The northbound I-278 BQE rumbles over the Gowanus Viaduct on a bright January 1999 afternoon. This view was at the interchange with the NY27 Prospect Expressway. Reconstruction had not transformed this section yet, but it would within a few years when the entire Prospect Expressway interchange was rebuilt. The southbound lanes split between the two expressways here, with the southbound ramp into the Prospect passing beneath us. To the left is the Red Hook neighborhood, a mixture of industrial and residential buildings. A large housing project, the Red Hook Houses, is just beyond the creek. The major landmark business sign dominating the middle background is for the Bruno GMC truck dealer.

Around the curve, we ascend the Gowanus Expressway Viaduct crossing the Gowanus Creek. Whether this is really even part of the BQE is debatable. I've personally always lumped the Gowanus elevated expressway section with the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and feel that the Gowanus is simply a child under the BQE family umbrella, same as Shore Parkway is considered a subject of the greater Belt Parkway. The Gowanus Expressway actually started out life as a parkway in the early 1940s, but was never very park like. For one thing, it was a stark naked elevated which none of the true parkways were except for isolated viaduct crossings. Plus, it was adorned with steel Whitestone Bridge style lamp posts unlike the bucolic woodies that lined traditional parkways back then. It was later widened from 4 to 6 lanes and ultimately connected to the southward expanding Brooklyn Queens in the mid 1950s, then southward itself to a new expressway extension leading to the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. The Bruno truck dealer sign has long been a landmark for drivers. When I shot these photos, they were very much still in business, but the 21st century would not prove kind to them. At some point, they switched from being a GMC dealer to Mercedes, then from that to being out of business. The sign remains to this day however, about a decade since the business went out of business, now perched over a sanitation truck garage. Hey, at least it gets to feel like its still in the truck business. It's better than being hauled away as garbage itself. The Manhattan skyline peeks out over the background. Reconstruction of the right lanes coming in from the Prospect Expressway had already resulted in the replacement of the braced uplift-masted poles there, with the cyclopic Thomas Betts interstate lamps on the tall poles. In due time as the new century commenced, further reconstruction obliterated the rest of the brace-armed poles.

Upon descending the other side of the Gowanus viaduct, traffic headed straight for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where the Interstate 278 BQE through traffic split off to the right.