Denny Farrell Greenway Bridge

The Denny Farrell Greenway Bridge is a tied arch bridge that was constructed to provide an easier connection between Riverside Park and Upper Manhattan. A new bridge at this location was first proposed in the 1990s, but it ran into resistance with city design officials and the funding was never raised.

Construction began for this bridge in the summer of 2015, and was planned to finish in late 2016. However, the project was delayed because the bridge abutments failed a quality-control inspection, and the contractors had to start over. The bridge was finally opened in September of 2018. Shortly after, the bridge was closed for an additional 3 weeks to “complete some finishing work as the project’s contract draws to a close” (quoted from a state DOT spokesperson). This gave the bridge a bad reputation, as the users were unsure why this work was not done before the bridge was open. There was additional scrutiny on this project because many people felt that the $24.4 million bridge was unnecessarily decadent, and that the money could have been better spent elsewhere.