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