This Week in History, Sep 22 - Sep 28

Sep 22, 1862
Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation. On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million black slaves in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, shortly after Lincoln's inauguration as America's 16th president, he maintained that the war was about restoring the Union and not about slavery. He avoided issuing an anti-slavery proclamation immediately, despite the urgings of abolitionists and radical Republicans, as well as his personal belief that slavery was morally repugnant. Instead, Lincoln chose to move cautiously until he could gain wide support from the public for such a measure.

Sep 23, 1875
Billy the Kid arrested for the very first time. On this day in 1875, Billy the Kid is arrested for the first time after stealing a basket of laundry. He later broke out of jail and roamed the American West, eventually earning a reputation as an outlaw and murderer and a rap sheet that allegedly included 21 murders. The exact details of Billy the Kid's birth are unknown, other than his name, William Henry McCarty. He was probably born sometime between 1859 and 1861, in Indiana or New York. As a child, he had no relationship with his father and moved around with his family, living in Indiana, Kansas, Colorado and Silver City, New Mexico. His mother died in 1874 and Billy the Kid—who went by a variety of names throughout his life, including Kid Antrim and William Bonney—turned to crime soon afterward.

Sep 24, 1789
The First Supreme Court. The Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made up of six justices who were to serve on the court until death or retirement. That day, President Washington nominated John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison, and James Wilson to be associate justices. On September 26, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Supreme Court was established by Article 3 of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution granted the Supreme Court ultimate jurisdiction over all laws, especially those in which their constitutionality was at issue. The high court was also designated to oversee cases concerning treaties of the United States, foreign diplomats, admiralty practice, and maritime jurisdiction. On February 1, 1790, the first session of the U.S. Supreme Court was held in New York City's Royal Exchange Building.

Sep 25, 1957
Central High School integrated. Under escort from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in educational facilities was unconstitutional. Five days later, the Little Rock School Board issued a statement saying it would comply with the decision when the Supreme Court outlined the method and time frame in which desegregation should be implemented.

Sep 26, 1960
First Kennedy-Nixon debate. For the first time in U.S. history, a debate between major party presidential candidates is shown on television. The presidential hopefuls, John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator of Massachusetts, and Richard M. Nixon, the vice president of the United States, met in a Chicago studio to discuss U.S. domestic matters. Kennedy emerged the apparent winner from this first of four televised debates, partly owing to his greater ease before the camera than Nixon, who, unlike Kennedy, seemed nervous and declined to wear makeup. Nixon fared better in the second and third debates, and on October 21 the candidates met to discuss foreign affairs in their fourth and final debate. Less than three weeks later, on November 8, Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history, surpassing by a fraction the 49.6 percent received by his Republican opponent.

Terrorists responsible for a mall bloodbath have killed 59 and injured over 175 individuals in a cowardly act.. Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta says he lost family members in an attack inside a crowded shopping center. He says hundreds of additional people were evacuated from the mall.

He said security forces were responding to the attack, calling it a delicate operation says a top priority is to safeguard the lives of those still being held hostage.

The thousands of motorists, pedestrians and those riding bikes, who regularly cross the City Island Bridge are treated to a postcard-perfect view of paradise in NYC. The bridge itself, however, is about as ugly as it gets when you go under it and look at its underbelly. Those underpinnings have thinned since the structure was built and the span is visible with rust and crumbling concrete.

NYC DOT officials were so worried about a catastrophic failure that over the years, they've performed regular maintenance in an effort to prevent portions of this old bridge from falling into the water.

The City Island Bridge is located in NYC and connects City Island to Rodman's Neck in The Bronx. The bridge is made of stone and steel. It currently spans 950 ft. The original construction began in 1899 and was completed at a cost of $200,000. It consists of five fixed spans and a central swing section, but that feature was converted to a fixed span back in 1963.

NYC plans to demolish the bridge, due to its deteriorated condition, and replace it with a cable-stayed bridge. The current design calls for a 150 ft high tower, 13 ft wide at the top, with a base of 26 ft. Vertical clearance above high water would be 12 ft. The new bridge would be located in the same footprint as the existing bridge, although it will be 17 ft wider to accommodate three standard-width traffic lanes, a pedestrian walkway and bike lane.

The city chose Tutor Perini as the general contractor in February 2013. Tutor Perini has also been awarded a contract to build the new George Washington Bridge Bus Station Redevelopment Project in New York City for George Washington Bridge Development Venture

TP has also been awarded the contract to build the South Tower at Hudson Yards, a 26-acre mixed-use development in midtown Manhattan. The 1.7 million-square-foot, 47-story South Tower, located at the northeast corner of 10th Avenue and 30th Street, will be the future home of Coach, Inc.’s world headquarters.

TP has started its preliminary work on the City Island Bridge and expects be finished as early as 2016. Their NYC accepted bid came in at $102.7 million, but some City Island residents, including Chamber of Commerce president Gerard Skip Giacco, oppose the design because they say the tower would be out of character with the low-rise homes on City Island.
They claim the bridge will be too high and for that reason DOT has scheduled a meeting on the City Island Bridge. The procedural event will be held at PS 175 on Monday, September 23rd, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

DOT says the meeting is being held by Bronx Community Board 10. The NYC DOT Bronx Borough Commissioner and representatives from the Division of Bridges, the Commissioner's Executive Staff will all be present.

The DOT says that in keeping with policy, this is a meeting with the Community Board held prior to the start of construction, and the agency will present the expected construction schedule as well as construction mitigation and planned community outreach.

DOT tells City Island Images they've worked tirelessly over many years to maintain the existing structure while also working closely with the community on a replacement plan. Outreach with local elected officials, civic associations and community members has included a dozen public meetings and presentations and countless conversations. DOT presented the design plan to the Borough President, Councilmember Vacca, Congressman Crowley, and Community Board 10 and the agency has made substantial changes to the design, including significantly shorter towers at the request of the community. The existing City Island Bridge is now far past its intended life span and shows significant deterioration; the project for the new bridge has to move ahead.

Meanwhile, the NYC Department of Transportation has hired multimedia artist Stephen Mallon to produce media to support The City Island Bridge project.

Mallon tells City Island Images that he has delivered the content he and his crew shot, while visiting City Island, but does not have permission to release it.

His company, Stephen Mallon Images, which is is located at 122 Washington Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. was asked to produce media for their City Island Bridge presentation which will be used on.

This same award winning firm previously produced another NYC bridge media presentation. Then it was also in The Bronx and it was on the replacement of the Willis Avenue Bridge. They have also produced a few others. Mallon Images has delivered multimedia projects for Flatiron, Pershing Square, and our favorite one, which is Behind the Scenes at The Metropolitan Opera.

http://stephenmallon.com/#/Videos/A%20Bridge%20Delivered/

https://vimeo.com/69632513

https://vimeo.com/63366135