Riverside Drive Viaduct, Steel viaduct in Upper Manhattan, US
The Riverside Drive Viaduct is a steel elevated highway above Twelfth Avenue in Upper Manhattan that connects Tiemann Place to 135th Street. The structure consists of 26 steel spans stretching roughly half a mile across the Manhattanville Valley.
The structure was completed in 1901 under engineer F. Stuart Williamson and carried the largest steel girders ever manufactured at that time across Manhattan Street. The project was part of Manhattan's early modernization push in the early 1900s.
The viaduct was built with limestone from the Mohawk Valley and granite from Maine, reflecting the City Beautiful movement's influence on public infrastructure. These materials sourced from distant quarries show how seriously engineers approached the design of this everyday structure.
The best view of this structure comes from the southern approach, where a broad plaza overlooks the Hudson River and New Jersey beyond. You can appreciate the scale of the viaduct either from below or by walking across it at street level.
The viaduct employed engineering techniques that were revolutionary at the time, making it possible to build steel structures across such large spans. This innovative approach later became the standard for many other urban infrastructure projects.
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