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Photo Gallery: Honeywell Bridge |
 From the Skillman Avenue
entrance, inside the poorly constructed fence meant to keep nuts
like myself out.This bridge, once a vital connection crossing over the railroad yards between Sunnyside and Long Island City, is like a lost world trapped in a time warp. It has been closed since around 1980 and is probably the last significant stretch of road in the city with an unbroken run of original issue bishop crook lampposts. Now, with the nearby Queens Boulevard bridge over the yards undergoing a badly needed reconstruction, this bridge too is slated for rebuilding. Unfortunately, the city has already made it clear that these ancient lampposts will not survive that renovation. Heralding their comnig demise are the myriad bales of construction materal being collected on the site, and the omminous orange crane patiently awaiting orders to begin dismantling things. To the right, the first old bishop crook pole encountered, missing its scrollwork and luminaire diffuser. Below, the view south of the Long Island Railroad tracks as they pass alongside the Sunnyside Yards. Off in the distance is the IRT 7 train elevated running along Queens Boulevard, and behind that the Citibank Center near the East River bank in Long Island City. All shot late in the afternoon, on Sunday, April 1st, 2001. |
| Even a bishop crook missing its scrollwork has a certain kind of charm that new retro castings can never hope to exude, let alone the stark aluminum jobs that a newly reconstructed Honeywell will probably be given. This 90 year old antiquity is, after all, the real thing, in all its rusted and neglected glory. It looks like something that has been in normal use, suffered normal wear and tear, yet is still relevant because it belongs. Now it stands helpless in the shadows of its bright orange nemesis across the way. |
| Close up of the wierd wavy pattern of paving stones just inside the Skillman end against the southern curb. The stones are arranged in a standard straight line grid pattern in the center of the roadbed. |
