What was here before?
The site was to be the Queens anchorage of the Blackwell Island Bridge linking Queens and Manhattan, named so for its midpoint on Blackwell Island (now Roosevelt Island). The project backed by citizens of Long Island City after the American Civil War, who in 1871 incorporated the New York and Queens County Bridge Company. The bridge, planned with one ramp south to Brooklyn and another out to Long Island, was promoted as a catalyst for developing growth in Queens and as a railroad link to Long Island. Ultimately, the effort fell apart during the financial Panic of 1873.
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