduced to two lanes in each direction between Atlantic Avenue and the Brooklyn Bridge as part of efforts to extend the life of the roadway and meet modern safety standards for lane width and shoulders. I-278, at this point maintained by

20538-529: The road, overseen by Robert Moses, started in 1939, with the parkway being built on top of the BMT Third Avenue Line . The parkway was completed in 1941 and became part of the Belt Parkway that received the NY ;27A designation. The Gowanus Parkway was to be reconstructed into the Gowanus Expressway in the 1950s to connect the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. The first segment of

20701-450: The roadbed of the section of the parkway that is concurrent with I-278. This section of I-278 now has a 14-foot (4.3 m) vertical clearance, which allows most trucks to stay on I-278. In late 2024, the NYCDOT began considering a plan to construct freeway caps above parts of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway, as well as converting the spaces under the expressway into public plazas. In 1999,

20864-487: The route was subsequently demapped. From time to time, proposals have been made to revive the aborted section of the parkway in response to steadily increasing traffic congestion on Staten Island. However, none of these proposals have received significant support from the island's elected officials or residents. Robert Moses had an interchange built at the junction with the Staten Island Expressway (I-278) in Todt Hill, with

21027-587: The ruin of the South Bronx and the amusement parks of Coney Island , caused the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants Major League baseball teams to relocate to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively, and precipitated the decline of public transport from disinvestment and neglect. His building of expressways also hindered the proposed expansion of the New York City Subway from

21190-423: The scale of works with the high cost and the slow speed of public works in the decades following his era. The peak of Moses's construction occurred during the economic duress of the Great Depression , and despite the era's woes, Moses's projects were completed in a timely fashion and have been reliable public works since then, which compares favorably to the delays that New York City officials have had in redeveloping

21353-642: The segment of I-278 between the Williamsburg Bridge and the Major Deegan Expressway , but this ultimately became a part of I-278. Additionally, the Bruckner Expressway portion of I-278 had been designated with different route numbers. At first, it was to be I-895 between I-87 and the Sheridan Expressway and I-678 past there. Later, I-278 was planned to follow the Bruckner Expressway and the Sheridan Expressway to I-95 (with no route number for

21516-512: The size of or tearing down the BQE increased, with articles in New York and The Wall Street Journal calling for the removal of the highway. They noted how the removal of highways in other cities improved local neighborhoods and led to economic development. Commissioner Trottenberg had dismissed calls to tear down the highway saying that the city got most of its freight by truck and that "For better or for worse, these Moses-built highways [...] now

21679-568: The success of the event. Moses refused to accept BIE requirements, including a restriction against charging ground rents to exhibitors, and the BIE in turn instructed its member nations not to participate. The United States had already staged the sanctioned Century 21 Exposition in Seattle in 1962. According to the rules of the organization, no one nation could host more than one fair in a decade. The major European democracies, as well as Canada, Australia, and

21842-567: The think tank Reason Foundation proposed placing the BQE within Brooklyn Heights in a tunnel. However, NYCDOT did not seriously consider this suggestion until 2016 when it studied six possible tunnel configurations. NYCDOT found that only the tunnel option starting at 21st Street on Third Avenue and ending near Kent Avenue in Williamsburg would be feasible. This option would have served as a bypass, with vehicles heading to Downtown Brooklyn, or

22005-627: The time he left office, he had built 658 playgrounds in New York City alone, plus 416 miles (669 km) of parkways and 13 bridges. The proportion of public benefit corporations is greater in New York than in any other U.S. state , however, making them the prime mode of infrastructure building and maintenance in New York and accounting for 90% of the state's debt. Moses's life was most famously characterized in Robert Caro 's 1974 award-winning biography The Power Broker . The book highlighted his practice of starting projects certain to cost more than

22168-399: The unsigned reference route designation for the parkway, continues to follow Drumgoole Road to its end a short distance later at an intersection with Richmond Avenue . Stubs intended to continue both directions of the parkway past Greenridge are present at the merge with Drumgoole Road. The unused highways roughly parallel Drumgoole Road, crossing over Richmond Avenue before abruptly becoming

22331-481: The viaduct structure of the Gowanus Expressway has deteriorated. In 1998, a $ 16-million (equivalent to $ 27.9 million in 2023 ) feasibility study for a tunnel for the Gowanus Expressway was awarded. NYSDOT was considering putting the road in a tunnel, but, in November 2011, the FHWA canceled the project. The viaduct's vertical steel supports show material missing due to rust, but the federal government has stated that it

22494-470: The viaduct within Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene . Simultaneously, the Queens section of the BQE between Queens Boulevard and 25th Avenue was also renovated. The Koscisuzko Bridge was replaced from 2014 to 2017 with a new eastbound span that temporarily served both directions of traffic. A second span of the Kosciuszko Bridge opened in 2019 for westbound traffic, adding more lanes to the BQE across

22657-603: The water too cold. Nonetheless, no other source has corroborated the claim that heaters in any particular pool were deactivated or not included in the pool's design. In addition, Moses took a favorable view of the British Empire and a racism much broader than solely towards the African-American community, speaking of Empire as useful in stemming the "rise of the lesser breeds without the law". Some scholars have attempted to rehabilitate Moses's reputation by contrasting

22820-479: The western leg is signed as part of I-278. I-278 turns west to run along the eight-lane state-maintained Grand Central Parkway , with Astoria Boulevard (and Hoyt Avenue later on) serving as a frontage road. The road runs along a depressed alignment, passing under Amtrak 's Northeast Corridor , then the New York City Subway 's BMT Astoria Line at 31st Street. The Grand Central Parkway overlap ends at

22983-421: The workings of state government. He created and led numerous semi-autonomous public authorities , through which he controlled millions of dollars in revenue and directly issued bonds to fund new ventures with little outside input or oversight. Moses's projects transformed the New York area and revolutionized the way cities in the U.S. were designed and built. As Long Island State Park Commissioner, Moses oversaw

23146-438: Was able to fight these proposed routes, which created the two-tiered section above Furman Street with the promenade over it. Several tunnels were later proposed to replace the promenade, but none of the tunnel proposals were supported or funded. In 1958, existing segments of the expressway were eligible for Interstate Highway funding. For a short time, the segment of highway between the Robert F. Kennedy and Williamsburg bridges

23309-519: Was active in the settlement movement , with her own love of building. Robert Moses and his brother Paul attended several schools for their elementary and secondary education , the Dwight School and the Mohegan Lake School , a military academy near Peekskill . After graduating from Yale College (B.A., 1909) and Wadham College , Oxford (B.A., Jurisprudence, 1911; M.A., 1913), and earning

23472-483: Was also given powers over public housing that had eluded him under LaGuardia. When O'Dwyer was forced to resign in disgrace and was succeeded by Vincent R. Impellitteri , Moses was able to assume even greater behind-the-scenes control over infrastructure projects. One of Moses's first steps after Impellitteri took office was halting the creation of a citywide Comprehensive Zoning Plan underway since 1938 that would have curtailed his nearly unlimited power to build within

23635-550: Was also planned to extend east beyond I-278 to John F. Kennedy International Airport , and then curve northward on the Clearview Expressway , ending at the Bruckner Interchange in the Bronx. If these plans were fully completed, I-78 and I-278 would have met at three interchanges. Two segments of I-278 have had different route number designations formerly planned or designated for it. I-87 was once planned to follow

23798-474: Was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and New York State . The grand scale of his infrastructure projects and his philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across

23961-478: Was built in 2005. After Todt Hill Road and Slosson Avenue, I-278 runs through a wooded area where it comes to an incomplete interchange that was to be the northern terminus of the Richmond Parkway . The road continues back into residential areas and comes to an interchange serving Clove Road and Richmond Road. Past this, I-278 passes over the Staten Island Railway rapid transit line. The next interchange

24124-417: Was built, however. The aborted section, from the expressway to Richmond Avenue, has become a part of the Staten Island Greenbelt , one of New York City's public parks. A ramp stub of an interchange on the expressway, cut into the hills of Todt Hill , still exists. Part of the trail system of the greenbelt was using the abandoned overpass bridge as pedestrian crossing of the expressway up until 2013, when it

24287-616: Was constructed along Drumgoole Road from 1966 to 1972 and opened to traffic in late 1972. As a result, the parkway's one-way service roads were named Drumgoole Road East and Drumgoole Road West. Drumgoole Road itself was named for Father John Drumgoole , the Irish-born founder of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, a Roman Catholic orphanage better known today as Mount Loretto . In the late 1960s, intense community opposition erupted over

24450-459: Was dismantled for lane widening improvements. The first link of the SIE opened in January 1964, from the Goethals Bridge to Victory Boulevard . The remainder opened later that year. The freeway had a total cost of $ 47 million (equivalent to $ 353 million in 2023 ). In 1998, bus lanes were created on the eastern part of the SIE near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge; they were extended west to Todt Hill Road/Slosson Avenue in 2005. In 2008,

24613-519: Was done to make it more difficult for future legislatures to allow access for commercial vehicles. Woolgar and Cooper refer to the claim about bridges as an "urban legend". Moses vocally opposed allowing Black war veterans to move into Stuyvesant Town , a Manhattan residential development complex created to house World War II veterans. In response to the biography, Moses defended his forced displacement of poor and minority communities as an inevitable part of urban revitalization: "I raise my stein to

24776-427: Was in apparent retaliation, based on specious claims that the proposed tunnel would undermine Castle Clinton's foundation. He also attempted to raze Castle Clinton itself, the historic fort surviving only after being transferred to the federal government. Moses now had no other option for a trans-river crossing than to build a tunnel. He commissioned the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (now officially the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel ),

24939-526: Was named one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books of the twentieth century by the Modern Library . Upon its publication, Moses denounced the biography in a 23-page statement, to which Caro replied to defend his work's integrity. Caro's depiction of Moses's life gives him full credit for his early achievements, showing, for example, how he conceived and created Jones Beach and the New York State Park system, but also shows how Moses's desire for power came to be more important to him than his earlier dreams. Moses

25102-576: Was of Jewish origin and raised in a secularist manner inspired by the Ethical Culture movement of the late 19th century. He was a convert to Christianity and was interred in a crypt in an outdoor community mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City following services at St. Peter's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Bay Shore, New York . Various locations and roadways in New York State bear Moses's name. These include two state parks, Robert Moses State Park – Thousand Islands in Massena, New York and Robert Moses State Park – Long Island ,

25265-527: Was opened in pieces from the 1930s through the 1960s. Some of its completed segments predated the Interstate Highway System and are thus not up to standards , and portions of I-278 have been upgraded over the years. In New York, the various parts of I-278 were planned by Robert Moses , an urban planner in New York City. The segments proposed tore through many New York City neighborhoods, causing controversy. Despite its number, I-278 does not connect to I-78 . There were once plans to extend I-278 west to I-78 east of

25428-412: Was said to have blocked Paul, an engineer, from being hired for any public service jobs including major infrastructure projects that Moses himself had spearheaded. Paul, whom Caro interviewed shortly before the former's death, claimed Robert had exerted undue influence on their mother to change her will in Robert's favor shortly before her death. Caro notes that Paul was on bad terms with their mother over

25591-409: Was that of Parks Commissioner of New York City, a role he served from January 18, 1934, to May 23, 1960. The many offices and professional titles that Moses held gave him unusually broad power to shape urban development in the New York metropolitan region. These include, according to the New York Preservation Archive Project: During the 1920s, Moses sparred with Franklin D. Roosevelt , then head of

25754-429: Was the first fully divided limited access highway in the world. Moses was a highly influential figure in the initiation of many of the reforms that restructured New York state's government during the 1920s. A 'Reconstruction Commission' headed by Moses produced a highly influential report that provided recommendations that would largely be adopted, including the consolidation of 187 existing agencies under 18 departments,

25917-461: Was to be designated I-87 and continue north as the Major Deegan Expressway. By 1959, the I-278 designation was given to the entire length of the highway. Since the roadway was constructed prior to modern expressway standards, the road needed to be upgraded to meet these standards. By the 1990s, a major multiyear project beginning in the 1980s brought upgrades to the BQE. In the early 2000s, the expressway underwent another upgrade project that replaced

26080-407: Was to repair the existing six-lane highway one lane at a time. The promenade walkway would be closed for up to six years under the first option and for two years under the second option, with periodic closures for construction use. The NYCDOT commissioner, Polly Trottenberg , called the project "the most challenging project not only in New York City, but arguably in the United States right now". For

26243-435: Was to run along an abandoned railroad right-of-way , it would traverse through dense development in Roselle Park , Kenilworth , and Union Township, thereby making the project further disliked. By 1967, state officials decided not to pursue the continuation of I-278 and used the funds for I-278 to build I-195 across Central Jersey instead. The only section of I-278 in New Jersey was built between US 1/9 in Linden and

26406-399: Was unconstitutional to impair existing contractual obligations, as the bondholders had the right of approval over such actions. The largest holder of TBTA bonds, and thus agent for all the others, was the Chase Manhattan Bank , headed then by David Rockefeller , the governor's brother. No suit was filed. Moses could have directed TBTA to go to court against the action, but having been promised

26569-410: Was willing to pay — was rejected by both pro- and anti-Moses officials, newspapers, and the public, as an unacceptable government subsidy of a private business enterprise. Moses envisioned New York's newest stadium being built in Queens' Flushing Meadows on the former (and as it turned out, future) site of the World's Fair , where it would eventually host all three of the city's major league teams of

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