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The Honeywell Street Bridge, the largest of four bridges that run over the Sunnyside Rail Yards, is back in service after 23 years. But many New Yorkers have greeted the reopening with a collective yawn.
A taxi driver who works near the south side of the bridge in Sunnyside, and would only give his name as Sam, didn't seem to miss the bridge, which leads to Long Island City. "That is [a] bridge to nowhere," he said. "Why did they build it? They should've put that money to better use. I don't see many people going over it."
Even city Department of Transportation spokesman Kenneth Kalb admits that after the 1,600-foot four-lane bridge, built in 1910, was deemed "structurally unsafe" by engineers in 1979 and closed, then removed from the city's regular inspection schedule to cut costs, they "probably just forgot about it."
Other transportation advocates speculate that the city might have deferred maintenance on the bridge - especially during the city's turbulent budget woes of the late 1970s - in part because it is not a direct route to the nearby and heavily traveled Queensboro Bridge.
But City Councilman Eric Gioia (D- Sunnyside), said he was "quite pleased" that the bridge...