Wednesday, June 24, 2015

#442 Pedestrian Bridge over Holland Tunnel Rotary at St. John’s Park


Pedestrian Bridge over Holland Tunnel Rotary at St. John’s Park
June 24, 2015, Keith Nelson, Rob Hickman

ride time: 2:01:40
distance: 11.07 miles
ride link


View on Unicycle NYC Bridge Tour Map at: unibridgetour.net

From Wikipedia:

The Holland Tunnel Rotary is a traffic circle at the eastern end of the Holland Tunnel in Lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. Owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey it serves as an entryway into the city at the end of Interstate 78. The rotary is within the city block in Tribeca bounded by Laight, Varick, Beach and Hudson Streets. The land which it is situated has undergone several significant transformations since the American colonial era, having been farmland, a city square, and a rail freight depot.

In 1920 the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission and the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission appropriated funds and began construction on what was then referred to as the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel, and is now the Holland Tunnel. Soon after it's opening in 1927, the freight terminal was removed to make room for the eastbound exits in the of the form a one-way circular road, or rotary. Traffic patterns were re-assigned in 1958. Renovations to the rotary which included adding an additional, or fifth, exit were completed in 2004. The inner portion of the rotary is not accessible to pedestrians.

The interior of the rotary was the site of St. John's Rotary Arc, a sculpture by Richard Serra, from 1980 to 1987. Joie de Vivre, a sculpture by Mark di Suvero, was situated in the rotary between 1998 and 2006. In 2010, the AIA Guide to New York City called the interior space a "circular wasteland" and commented: "Our ancestors preserved many a New York treasure, but blew it here."

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