Staple Street. Winter Afternoon - A Tribeca Impression

Staple Street. Winter Afternoon - A Tribeca Impression

Staple Street is one of New York's shortest, covering only two blocks in its north-south axis
between Duane Street and Harrison Street, with only one intersection midway at Jay Street.

But Staple Street owns a uniqueness beyond its diminutive, almost alley-like length. One need only look up to see it.

New York has any number of much higher skybridges, connecting neighboring tall buildings, often belonging to the same property. (*) But this one, spanning two buildings across Staple Street from one another, is very much in the scale of its surroundings in this Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. The cast iron structure connects, at the third floor level, buildings that were once part of New York Hospital in the early years of the 20th century, providing passage between the emergency room and the hospital laundry.

The hospital would later move uptown to become the prestigious New York-Presbyterian, but the skybridge would remain and ultimately become part of some expensive real estate, connecting two parts of the same residence/workspace.

This view, on a gray and cold late afternoon last December, looks south from near the Harrison Street end of Staple Street. The Skybridge is just north of intersecting Jay Street. At the end of the street can be seen some of the trees in Duane Park, a triangular spot that provides benches on which to relax amidst some welcoming foliage where Duane Street splits, just west of Hudson Street.(**)

I first discovered Staple Street and spent lots of time photographing the skybridge during one of my early explorations of Tribeca, on a bright and inviting June afternoon, shooting it in well-scaffolded surroundings swathed in construction sheeting (***) showing lots of promise of new life in its then-restoration. But that was in 2013 ... well before Covid.

©2022 Steve Ember
(*)