This 1998 photo shows the Atlantic Beach Bridge in the closed position from the Atlantic Beach shoreline. (Photo by Steve Anderson.)
THE ORIGINAL ATLANTIC BEACH BRIDGE: The original Atlantic Beach Bridge, which opened to traffic in July 1927, was operated by a private group. The 1,000-foot-long bridge had a vertical clearance of only 13 feet. Because of this low clearance, operators had to lift the 120-foot draw span as many as 100 times a day. The 27-foot-wide, three-lane bridge roadway had a capacity of 3,000 cars per hour, less than half the capacity of the present span. It also had a five-foot-wide walkway for pedestrians and cyclists.
With traffic bottlenecks growing on both sides of Reynolds Channel, the Nassau County Bridge Authority took over the Atlantic Beach Bridge in 1945 to make related improvements. Five years later, the Authority announced that a new six-lane span would be built. Concurrently, it also announced the sale of $7.0 million worth of construction bonds.
THE NEW ATLANTIC BEACH BRIDGE: On October 14, 1950, Governor Thomas E. Dewey drove the first pile for the new Atlantic Beach Bridge. To accommodate the new six-lane span, Nassau County and New York City spent $2.5 million for approach road rights-of-way. The six-lane, limited-access Nassau Expressway proposed by Robert Moses, and an improved Seagirt Boulevard were to feed into the new bridge from the north. (Continuing south and east, Moses later proposed an extension of the Nassau Expressway to Point Lookout.)
The new 1,173-foot-long drawbridge was constructed west of the existing span. To help alleviate traffic bottlenecks, the 153-foot-long bascule draw span was built with a vertical clearance of 33 feet, requiring fewer openings. The six-lane bridge was constructed with a 68-foot-wide roadway, and six-foot-wide walkway for pedestrians and cyclists. The entire structure was built on concrete piles, with a reinforced concrete roadway laid on a steel beam superstructure. On average, the bridge opens 23 times daily to allow for barge and shipping access to Reynolds Channel. The new Atlantic Beach Bridge opened to traffic on May 10, 1952, at a cost of $9.5 million. Soon after the new span opened, the old bridge was demolished.
Ralph Herman, frequent contributor to nycroads.com and misc.transport.road, relates the following experiences on the bridge:
When I was a kid, the Atlantic Beach Bridge on Long Island had a five-cent toll for bicycles and pedestrians; cars at that time were charged 25 cents. It had a turnstile, but you could remove a metal chain so your bicycle could pass through as you paid your five cents in the turnstile. I used it daily to ride my bike to my summer job at a beach club. The pedestrian and bicycle tolls were removed when the vehicular toll was raised, after the original bonds were retired.
The Atlantic Beach Bridge connects the Nassau Expressway (NY 878), the main thoroughfare of the Five Towns area of Nassau County, with Atlantic Beach. The double-leaf bascule drawbridge crosses the Reynolds Channel separating the Long Island mainland and the Long Beach peninsula. According to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), the Atlantic Beach Bridge carries approximately 20,000 vehicles per day (AADT).
RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS: Construction began in early 1998 on a $19 million project to bring the Atlantic Beach Bridge up to Federal standards. According to NYSDOT officials, the project includes reconstruction of the approach roadways, and replacement of the existing concrete bridge deck, rails, walkway and structural steel supports. Two of the bridge's six lanes are closed during the reconstruction project, which was completed in November 2000.
The reconstructed multi-use path is included in the Long Beach Bicycle Route, a proposed 10-mile route running from Atlantic Beach east to Point Lookout. The bike route also would connect to the Rockaways to the west, and to Jones Beach to the east.
This 1951 photo shows the Atlantic Beach Bridge under construction over Reynolds Channel. The old wooden bridge, which is shown just to the east of the new span, was demolished shortly after completion of the new bridge in 1952. (Photo from the Village of Atlantic Beach archives, www.vofab.org.)
THE BRIDGE AUTHORITY CONTROVERSY: Since the founding of the Nassau County Bridge Authority, the commission charged with construction and toll collection on the Atlantic Beach Bridge, there has been a long history of patronage. Peter ("Uncle Pete") DeSibio, the former chairman and Inwood executive leader who died in 1993, was known to hand out jobs to his friends, relatives and political cronies. Even when the construction bonds were paid off in 1975 (when the authority was to have been dissolved), the authority lived on due to DeSibio's influence. Today, most of the $3.5 million annual budget for the Nassau County Bridge Authority is spent on its 92 full-time and part-time staff, much of it on toll collection.
THE BRIDGE AUTHORITY CONTROVERSY: Since the founding of the Nassau County Bridge Authority, the commission charged with construction and toll collection on the Atlantic Beach Bridge, there has been a long history of patronage. Peter ("Uncle Pete") DeSibio, the former chairman and Inwood executive leader who died in 1993, was known to hand out jobs to his friends, relatives and political cronies. Even when the construction bonds were paid off in 1975 (when the authority was to have been dissolved), the authority lived on due to DeSibio's influence. Today, most of the $3.5 million annual budget for the Nassau County Bridge Authority is spent on its 92 full-time and part-time staff, much of it on toll collection.
Despite a thick stack of decade-old reports from Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon calling for an end to the Nassau County Bridge Authority, the agency had gone untouched. In 1999, H. Carl McCall, the New York State comptroller, performed the first audit of the authority since the mid-1980's.
McCall's report, which summarized that the Nassau County Bridge Authority operated "in an inefficient and inequitable manner," made the following findings:
The report, which covered the 1997 calendar year, found that the authority failed to seek competitive bids for engineering work and other service, improperly reimbursed commissioners for travel expenses, and made excessively high payouts to managers who had retired.
In 1997, 71 percent of the authority's budget was spent on personnel, while only 12 percent was spent on bridge maintenance.
The precarious financial state of the authority necessitated another toll hike to meet its legal obligations to pay construction bonds. Losses at the authority deepened from $32,995 in 1994 to $472,380 in 1996.
Motorists who paid cash wound up paying a disproportionately greater share of total toll revenues than did non-cash commuters crossing the Atlantic Beach Bridge. The 32 percent of motorists who paid the $1.25 cash toll contributed to 62 percent of the authority's revenue. In contrast, commuters (mostly local residents) who paid the $75 unlimited annual fee made up 68 percent of crossings, but only 38 percent of total revenue.
If the Nassau County Bridge Authority were dissolved, the Atlantic Beach Bridge would lose its sole financial support from tolls, since it receives no state or Federal funds. Some Nassau County officials are considering taking over jurisdiction of the bridge from the authority. The county operates the Long Beach Bridge and Bayville Bridge, two other drawbridges that charge no tolls. However, some residents of Atlantic Beach would like the tolls to stay, citing that they serve to deter crime and reduce traffic in village streets.
WHY NO EZ-PASS? Despite heavy traffic volume on the bridge, the Nassau County Bridge Authority stated that it was not economically feasible to install the EZ-Pass electronic toll collection system. Instead, consultants to the authority have proposed installing an automated toll system on two lanes of the bridge that would handle annual bar code stickers. (However, the bar code system would work only on the Atlantic Beach Bridge.) It would cost approximately $36,000 to install the system for two toll lanes.
The Atlantic Beach Bridge (as shown in this 1998 photo) has a vertical clearance of 33 feet for smaller craft. For larger craft, the two leaves of the bascule span open, allowing a horizontal clearance of 153 feet. (Photo by Steve Anderson.)
Type of bridge: Construction started: Opened to traffic: Length of bascule draw span: Total length of bridge: Width of bridge: Number of traffic lanes: Width of roadway: Clearance at center above mean high water: Concrete used in entire structure: Structural steel used in entire structure: Reinforcing steel used in entire structure: Cost of original structure (including approaches):
The NYSDOT should acquire the Atlantic Beach Bridge, and the Nassau County Bridge Authority should be dissolved. Tolls should be removed immediately from the Atlantic Beach Bridge.
SOURCES: "New Span To Open at Atlantic Beach," The New York Times (5/03/1952); "New Span Opened at Atlantic Beach" by Peter Kihss, The New York Times (5/11/1952); "The Ocean Drive," Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (1966); "A High-Priced Bridge to Cross" by Issac Guzman, Newsday (12/15/1996); "Bridge Work Leaves Some in Hot Water" by Collin Nash, Newsday (4/22/1998); "County Should Run South Shore Bridge," Car and Travel-Automobile Club of New York (June 1999); "Atlantic Beach Bridge Battle Taking Its Toll" by John Valenti, Newsday (8/05/2001); Bicycle Long Island; Village of Atlantic Beach; Greg Gallent; Ralph Herman; Bill Joseph; Mike Tantillo.
NY 878 shield by Ralph Herman. Atlantic Beach Bridge sign photo by Douglas Kerr. Lightposts by Jeff Saltzman.
