A birthday celebration on Tuesday united Bronxites and Manhattanites, but it wasn’t for any particular person. Instead, it was the 175th birthday celebration for the city’s oldest standing bridge, The High Bride, which connects the Highbridge section of the Bronx to Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood across the Harlem River.
The afternoon’s festivities and merriment took place on both sides of the 1,450-foot pedestrian bridge, with both the Bronx and Manhattan sides meeting in the middle as Plena music — a traditional Puerto Rican music and dance — was in the air.
The High Bridge has been through many phases since its 1848 construction, when it was originally the centerpiece of the Old Croton Aqueduct that carried Croton water across the Harlem River from the mainland to Manhattan in pipes beneath its deck.
In 1864, a walkway was soon built across the bridge, mirroring its modern day usage and acting as a pedestrian walkway between then-rural northern Manhattan and the Bronx. In the century that followed, the aqueduct’s decommissioned status and poor maintenance led to its closure in 1970, before being reopened in 2015.
Washington Heights resident Julio Sanchez told the Bronx Times the bridge is where he met his now-wife, Alexandria, in 2018 on a Tinder date. And on the opposite end of that spectrum, Highbridge resident Donte Tolliver experienced “his worst breakup” a year ago after a walk across the bridge.
Tuesday’s celebration was also a first for the borough presidents of the Bronx and Manhattan — Vanessa Gibson and Mark Levine, respectively — who said it was their first collaboration together.
“This Highbridge, ladies and gentlemen, is a beacon of hope and a beacon of opportunity. It is a safe space, a recreation of health and wellness,” said Gibson. “You can walk across the bridge, you can ride your bike your across the bridge, you can cartwheel across the bridge, you can run across the bridge … 1400 steps.”
Students from Mott Hall School in Manhattan sang Happy Birthday, and students from P.S. 011 in Highbridge made up their own song about the bridge to the tune of the “Wheels on the Bus.” There were top hats and parasol props alongside an old photo of people on the bridge wearing those same items.
More than just a landmark, many cite The High Bridge’s walkway — which has functioned as a promenade on some weekends — as well as an important car-free transportation link between family and friends on both sides of the Harlem River. Some city officials said The High Bridge is a physical example of the engineering possibilities available for residents on both ends of the pedestrian walkway.
“We’re here recruiting you,” said NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “When you become engineers, you know this is a home where you can work.”
The High Bridge is also accented by its prominent water tower — between Highbridge Park’s West 173rd and 174th streets — which was built in the 1860s to help meet the demands on the city’s water system. Similar to the bridge, the water tower underwent its own renovation efforts in the last decade, reopening to the public in November 2021.
“If you can flush your toilet today, you can thank High Bridge tower,” said Levine.
— ET Rodriguez contributed to this report
