8. Parts of the Queensboro Bridge Used to Form the Entrance of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum

Way back in 1974, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Queensboro Bridge a landmark. Also at this time, a defunct trolley kiosk from the Manhattan side and the bridge’s two lamps were removed to be incorporated into the facade of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. The kiosk became the museum’s entryway while the two lamps were never actually used. According to the article and as you can see in the photograph below, the lamps “had thick posts in the shape of Greek columns with four arms holding up orbs of light and a larger orb at the center.”

One lamppost was returned shortly thereafter, but another was lost until 2011 when the 6000-pound base was discovered in a municipal storage facility by Mitch Waxman, a historian known for his tours of Newtown Creek. In 2014, it was moved back to Roosevelt Island and given to the Roosevelt Island Historical Society, who hopes to raise funds for its restoration. When the new building for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum was built by Rafael Viñoly, who would later design 432 Park Avenue, the kiosk was moved to Roosevelt Island where it serves today as the visitor’s center for the historical society.