A boom, and a cloud of grey dust: New Yorkers watched the controlled demolition of the old Kosciuszko Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens on Sunday (Oct. 1).
A new bridge is being built to replace it after decades of complaints over its congestion.
The Kosciuszko Bridge opened in 1939. Rising 125 feet above the industrial Newtown Creek on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, it was long past its expiration date, as the New York Times notes: built for 10,000 cars a day, it was forced to carry 180,000.
A portion of the bridge was lowered onto barges and taken away to be recycled in July.
The eastbound span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge opened in April 2017. The second span is scheduled to be finished by 2020.
