Upper East Side of Manhattan
Steam Systems on Shifting Shorelines

Manhattan’s Upper East Side is home to some key pieces of the city’s infrastructure - the 1909 Queensboro Bridge, the Roosevelt Island Tram, the East 60th and 74th Street Steam Plants.

If we expand the definition of infrastructure a bit further, we can include hospitals as well, which come with their own fascinating mini-city style energy and heating systems

Book your spot on the next tour with Untapped New York
upper east side steam plant

Con Edison East 74th St Steam Plant
Originally constructed to power an elevated electric railway along 2nd Ave

Manhattan’s riverbanks have traditionally been set aside for the functions that sustain the city, and in the UES we find a variety of infrastructure:

Transportation - FDR Drive, Roosevelt Island Tram, Queensboro Bridge

Heating - East 60th and East 74th St Steam Plants,

Health - New York Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell, etc…

Main stack for the Con Edison E 60th St steam plant

59th St Bridge, Queensboro Bridge, Ed Koch Memorial Bridge…what'??

An underrated NYC bridge, and the only one to whom Simon & Garfunkel dedicated a song, this beauty arose from a desire to connect then-rural Queens to the markets of Manhattan. The bridge was completed in 1909.

Farmers from Queens would sell their wares under the bridge, in a space that today houses a Trader Joe’s and Guastavino’s event hall.

Manhattan high society scholar Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield commissioned this mosaic to adorn the trough that refreshed their horses after their trip.

Guastavino’s is of course named for the tilework master Rafael and his son, who won the commission to install their patented system here.

Their work endures with other prominent public works like the Manhattan Municipal Building, City Hall station, and Grand Central Terminal