2. A sky bridge once connected the Metropolitan Life North Building to the Met Life Tower
A sky bridge once connected the Metropolitan Life North Building (11 Madison Avenue) to the MetLife Tower, which was modeled after St. Mark’s Campanile in Venice, Italy. Made of stainless steel and glass windows with a geometric grid-pattern windowpane, the sky bridge is one of many architectural feats commandeered by The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. In addition to the sky bridge, the company built a number of housing developments, including New York’s Stuyvesant Town and Los Angeles’ Park La Brea Apartments.
However, what goes up must come down eventually. After an Untapped New York Insider noticed construction happening on the sky bridge and asked Untapped New York to get to the bottom of it, we determined the sky bridge was undergoing demolition. Though not the first MetLife sky bridge to get demolished as the company often fancied connecting their buildings with sky bridges, it is one of the last. The demolition of the sky bridge is a result of the construction of One Madison, and the developer SL Green contends that it was necessary due to the setbacks required. To see more photographs of the sky bridge over the years, check out Statz‘s photography.