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Added an entry about an announcement that up to 50 tons of ice age bones belonging to privately held company were dumped in the East River. Will update as story progresses. Also, moved bridge photo to appropriate section because it bugged me. |
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{{see also|#Crossings}}
The [[Brooklyn Bridge]], completed in 1883, was the first bridge to span the East River, connecting the cities of New York and [[Brooklyn]], and all but replacing the frequent ferry service between them, which did not return until the late 20th century. The bridge offered [[cable car (railway)|cable car]] service across the span. The Brooklyn Bridge was followed by the [[Williamsburg Bridge]] (1903), the [[Queensboro Bridge]] (1909), the [[Manhattan Bridge]] (1912) and the [[Hell Gate Bridge|Hell Gate Railroad Bridge]] (1916). Later would come the [[Triborough Bridge]] (1936), the [[Bronx–Whitestone Bridge|Bronx-Whitestone Bridge]] (1939), the [[Throgs Neck Bridge]] (1961) and the [[Rikers Island|Rikers Island Bridge]] (1966). In addition, numerous rail tunnels pass under the East River – most of them part of the [[New York City Subway]] system – as does the [[Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel|Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel]] and the [[Queens–Midtown Tunnel|Queens-Midtown Tunnel]]. (See [[#Crossings|Crossings]] below for details.) Also under the river is Water Tunnel #1 of the [[New York City water supply system]], built in 1917 to extend the Manhattan portion of the tunnel to Brooklyn, and via City Tunnel #2 (1936) to Queens; these boroughs became part of New York City after the city's consolidation in 1898.<ref>Burrows and Wallace, p.1229</ref><ref name="water">[[New York City Department of Environmental Protection]] [http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/dep_projects/cp_city_water_tunnel3.shtml "City Water Tunnel #3"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401173724/http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/dep_projects/cp_city_water_tunnel3.shtml |date=April 1, 2016 }}</ref> City Tunnel #3 will also run under the river, under the northern tip of Roosevelt Island, and is expected to not be completed until at least 2026;<ref>{{cite news |last1=KENSINGER |first1=NATHAN |title=NYC's Giant Water Tunnel Begins Work On Final Shafts, Following 50 Years Of Construction |url=https://gothamist.com/news/nycs-giant-water-tunnel-begins-work-on-final-shafts-following-50-years-of-construction |access-date=August 11, 2021 |agency=The Gothamist |date=April 22, 2021}}</ref><ref name=big>{{cite news |title=Tunnelers Hit Something Big: A Milestone |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/nyregion/10tunnel.html |quote=It is the biggest public works project in New York City’s history: a $6 billion water tunnel that has claimed 24 lives, endured under six mayors and survived three city fiscal crises, along with the falling and rising fortunes of the metropolis above it. ... |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=August 10, 2006 |accessdate=December 15, 2011 }}</ref> the Manhattan portion of the tunnel went into service in 2013.<ref name=water />
[[File:Astoria Park Panorama of Triborough and Hell's Gate Bridges.jpg|thumb|center|750px|A panorama of the suspension section of the [[Triborough Bridge|Robert F. Kennedy Bridge]] (left) and the [[Hell Gate Bridge]] (right), as seen from [[Astoria Park]] in [[Queens]]]]▼
===20th and 21st centuries===
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On May 7, 2017, the catastrophic failure of a [[Consolidated Edison|Con Edison]] substation in Brooklyn caused a spill into the river of over {{convert|5,000|gal|0}} of [[Liquid dielectric|dielectric fluid]], a synthetic mineral oil used to cool electrical equipment and prevent electrical discharges. (See [[#2017 oil spill|below]].)
On December 30, 2022, John Reeves, head of Fairbanks Gold Company, [https://open.spotify.com/episode/2daCUxPvfpJDivxrYec8oO?si=4b2dee507cf14285 publicly announced the East River as the location of up to 50 tons of ice age artifacts belonging to his company], which were dumped by the American Natural History Museum decades prior. Reeves shared an excerpt from a paper titled [https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm0eHOktdxh/ "Early Man in Eastern Beringia: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Artifacts and Fauna Recovered from the Fairbanks Mining District, Alaska" (Osborne, Evander, and Satler]) which states of the artifacts, "Mistakes made in the field as to the acceptable condition of bones shipped to New York City were dumped in the East River. The dump site at the time was off the East River Drive at about 65th St. The common New York City Hospital dump site as well for difficult to dispose of materials. Potentially a challenging archaeological dig for archeologists in the distant future." Reeves stated that while the artifacts belonged to his company, that he believes in "finders keepers" and stated a "Great Alaskan Bone Rush" would now begin. The artifacts in question came from a parcel of land now owned by Reeves known colloquially as [https://vimeo.com/ondemand/boneyardalaska2 "The Boneyard" where hundreds of thousands of ice age bones have been recovered from permafrost.]
▲[[File:Astoria Park Panorama of Triborough and Hell's Gate Bridges.jpg|thumb|center|750px|A panorama of the suspension section of the [[Triborough Bridge|Robert F. Kennedy Bridge]] (left) and the [[Hell Gate Bridge]] (right), as seen from [[Astoria Park]] in [[Queens]]]]
==Ecosystem collapse, pollution and health==
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