5. High Bridge Was Closed to Pedestrian Traffic from the 1960s to 2015
At the height of its popularity, High Bridge was a pedestrian link from the Bronx to Manhattan. It’s commonly said that the bridge was frequented by Edgar Allan Poe, but that in fact is a myth. There is debate about why and when the bridge was closed, but the most popular story says that the bridge was closed in the 1960s due to an incident that happened in the ’50s. During this time, pedestrians would throw sticks, rocks, and other debris at the Circle Line boats when they passed under the bridge in the Harlem River.
As Ellen Macnow, High Bridge Project Coordinator for the Parks Department, told Gothamist in 2013, “youths – ‘hoodlums’ in the parlance of the day – in 1952, 1953, 1954, who were throwing things off the bridge and they injured people on the Circle Line.” The bridge closed down to pedestrians for over forty years and would remain closed until 2015.