Sci&Tech History

On Long Island, New York, the bridges over the parkways are extraordinarily low, having as little as nine feet of clearance at the curb. As an implication, cars that can past the parkways are private car with certain kind of height. Robert Moses, the bridge builder that works from 1920s to the 1970s in New York, had these overpasses built to specification that would discourage the presence of buses on the parkways.

According to Robert A. Caro in his biography of Moses, the reason why Moses built an extraordinarily low bridges is influenced by his social-class and racial bias. Private car owner was dominated by the white of upper and high class, while public transportation, such as bus was dominated by poor people and black.

History of building, architecture, city planning, and public works can’t separated by it creator, and by the end, influence the people who using it.

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