Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, Bascule bridge in Brooklyn, United States.
The Greenpoint Avenue Bridge is a steel bascule bridge in Brooklyn, New York, spanning Newtown Creek to connect the Greenpoint neighborhood with Blissville in Queens. It carries four lanes of traffic and has sidewalks and cycling lanes on both sides of the roadway.
A crossing at this spot was first built in the 1850s, making it one of the early fixed links between what would become Brooklyn and Queens. The current steel structure, completed in 1987, is the sixth bridge to stand at this location.
The bridge carries the official name J.J. Byrne Memorial Bridge, honoring a Brooklyn Borough President from the late 1920s, though most locals still refer to it by the street name above it. This kind of double naming is common in New York, where infrastructure is often renamed after local figures without the new name taking hold in everyday speech.
The bridge is open to cars, cyclists, and pedestrians, with dedicated lanes clearly separated from traffic. Keep in mind that the drawbridge opens occasionally to let boats through, causing brief stops for everyone crossing.
Because Newtown Creek is tidal, the clearance height when the bridge lifts varies depending on the water level at the time. A boat passing under it at low tide has a very different experience from one crossing at high tide, even though the bridge opens by the same amount each time.
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