Robert F. Kennedy Bridge

The Triborough Bridge known officially as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge is a complex of bridges and elevated expressway viaducts in New York City. The bridges link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. The viaducts cross Randalls and Wards Islands, which were previously two islands but are now joined by landfill. The Triborough Bridge, a toll bridge, carries Interstate 278 as well as the unsigned highway New York State Route 900G. It connects with the FDR Drive and the Harlem River Drive in Manhattan, the Bruckner Expressway and the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx, and the Grand Central Parkway and Astoria Boulevard in Queens. The three primary bridges of the Triborough Bridge complex are: The vertical-lift bridge over Harlem River, the largest in the world, connecting Manhattan to Randalls Island The truss bridge over Bronx Kill, connecting Randalls Island to the Bronx The suspension bridge over Hell Gate, connecting Wards Island to Astoria in Queens These three bridges are connected by an elevated highway viaduct across Randalls and Wards Islands and 14 miles of support roads. The viaduct includes a smaller span across the former site of Little Hell Gate, which separated Randalls and Wards Islands. Also part of the complex is a grade-separated T-interchange on Randalls Island, which sorted out traffic in a way that ensured that drivers paid a toll at only one bank of toll booths. The toll booths have since been removed, and all tolls are collected electronically at the approaches to each bridge. The bridge complex was designed by chief engineer Othmar H. Ammann and architect Aymar Embury II, and has been called the "biggest traffic machine ever built". The American Society of Civil Engineers designated the Triborough Bridge Project as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1986. The bridge is owned and operated by MTA Bridges and Tunnels, a division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

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