THE ORIGINAL LONG BEACH BRIDGE: Opened to traffic on June 18, 1922, the original Long Beach Bridge provided access from the city of Long Beach, which is located on a barrier island off Long Island, to the community of Island Park. The original span, which provided four 10-foot-wide lanes of traffic (two lanes in each direction) over Reynolds Channel, provided the first fixed link between the barrier island and Long Island.
In the years that followed, the Long Beach Bridge contributed to the growth of the city of Long Beach. Unlike the original Atlantic Beach Bridge (which opened in 1927) and the Loop Parkway (which opened in 1934), the Long Beach Bridge was a free crossing.
By the late 1940's, the inadequacies of the existing span were becoming apparent. The wider vehicles of the era reduced the number of traffic lanes from four to three, and lane control was administered by police officers according to the flow of vehicles. Furthermore, the original span only had a fixed clearance of 18 feet above mean high water, a situation that required 2,000 bridge openings per year. These conditions, along with the postwar suburbanization of Long Island, created bottleneck conditions on both sides of the span.
THE NEW LONG BEACH BRIDGE: Discussions for a new Long Beach Bridge were underway by the early 1950's. In July 1953, Nassau County Executive A. Holly Patterson awarded a $5 million construction contract to Merritt-Chapman and Scott Corporation of New York. The designing engineer was J.E. Greiner of Baltimore. All construction work was done under the supervision of the Nassau County Department of Public Works (NCDPW).
The new Long Beach Bridge consists of two parallel bascule spans, each carrying three 12-foot-wide lanes, as well as sidewalks for pedestrians and cyclists. Each 150-foot-long bascule drawbridge was constructed with an above-water clearance of 29 feet, a design that was estimated to reduce the number of bridge openings from 2,000 to 200 per year. Including approaches, each span measures 820 feet.
The east span, which carries three lanes of northbound traffic over Reynolds Channel, opened to traffic on May 19, 1955. Fourteen months later, the west span, which carries three lanes of southbound traffic across the channel, opened to traffic.
Between 1958 and 1973, the Long Beach Bridge was listed as a posted route on the Nassau County Route System as CR 1. Although there is no longer a route numbering system in the county, the bridge remains part of the county road system.
In the summer of 2002, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and the NCDPW began a $16 million project to rebuild the bridge. The project, which included rehabilitating the superstructure, abutments and seawall (including seismic retrofit); upgrading electrical and mechanical systems; and rebuilding the approaches, was completed in 2004. Lanes were closed on the bridge during reconstruction, and Reynolds Channel was closed to navigation during the nighttime hours.
Across Reynolds Channel you can see the Bridgeview Yacht Club. The building has gone through many incarnations including Channel 80 and Sprats On the Water. It's a catering facility that only does one event at a time and also two nights a week it's a nightclub. I've been to a wedding there and it was really a lovely venue.