
Bruckner Expressway Dedication
Parks Commissioner, Robert F. Moses; Bronx Borough President, Joseph F. Periconi; State Superintendent of Public Works, Mr. John Burch McMorran and Mayor Robert F. Wagner speak at the dedication of the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx
Moses describes the transit routes of the still unfinished Bruckner Expressway and plans for future transportation projects. "...let me say that Bruckner Expressway, still a long way from finished, has been an interesting job. The difficulties especially as to financing and availability of federal funds have been hard to explain and little appreciated by a bewildered public."
Periconi thanks Moses as a "catalyst to keep things moving" and is optimistic about benefits of the finished project, first planned in 1934.
McMorran expects the expressway to open later in the year. He provides additional information about the goals of the project and its evolution. The section presented at the dedication was constructed in three segments and cost an excess of 33 million dollars.
When introducing the final speaker Moses thanks Mayor Wagner for being a patsy for the construction crew's lack of training and interest in diplomacy and protocol, "our only claim is that we get the work done."
Wagner praises the expressway as "another vital link" in the New York highway system, particularly to the Huntspoint Market still under construction. He suggests that they will need to move other wholesale markets to relieve traffic, "we must give priority to the movement of people." He mentions a study that is being conducted by Columbia University and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to investigate staggered work hours to relieve commuter traffic.
Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection
WNYC archives id: 150465
Municipal archives id: LT9478
This is a machine-generated transcript. Text is unformatted and may contain errors.
Ladies and gentlemen I give you Commissioner Moses who will act as master of ceremonies and preside at these ceremonies. But it is job one. Of the opening. Of a new modern urban highway carries this or that significance according to the stamps of the observer having from the beginning out of cotton it's building and having intercepted a number of brick bats in the process having not a hole or reward nor fear of punishment these are the lessons that brings home to me. First Bruckner is a complex catch all combination of an awesome solace an east and west roots bring together borrows bridges main arteries going in all directions in its march north into upstate New York east into New England solved by the Whitestone of Throgs Neck bridges into Long Island. And West by way of the Deegan Expressway to the Hudson in New Jersey. Today there are eighteen lanes on an above the street level on the first section of the brook. On through traffic will move in a few minutes over steel and stone it took us years of toil and sweat if not two years to build. In our peculiar topography east west Audrie's free from crossings that grade both expressways and park ways are essential to major movements of traffic as our north and Sol thought arrays have been too long neglected goalpost bomb as a result when the need becomes obvious the difficulties of will come formidable on the cost almost prohibitive we must eventually have three elevated expressways in a low or in mid-month happen in one and haul them completely reconstructed Telamon Marshall who park waves as well as the expressway we opened today the reconstructed cross colony on the lower West Chester and an extension of the one tallest debate Expressway on Long Island by way of a modern automobile ferried off a Westchester these cross auto race will connect Long Island with New Jersey and New England. In the Bronx and Westchester second. Rate you know through franchise bus service without stops should be encouraged on expressways the demand to date is however a very small. Do not know why but this is a fact here and all over the rest of the country not all of the Transit Authority which has long experience of such matters all private bus operators are is yet in the least interested. Third the full cooperation of the great metropolitan authorities in New York and New Jersey which build and operate tunnels and bridges with the highway entity's national state and municipal is indispensable for the success of connecting arteries like Bruckner Deegan on the Cross Bronx the frequent charge that such cooperation has been lacking is contrary to the facts and the new water is a way of building prove that public officials can and do work together for commuter rail traffic must be improved but bears little provable relation to Manhattan Bronx and Westchester vehicular cross traffic except perhaps in the case of the Long Island Railroad filth Bruckner Deegan and other expressways demonstrate how senseless it is to wait until the great apartment houses have to be taught. More and more people and businesses moved in order to depress or elevate through traffic and lift it all the obsolete local gridiron street system which we haven't heard a must somehow live with him conclusion let me say that brought the expressway still a long way from finished as been an interesting job the difficulties especially as to financing and availability of federal funds have been hard to explain and little appreciated by a bewildered public those privileged to sponsor such fascinating out of prizes must get their satisfaction out of the day's work and that should be enough. Of the first speaker here is the bar a president of the problems that he has to. Live with a lot of criticism and a lot of misunderstanding Oh yeah one of two things that borrow president especially. The bar a president can do under these conditions one of them is to agree with all of the critics and stimulate them to further efforts along that direction and the other is to try to explain to them what the problem solved and in the present our president has to bear a call and he has done the latter he's been most helpful to us he's had to stand up in the face of the kind of court system which is unjustified we've been the beneficiaries because he's made the interference for us Mr. Thank you very much Commissioner Moses mayor Agnus open town the modern so intent wrote and Commissioner. Ladies and gentlemen I'm very happy to be part of this ceremony here today. This is not a time for any long speeches a just a presence here so many dignitaries. Informs you that we're very happy to take part in this ceremony at this improvement just didn't come about. It took many years of planning and as commissioner Moses mentioned sweat tears and finances to this link this fire dug this two and four times mile by a dog was part of an overall master plan back in one nine hundred thirty four but like a lot of other plans would have lied dormant unless we had someone some public spirited citizen like the gentleman who appeared before me as a catalyst to keep things moving and so it was some ten years ago from Commissioner Moses through his planning and designing and preparation made possible this particular link here today and so are grateful to him or grateful to so many other governmental agencies and other gentleman who had these agencies who worked hard and long to make this a realization here today and so it's a real pleasure for me to take part in it and to let you know too that it's not on an important highway here it will feed of course your new Hunts Point Market will be completed that was commit ground for group which was broken in the beginning of this year not very far from this particular site and so we're happy then to take part in this ceremony and we hope that before long we'll have completed the other several miles of the seven a half mile highway making this road available to motorists eliminating bottlenecks and in short making it something that we can be proud of here in the bar of the bongs bar Progress thank you very much. I don't want to bore you with a long story about how many agencies of government are mixed up in an enterprise of this kind mean know that ninety percent of the money for construction comes from Washington ten percent from Albany theoretically nothing from the city but actually quite a lot when you figure in the street system and then in addition to that you'll have the drive or Bridge and Tunnel Authority and many other officials. The man in charge of actually letting the contracts and getting the work done as the State Superintendent of Public Works who is here today. He knew in a sense is a long way off up in Albany but he has to carry a tremendous responsibility down here because these are not ordinary highways they're not milk routes they're not ordinary roads. These are highly complicated structures take a long while to build and cost a great deal of money and involve. Inconveniencing to say the least a lot of people. Was one of the boys only power development on the Niagara of say large She was the chief engineer there and he went from the out of the suit to be pursued the public works. In the present state administration I believe he started way back he can tell you this is a labor of that department and he's worked his way all the way up to the top Mr McMartin. Mr Moses. Ladies and gentlemen. It is a great satisfaction to me today to be here on this lovely day. As some of these things have been such a wonderful weather. And to take part in the opening of this two and a half mile section of the Bruckner Expressway. Not only does this provide a much needed facility it also spells success in our department's effort to have the section open to traffic this year more than three months ahead of the construction schedule. The extra effort expended to better the completion date will be right repaid many many times by the knowledge that motorists through this area have the earlier use of another link and a highway network that is second to none the segment part of the interstate highway system was built in three sections at a construction cost in excess of thirty three million dollars of which as Mr Moses has told you the federal government paid ninety percent and the state ten percent with the other contributions of the also referred to. It embodies up to date highly design which will enable this facility to safely carry or exceptional volumes of traffic between the Triborough Bridge and old street by mid one nine hundred sixty three it will provide a direct connection between the bridges and the Cross Bronx Expressway via the new Sheraton expressway now under construction from Old Street northward express routes are no novelty to the Borough of the Bronx it was here that it was believed. What is the first limit of Access but he was built mainly the Bronx or reparse way that Parkway was started way back in one nine hundred sixteen and completed sometime around one nine hundred thirty engineering designs and methods have improved greatly over the nearly five decades since abrupt River Parkway was started. But the basic premise principle of limited or controlled access is being incorporated today in all of our modern highways. In developing the Bruckner Expressway this press principle was temporarily sidetracked early plans for the Lafayette tolls for each section would have permitted a crossing agreed at Hunts Point Avenue revisions and due sign were finally authorized late in one nine hundred fifty eight and their completion early in one nine hundred sixty the third contract was moved forward to while letting. This latest contract was scheduled for completing completion by February first one nine hundred sixty three but in one nine hundred sixty some of you may recall. I prophesied that the expressway would be in use by the end of this year there were times I would thought maybe I was a little over optimistic but we are making it the lion's share of the credit for making this possible for Gore however to them him who daily actually did the work on the job under the contractor the gall contracting company flushing the contractors on the early earlier segments Slattery contracting company and the Slattery tunnel corporation of mass path mass P. also deserve a well done themselves the Department of Public Works takes great pleasure on these occasions of acknowledging its close cooperation and relationship with the various other agencies involving involved in our highly programs including the Federal Bureau of Public roads and the office of Mr Moses representing both the Triborough Bridge and the city by working together toward mutual objectives we have been there able we have been able to achieve record highway progress here in New York I look forward to the continuation of this relationship and the abiding support of all of our citizens in the further development of a better and safer highway system in this great metropolitan area I thank you. Mr Spargo and has taught us and several others a self that for some time represented the mare of New Yawk as the connecting links amiss problem of coordinating the works of the federal and state and local people. It's a pretty tough job I doubt whether in the history of construction. Any such responsibility is formed on people less trained in diplomacy. I'm less interested in protocol in our group and I must be a source of a great deal of worry to the mare from time to time to note the rather crude way in which we go about our business our only claim is that we get the work done as a good mopping up to do after us. And. We're more interested in production than we are on employee we are in protocol all of you know all that. It's the elected officials and especially in a city big city like New York the mare the really get the criticism in the brickbats. They are the people who chose for that job that chosen to be the Patsies in the victims when people are mad when they're angry whether they're justified in it or not. Mare Wagner is made the end of fair and so for us he's made it possible for us to do our work in the past and I know that he will continue to do so in the future male whack. Thank you Bob Moses. Introduction I agree with you on every point raised in the introduction to. A good friend of President Joe Our accounting superintendent a moron. Congressman Sanand sample him and Abrams and ladies and gentlemen. We gather here today to. Open another vital link in our metropolitan highway system. This two and one half mile section of the Bruckner Expressway that we are about to open is one third of a projected completely modern elevated expressway seven and a half miles long time into when forming a part of the interconnected national network of forty one thousand miles of interstate highways. This elevated expressway had six lanes of uninterrupted through traffic highway with a twelve lanes on the street below which remain of course available for the use of local traffic. Is two and one half mile stretch of elevated expressway cost more than thirty four millions of which has been said ninety percent was put up by the federal government the real payment in dollars and cents comes from millions of New Yorkers who pay gasoline and other highway transportation taxes. The Bruckner Expressway is important to New York City in many ways immediate and long range and it fits nicely into our local plan. That's the Bruckner Expressway will provide an access route as been pointed out by Joe Perry County to the great hunts market Hunts Point Market now under construction for fruit and vegetable produce trucks from many of the points of origin of the shipments in fact it is in response to the growing problem of transportation and traffic congestion that we are moving the Washington Street Market from lower Manhattan to the thirty million dollar Hunts Point site in so doing we will take a great number of huge trucks off the small streets of the Lower West Side of Manhattan. We are now intensively studying the possibility of moving some of the other wholesale markets in our city to locations similar to Hunts Point. We must seek to work out ways to move both people and goods to their destinations with the greatest possible speed economy and safety but we must give priority to the movement of people away out first of all as city of people. Each weekday morning hundreds of thousands of men women and women come into New York City from New Jersey Connecticut in the suburban fringes of our city. Of course there are the thousands who live in one borrow and work in another. All are interested in getting to their jobs on time and getting home quickly after they finish their work. EXPRESS What ways like this are a great help for those who must drive into the city although we hope that more and more motorists will take advantage of friends parking and use public transportation to the congested no parking areas of the city. In this way are central to our oath as will provide swifter transfer transit for taxis buses commercial traffic and emergency vehicles it is part of our plan constantly to increase and improve the amount in the quality of our subway and bus transportation facilities we are one of the few cities in America in which the public transportation system is carrying more and more people every year. And I believe one of the principles reason being we've been able to hold to the fifteen cent fare in most cities the number of people carried is decreasing. I'm next great forward step in this field might well be a program of staggered work hours throughout the city through a comprehensive series of voluntary agreements with employers such a plan is in the last stages of technical study right now I understand in this study a year over a year ago through an arrangement with Columbia University and the private foundation known as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund the city and the foundation are sharing equally in the two hundred thousand dollars cost of this study I hope in the not too distant future to see the fruits of the study. Result can be to eliminate the horrors of that audience on the subway on the buses known as the rush out if we can achieve that I am sure we will make even greater progress toward increasing the number of commuters who will cheerfully depend upon public transportation and will be willing to leave their cars in the parking areas on the fringes of the city such a development will be of great assistance in easing and speeding traffic on this expressway and on all other Expressway one of the troubles with expressways is that the minute they are opened if they are good they attract increasing amounts of traffic and then during peak traffic hours they to become choked up and movement can easily become paralyzed we can hope that this won't happen on this beautiful one. This Expressway is being opened today and in the name of the people of the city I congratulate all those who have played a part in planning and building this beautiful roadway and I say only two and one half miles down and five miles to go thank you very much thank. You.