New York City Signs 10082019

past, present, future.

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There are several East River Crossings from Long Island to Manhattan Island. I-495, The Long Island Expressway (aka the ‘distressway’, aka ‘the worlds longest parking lot;) goes into The Midtown Tunnel. The second most traveled crossing is the 59th street bridge, which lands you on 62nd street (go figure!). The 59th street bridge, which was completed in 1909, subsequently was called “The Queensboro Bridge”, since it connects the boro of Manhattan with the boro of Queens. Recently it was re-named the Ed Koch Queensboro bridge in memory of The Cities second greatest mayor (“HowMyDoin?”).

To any local the Silvercup Bread sign greeted you everytime you took the 59th street bridge from The City to Long Island. The sign was errected in the 1920’s. Silvercup made all-natural bread in the 1960’s and was a popular local brand and the pioneer of ‘healthy’ oriented bread. In 1975 they went bankrupt as a result of a teamsters strike and the sign remained for years. Then a film & television studio bought the building in 1984 and with an eye towards local sensibility saved the sign and made a minor change to ‘Silvercup Studios’. Silvercup studios is the largest film and television studio in New York City.

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The 59th street bridge to the right. Notice the very tall skinny buildings that are new to the skyline and going up en-mass. The slanted roof straight ahead is the Citibank Building. Towards the left is the Chrysler building (the gem of the New York City Skyline), Empire State Building and the United Nations in front of the ESB.

In the foreground is the Long Island City Waterfront where the large parking lots are for busses and taxi’s. The traffic going inbound to Manhattan is the morning rush hour.

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