9. Robert Moses Created the Plans for the FDR Drive

Robert Moses was responsible for a great deal of New York City’s and New York State’s urban development in the first half of the 20th century. Though Moses’ contributions are still in use today, he was a controversial and often polarizing individual during his lifetime. Some of his projects include the Cross-Bronx Expressway, the Henry Hudson Bridge and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The FDR Drive was another of Moses’ public projects that he began planning in the 1920s. Moses’ vision for the East River Drive, as it was originally known, included six 12-foot wide lanes, long viaducts for grade separation and green spaces between the parkway and the East River. The original construction of the FDR Drive began in 1934 and was finished in 1955. Then, from 1955 to 1966, the parkway underwent reconstruction.