6. The Construction of the Kosciuszko Bridge Ended a Tradition of Funeral Processions Over the Penny Bridge

It was into this mess that the planners of the Kosciuszko Bridge stepped. In order to resolve the conflicts the swing bridge presented, the roadway was set at 125 feet above the water, high enough to clear the tallest ship, and the approaches to the bridge were extended thousands of feet into both Brooklyn and Queens, ensuring that car traffic would travel well above the railroad tracks.

The Penny Bridge had been known for generations as the crossing that took funeral processions from Brooklyn to Calvary Cemetery in Laurel Hill, Queens. The construction of the Kosciuszko effectively ended that tradition. The new bridge was, in its scale, unlike all the other bridges that preceded it. And it was all about the car.