In 2005, Amy Halloran set out to learn the history of a neighborhood destroyed by progress. The eight-lane Collar City Bridge was built in 1980 at the end of Hoosick Street in Troy, also known as Route 7. Whether a new span over the Hudson River was needed is still debated, but what the bridge did to the city and surrounding area— creating new patterns of travel and trade, opening up new suburbs, and eliminating several blocks of an inner-city neighborhood—is a matter of record. Aided by a New York State Council on the Arts ART$ Grant and TRIP (the Troy Rehabilitation and Improvement Program), Halloran researched the history of the building project and interviewed former residents of the neighborhood that vanished “under the bridge.” She and filmmaker Jim de Sève completed Part I of Under the Bridge, their comic-book history of the event, in May; it debuted as a slide show at Troy’s RiverSpark Visitor Center, and appears here for the first time in print. Part II, commissioned by Chronogram, will be presented in our December issue.
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
Speaking of...
