We've just arrived at the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge approach in Whitestone, Queens. from the Cross Island Parkway. The solid, high arched style towers built in the late 1930's broke for keeps the more intricate, open grid-work towers of the older bridges. The Whitestone finished the transition from that older style that had begun with the George Washington Bridge spanning the Hudson River. While still sporting an open frame and a fairly thickset build, the latter's arches set the stage for those of the sleeker Whitestone. In defense of the open frame on the George Washington towers, the intent had been to seal them, but the Great Depression killed the financing for that little frill. Nonetheless, the Bronx-Whitestone's basic design was carried forth to varying degrees by the post war bridges, the Throgs Neck Bridge to its east, and the mighty Verrazano-Narrows Bridge linking Brooklyn with Staten Island. Another bridge that would have had the closed arch style was never built, its plans relinquished in favor of the less intrusive Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. The designer of all these bridges was one in the same, Othmar Ammann, who also consulted on the very similar Delaware Memorial twin spans.

We're nearing the first of the classic "Whitestone" style lampposts that still adorn this crossing, albeit with what must have been their sixth generation of luminaires. The strange new mercury vapor light fixture replaced the long tubed LPS "Hotdog" fixtures that had cut the fog for the twenty some odd previous years. These photos date from 1999, when the original version of this page was written. As I resurrect this long missing section of my old site in late 2012, for all I know the Whitestone's "Stones" now have their eighth set of lights.

Though formally named the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, for the most part everyone in New York just calls it the Whitestone Bridge. In the Bronx, the bridge touches down in what was known as Ferry Point, and all the surrounding area around the Bronx approach was supposed to become a riverside park. Both approach roads, the Whitestone in Queens and Hutchinson River in the Bronx, were parkways limited to non commercial vehicles and adorned with cute little woodie lampposts. As the decades wore on and needs changed dramatically, the entire Whitestone Parkway and the Hutchinson bridge approach south of thee Bruckner and Cross Bronx Expressways, were converted into full fledged interstate grade expressways.

A good question to ask, if you're of a mind to, is why the bridge is named for the whole Bronx on one hand, and only the Whitestone part of Queens on the other. I believe the original plans were for Ferry Point to be in the name, but back in the Great Depression, the city could only afford to spell out so many letters. As it is, the bridge's formal name was too much for most people to deal with, hence the dropping the "Bronx" by many.