BBP Offers View of Squibb Park Bridge Progress

By on August 24, 2012 9:51 pm in Architecture, brooklyn bridge park

Following Mr. Karl’s video progress report Thursday on the Squibb Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Facebook page features its own pic sharing progress on the bridge, which will connect Brooklyn Heights to BBP: “Check out the first bridge pier being installed at the uplands of Pier 1. Looking forward to watching as Squibb Bridge is built!”

As Brownstoner reminds us, Squibb Bridge will connect Squibb Park, right off the neighborhood’s Columbia Heights, to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier One, where the upcoming mega-hotel and condo complex are scheduled to be built. Construction began on the bridge this spring.

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  • bagel boy

    I hope this bridge does not bring rude and noisy guests to the area. I’m not feeling how this benefits the neighborhood in any way.

  • Gerry

    @ bagel boy – I share the same concern in fact Squibb Park the playground downstairs had been was closed in the 1980’s locked up because of unsavory characters illegal drug and sex activity in the park I would walk my dog see crack viles and used condoms..

  • pssnyc

    I have never understood the purpose of Squibb Park Bridge. If it would lead to pier 2 or 3 it would make some sense. But, pier 1? People can’t just walk down the hill?

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    The bridge will offer a more gradual slope than going straight up or down the hill, which will make it easier for handicap access. I think, the designers should have split the lower portion of the bridge to offer access to piers 2-3 as well. Perhaps it will be modified to do that once those portions of the park are completed.

  • Mr. Crusty

    I think the bridge will offer some nice views as you walk across to get to Pier 1. A nice addition.

  • Chris Vigarito

    Our neighborhood will never be the same. So much for quaint and quite.

    AND I agree. People could just walk down the hill. What a joke.

  • bagel boy

    Forget the hill. Cadman plaza to old fulton is a long gentle slope. Easy access for handicapped folks. Bridge is a stupid idea and a waste of money. I bet crime will spike up. And tourists wandering around using our stoops for their crappy instagram art photos.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    Chris Vigarito, I suppose you think the handicap are not people. The “hill” is very steep how would you like to face traveling up or down it in a wheelchair?

  • Mr. Crusty

    I see the “Sky is Falling” crowd is fretting once again about the hoards or criminals that will be pouring into the Heights to steal our woman and treasure. Lock the doors ! Batton down the hatches ! Man the torpedoes!

    Yikes!

  • bagel boy

    Crusty. Why don’t you invite them to use your stoop and steer them all directly from the bridge to your house.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    bagel boy, The circuitous route around Cadman Plaza to Old Fulton has some tricky and dangerous intersections. The bridge will eliminate that problem for all.
    I doubt there will be any significant increase in crime. What do you base your theory on?
    We are already a tourist mecca, a few more won’t make much of a difference.

  • Mr. Crusty

    Bagel boy why don’t you live in a gated community in the suburbs where you won’t be bothered by other human beings?

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/13189502@N02/ Eddyenergizer

    Chris Vigarito, “Our neighborhood will never be the same”
    The neighborhood already isn’t the same, not since the likes of you moved in.

  • Curmudgeon

    Lots of vitriol here when a more polite discourse is called for. Personal insults are really not necessary to make a point.

    The bridge in Squibb park is being built for the guests of the future hotel as well as the people who will be living down in the housing constructed to be constructed there. It is for their convenience in that the bridge easily connects them to the subway a few blocks away. You can’t expect hotel guests to walk down and around the long way and up, down and in and out just to get to a train. Likewise, anyone who eventually lives there will want daily, quick and easy access to the train and the neighborhood. Why would the occasional visitor need quicker access to the park? It is for quick access OUT of the park not to it.

  • Still Here

    Agree with Crusty, once again, and Eddy

    The bridge is a goo idea as it provides an alternative access as all access from the Promenade were trashed by BH (yeah, they were expensive, but not that much more than this bridge). It is also a much more direct access from the 2,3 A & C trains. Why should Joralemon st and Old Fulton St get all the traffic?

    It is also handicap accessible from BH – it was specifically widened during the design phase to be so.

    Plus, it is neat looking and will offer more points of view. The park just gets better for those who use it.

    Crime rates at Old Fulton ST and Pier ! have not risen with the crowds; a little dirtier, and more crowded for sure, but no big deal.

  • Jim

    great idea !!! the park keeps getting better & better !!!

  • eg

    The more people using the bridge will lower the possibility of crime; so much negativity. It’s better to have people around, especially at night, one is safer.

  • Still Here

    Jill

    Right on!

  • Publius

    Haters gonna hate.

  • bagel boy

    The hotels could run a “green” shuttle to move the guests and residents of the hotel condos etc.

    Also the intersections. On Cadman have been fixed to accommodate foot travel.

    So crusty admitted this does not benefit BH in any way. Its benefits tourists that spend nothing in this neighborhood. Tourists eating at the lousy restaurants on Henry do nothing but allow lousy restaurants to exist.

  • AL

    Like Eddyenergizer’s idea of splitting western ramp in two.

  • Mr. Crusty

    Bagel boy utters this nonsense: “So crusty admitted this does not benefit BH in any way. Its benefits tourists that spend nothing in this neighborhood. Tourists eating at the lousy restaurants on Henry do nothing but allow lousy restaurants to exist.”

    1) I never said that the bridge doesn’t benefit BH.

    2) not everything has to be specifically for the benefit of BH. BBP is not just for the residents of BH. The Brooklyn waterfront belongs to all of NY. This will allow easier access to the park for BH residents and non-residents alike. I certainly plan to use it.

    2) you say tourists spend nothing in this neighborhood which is absurd on its face but even you contradict this by saying that they are eating at Henry Street restaurants? Well, which is it bagel boy?

    3) so you are upset that some restaurants that you don’t personally like are getting business from tourists. So I guess you are the sole arbiter of what businesses should benefit and which shouldn’t. I would tend to think that if more money is being spent on local restaurants that that would ultimately improve the quality of the eateries. You seem to think it works in reverse, less potential revenue will improve quality. Interesting thesis. Perhaps you should stick to bagel making.

  • A Neighbor

    Question. How can the new bridge have a gentler slope than Cadman or Columbia Hts when it drops the same distance in a shorter span?

  • Mr. Crusty

    Why do you assume it is a shorter distance? The bridge doesn’t go directly from point A to point B, iit zigs and zags (or as Karl said in his video, meanders) to make the incline wheelchair friendly.

  • Mr. Crusty

    For those interested, Popular Mechanics (yes, Popular Mechanics) has a great article on the Squbb Park Bridge.

    http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/architecture/a-new-brooklyn-bridge-this-time-made-of-trees-5618483

    It sounds like it is truly going to be beautifu bridgel and will be a wonderful experience for those walking across but to answer A Neighbors’s question, they state that the zig zag design causes the bridge to be 396 feet long and will descend 30 feet. That is a very mild 1 foot drop for every 11 feet.

  • http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/author/homer-fink Homer Fink

    Crusty – we mentioned it here too: http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/28652

  • Mr. Crusty

    I did not see that earlier article Homer as it was before I was a regular reader of BHB. It was interesting reading the comments though and I can see that negativity isn’t a recent development.

  • carol

    The new bridge begins at the level of Squibb Park which is lower (20′-25′ est.) than Columbia Heights. And as noted above is has a slope that accomodates persons using wheelchairs.

  • bornhere

    Will the hill from Columbia Heights to the playground be re-sloped (or has it been already)? As I recall from stroller-pushing days, it was not all that easy either up or down….