Cross Bronx Expressway

The Cross Bronx Expressway is a major freeway in the New York City borough of the Bronx, conceived by Robert Moses and built between 1948 and 1972. It carries traffic on Interstate 95 (I-95) through the city, and serves as a portion of I-295 toward Long Island; a portion is also designated U.S. Route 1 (US 1).

The Cross Bronx begins at the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River, where the Trans-Manhattan Expressway continues west across Upper Manhattan to the George Washington Bridge. While I-95 leaves at the Bruckner Interchange in Throgs Neck, following the Bruckner Expressway and New England Thruway to Connecticut, the Cross Bronx Expressway Extension continues east, carrying I-295 to the merge with the Throgs Neck Expressway near the Throgs Neck Bridge.

The Cross Bronx Expressway was an engineering marvel, being the first highway built through a crowded urban environment; the most expensive mile of road ever built is part of the Cross Bronx, costing $40,000,000. At one point during construction, Moses' crews had to support the Grand Concourse (a major surface thoroughfare), a subway line and an elevated train line while the expressway was laboriously pushed through. However, the highway has severe traffic problems, and its construction has also been blamed for devastating a number of low-income neighborhoods in the South Bronx.