Robert Moses: The Master Builder
Moses was a creative thinker and is well thought-out by many as the greatest and most significant single builder in the world. During his 44 years of influence between 1924 and 1968, he built 658 playgrounds, 36,000 acres of parks, 416 miles of parkways, 13 bridges and 15 expressways. He also built housing, tunnels, beaches, zoos, civic centers and exhibition halls for the public (Caro, 1974). The skyline and shoreline of New York changed drastically. Moses was not only limited to New York City and its suburbs, but had also projects far out from the city (Caro, 1974). His vision was to provide the city of New York with bridges and a modern road system for higher accessibility and open and spacious recreational areas for a more attractive and livable environment. He also built public works with the intention to draw visitors to the city (Ballon, 2007). Even though he fought for his visions, his methods were criticized.
Robert Moses was born in1888 to German Jewish parents in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1897, the Moses family moved to New York City, where they lived on East 46th Street off of Fifth Avenue. After graduating from Yale University and Wadham College, Oxford, and earning his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics. (Ballon, 2007)
Robert Moses saw himself trying to save the city from obsolescence, change, and decline. His countless building programs that were aimed to renovate urban infrastructures, expand the public area with widespread recreational facilities, remove disfigurement, and make the city more livable for the middle class. According to the book, “Robert Moses & the Modern City” it argues that Moses knew how to work the system and find state and federal funding for his projects and also how to use legislation to his advantage. (Ballon, 2007).
He was also benefited from having the right contacts with many government officials on city, state and federal level, especially Governor Alfred E. Smith who introduced Moses to construction and city planning. Robert Moses was the master builder for of New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County during the mid-20th century. Robert Moses built in according with his vision, creating a city of vast high rise housing estates and automotive high-speed roadways. (Wright, 2008)
Robert Moses was the most influential person in the history of urban planning in the United States. He changed beaches, built bridges, tunnels and roadways, and transformed neighborhoods forever. His favoring of highways over public transit helped create the modern suburbs of Long Island Robert Moses’ projects were considered by many to be necessary for the region's development after being hard hit by the Great Depression. During the height of his power, New York City participated in the construction of two huge World's Fairs: one in 1939 and the other in 1964.
Although some of his works remained extremely controversial. His supporters believe he made the city viable for the 21st century by building an infrastructure that most people wanted. His critics argued that he preferred automobiles to people, that he moved hundreds of thousands of residents in New York City, destroyed traditional neighborhoods by building expressways through them contributed to the ruin of the South Bronx and the amusement parks of Coney Island. In everything he saw and even though he had achieved a lot, he wanted to make it better and build even more (Caro, 1974).
At one time, Moses held twelve positions. Among those, he was the New York City Parks Commissioner, head of the State Parks Council, head of the State Power Commission and chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. (Goldberger, 1981) He was responsible for building hydro-electric dams in the Niagara/St. Lawrence region. During the 1920s, Robert Moses argued with Franklin D. Roosevelt who favored the timely construction of a parkway through the Hudson Valley. Moses succeeded in diverting funds to his Long Island parkway projects (the Northern State Parkway, the Southern State Parkway and the Wantagh State Parkway), although the Taconic State Parkway was later completed as well. Moses is frequently given credit as the father of the New York State Parkway System from these projects.
According to the book, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York,explains a story of Moses’s transformation from being the hero who built Long Island’s Jones Beach and some 600 New York City playgrounds and who rescued Central Park from the overlooked of a city run by greedy Tammany Hall people to a power-hunger builder who built highways through dense urban neighborhoods and became the unstoppable train of “slum clearance” who largely ran New York City. (Caro, 1974)
From the 1930s to the 1960s, Robert Moses was responsible for the construction of the Throgs Neck, the Bronx-Whitestone, the Henry Hudson, and the Verrazano Narrows bridges. His other projects included the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Staten Island Expressway, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, and many more. Queens bears the stamp of Robert Moses, who as parks commissioner preserved acres and acres of forests, meadow, beaches and marshes, while as master road builder he blighted equally large areas by lacing Queens with highways like the Belt Parkway, the Laurelton Parkway. (Wright, pp 493) Robert Moses took little consideration for people in his way; the best example of this is his building of the Cross Bronx expressway. To build this he had to take out 54 high story apartment buildings which were going to dislocate thousands of families. (Caro, 1998)
According to Hilary Ballon an architectural historian says, people take for granted the parks, playgrounds and housing that Robert Moses built and if it wasn’t for Moses’ public infrastructures and his resolve to carve out more space New York wouldn’t be what it is today. As evidence of Robert Moses impact can be found in the various locations and roadways in New York State that have his name. It consist of two state parks (one in Massena, New York, the other on Long Island), the Robert Moses Causeway on Long Island, the Robert Moses State Parkway in Niagara Falls, New York, and the Robert Moses Hydro-Electric Dam in Niagara Falls. There is also a hydro-electric power dam in Massena, New York. These supply much of New York City's power. Moses died of heart disease on July 29, 1981, at the age of 92 at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York. (Goldberger, 1981)
The impact of Robert Moses on the Rockaway Peninsula was considered positive with his development of Jacob Riis Park and the Marine Parkway Bridge in the 1930s. His construction of the Shore Front Parkway and his large-scale introduction of public housing and large-scale knocking down the bungalow area along Rockaway’s beachfront irritated some people. In everything he saw and even though he had achieved a lot, he wanted to make it better and build even more (Caro, 1974).
In conclusion, there was no doubt that Robert Moses got things done and often by his will. His projects were built intensively, most likely more efficient than any city that has been built before during that short period of time. Robert Moses reshaped the structure of the city, and his legacy carries on touching the lives of all New Yorkers. Admired for most of his life, he is now one of the most controversial figures in the city’s history. Many people argue that New York would not be the city it is today if it was not for Robert Moses.
