Racist or Radical? The Strange Case of Robert Moses and the Building of New York City's Aquatics Infrastructure (2024)

FAQs

What role did Robert Moses have in the development of the infrastructure and transportation of New York City? ›

He was principally responsible for the construction of major public projects in the state and city of New York including the Triborough Bridge, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Bronx Whitestone Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Throg's Neck Bridge, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the Westside ...

Moses is blamed for having destroyed more than a score of neighborhoods by building 13 expressways across New York City and by building large urban renewal projects with little regard for the urban fabric or for human scale.

During his reign as New York's master builder, from 1934 to 1968, Moses developed a vast program that sought to modernize the city's infrastructure, expand the public realm with recreational facilities, and remove blight from residential districts.

In 1933 Moses was appointed head of the New York City Parks Department and head of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. He began a massive building program in the city that included hundreds of new playgrounds and city parks, along with several major bridges, tunnels, and highways.

Moses led the Jews out of slavery in Egypt and led them to the Holy Land that God had promised them. The escape of the Jews from Egypt is remembered by Jews every year in the festival of Passover. The Jews were helped on their journey by God; the same God who'd promised Abraham that he would look after the Jews.

Welcome to the 21^st Century

They were both fighting over their version of the 20^th-century city. Moses was trying to eradicate the old city in the name of progress. Jacobs was trying to preserve the old city in the name of progress. In some sense, both visions were correct.

In 1890, the building's height appalled some critics who called it "high-shouldered" and "hideous." The World Building was demolished in 1955 for the expanded automobile entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge.

MMT obert Moses led the nation's largest slum clearance program in the 1950s. As in the 1930s, when he built a dazzling web of recreational facilities with New Deal dollars, so too his work in urban renewal was made possible by a fed- eral program, Title I of the U.S. Housing Act of 1949.

Robert Moses simultaneously built and destroyed modern New York turning it into an ugly tangle of highways that demolished whole neighbourhoods before them, sometimes on routes simply chosen to demonstrate the power he held.

Robert Moses does have a positive legacy with his development of Long Island and the New York State Park system. Unfortunately that is often ignored due to the result of the 13 highways in New York City that have resulted in the eradication in the city's character.

Why is Robert Moses so important? ›

Holding as many as 12 public offices at the same time, Moses became a hugely influential force on New York City's planning and design. He founded dozens of self-sustaining public authorities that are still largely responsible for the city's infrastructure projects.

In 1934, he was the Republican nominee for Governor. He lost the election to Herbert H. Lehman. Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut.

In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Christiaensen, built Fort Nassau (now Albany) the first Dutch settlement in North America and the first European settlement in what would become New York.

After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died on Mount Nebo at the age of 120, within sight of the Promised Land.

Robert Moses, who controlled and spent millions of dollars on public construction projects in New York State, left less than $50,000 in assets when he died on July 29, according to his will.

The Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament credits Moses with leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, receiving the Ten Commandments from Yahweh, and taking the Israelites towards the "Promised Land."

Railroads became a major industry, stimulating other heavy industries such as iron and steel production. These advances in travel and transport helped drive settlement in the western regions of North America and were integral to the nation's industrialization.

Moses delivered the laws of God to Israel, instituted the priesthood under the sons of Moses' brother Aaron, and destroyed those Israelites who fell away from his worship.

The expansion of internal American trade greatly increased with the adoption of canals, steamboats, and railroads. These collective advances in technology became known as the Transportation Revolution.