Whitestone Bridge
| Bronx-Whitestone Bridge | |
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View of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge from Queens.
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| Coordinates | 40°48′03″N 73°49′50″W / 40.80083°N 73.83056°WCoordinates: 40°48′03″N 73°49′50″W / 40.80083°N 73.83056°W |
| Carries | 6 lanes of  I-678
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| Crosses | East River |
| Locale | New York City (Throggs Neck, Bronx – Whitestone, Queens) |
| Other name(s) | Whitestone Bridge |
| Maintained by | MTA Bridges and Tunnels |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Suspension bridge |
| Total length | 3,770 feet (1,150 m) |
| Longest span | 2,300 feet (700 m) |
| Clearance above | 14 feet 6 inches (4.4 m) |
| Clearance below | 134 feet 10 inches (41.1 m) |
| History | |
| Construction cost | $19.7 million |
| Opened | April 29, 1939 |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 105,718 (2012) |
| Toll | As of March 19, 2017, $8.50 (cash and non-New York E-ZPass); $5.76 (New York E-ZPass) |
 Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
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The Bronx–Whitestone Bridge (colloquially referred to as the Whitestone Bridge or simply the Whitestone) is a suspension bridge in New York City that crosses the East River and connects the boroughs of Queens on Long Island, and the Bronx on the United States mainland via Interstate 678. The bridge was designed by Othmar Ammann and opened to traffic with four lanes on April 29, 1939.
The Bronx–Whitestone Bridge is owned by New York City and operated by the MTA Bridges and Tunnels, an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The idea for a crossing between the Bronx and Whitestone, Queens had come as early as 1905. At the time, residents around the proposed area of the bridge protested construction in fear of losing the then-rural character of the community. In 1929, however, the Regional Plan Association had proposed another bridge from the Bronx to northern Queens to allow motorists from upstate New York and New England to reach Queens and Long Island without traveling through the traffic-ridden communities of western Queens. On February 25, 1930, influential planner Robert Moses proposed a Ferry Point Park-Whitestone Bridge as a part of his Belt Parkway system around Brooklyn and Queens.
As the 1930s progressed, Moses found his bridge increasingly necessary to directly link the mainland to the 1939 New York World's Fair and to LaGuardia Airport (then known as North Beach Airport). In addition, the Whitestone Bridge was to provide congestion relief to the Triborough Bridge. The New York Legislature approved Moses' plan in April 1937. Moses had raised controversy when he quickly decided to demolish seventeen homes in the Queens community of Malba. Moses argued such measures were necessary to complete the bridge on schedule. The RPA had also said that the Whitestone Bridge should have rail connections, or at least be able to accommodate them in the future, but had no allies on the project, to Moses' relief.
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