I know most place names in the US use the “boro” spelling, but how is the official name of this bridge spelt? My sources seem evenly split on this.
I don’t have a digital camera, but I can tell you that there are signs (some very close to each other) that spell it BOTH ways.
New York City’s official DOT website uses the non-UGH spelling. (But it’s interesting and ironic that the website’s coding uses ‘queensborough’ as the link to the material on the Queensboro Bridge.)
It’s owned by New York City (as opposed to the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, for example) and they spell it Queensboro, though two of their press releases in the past few years seem to have got it wrong.
This is what makes fact-checking so fun :rolleyes:
Thanks for the info. Absent any more input, I think I’ll use “-borough” — it goes easier on our British eyes…
Eek - mega post avalanche! Maybe I’ll use “Queensboro” then. Sigh…
Hee! As it happens, our actual boroughs are called boroughs. No idea how boro snuck in as the name of the bridge.
I went to much the same link as you, Manny. It’s interesting to find that the Triboro[ugh] Bridge and Tunnel Authority has now been subsumed, along with Metro North rail and the subways, into the MTA. Will it ever return? Is its fate still unlearned?
Nah, I think it’s probably gone as an independent agency – it got eaten up by MTA pretty much the day Robert Moses left. They are still independent legally, though, mostly to continually refinance bridge bonds.
You could always call it “The 59th Street Bridge”. d & r
The bridge is pretty old, opening in 1909, and is pretty similiar to the Manhattan and Williamsburg ones of the same vintage. Here’s a page of info about its history that shows that -ugh and -o were used pretty randomly; a blueprint dating from 1909 shows the -o ending, but the streetcars that ran across it belonged to the Queensborough Bridge Railway, and there’s still one of the entrances left at the Manhattan end. Here’s some shots of the trolleys in action.
The subways finesse by using “Roosevelt Island” for the stop under the bridge (which is very new, opening in 1988) and “Queensbridge Plaza” for the giant maze of a station that’s the first stop in Queens.
So it might be safe to say that it varies, according to how much you feel like typing/writing on your sign. But the original architects and a 1908-vintage book I’ve seen almost always use Queensboro, as does the NYC Dept. of Transportation now.
Slow down; you move too fast! (Since Manny won’t play 
)
Nice historical background!
To answer the question, as Mehitabel said, it is actually called the 59th Street Bridge by virtually all New Yorkers, the same way that Avenue of the Americas is called Sixth Avenue.
To call it the Queensboro Bridge is to immediately mark yourself as an out-of-towner.
Really? That’s not what I recall hearing in traffic reports, though, and even if they’re using that just because it’s shorter I’m sure it will soon predominate.
“The MTA”: http://www.songlyrics.com/song-lyrics/Kingston_Trio/Miscellaneous/Mta/82675.html
“59th Street Bridge Song”: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/simon-and-garfunkel/124694.html
Oddly enough, the same dichotomy exists with the Triboro Bridge.
Heh. MTA runs that bridge and they say Triborough, but look at the (http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/bandt/html/triboro.htm). And I have an old sign likethis near my house. But the same sites call it Triboro as well. 
I cross these bridges sometimes and I would look for any official plaques, signs, plinths, etc., but frankly I’m driving not in sightseeing but trying-not-to-die mode, so…
Doh! Undone by my lack of Kingston Trio knowledge. :smack:
First, you beat me to the punch re ‘59 Street Bridge’. 
Second, good background overall (I luvs ‘Forgotten NY’) but the 59th Street is far different from the Manhattan and Willie B in that it is a cantilever, not a suspension bridge.
The ironwork of the towers is somewhat similar, but if you put pediments on top of the towers of the George Washington Brodge, they could almost be of the same vintage.
“Borough” is one of those New York words that gets shortened depending on the length of the available sign. Like the way newspapers used to use ‘cigaret’ instead of ‘cigarette’.
Wrong MTA: that’s Boston’s, now the MBTA.
Nope, it’s just Queensbridge Station. You’re probably thinking of Queensborough Plaza (definitely with the -ugh) which is the first stop after the 59th Street tunnel into Queens. It’s not a maze, though, as there are only two platforms in the complex. Queens Plaza, (without the Borough at all), right next door, is a labyrinth though.
Yay Queens! 