Robert Moses: The Bronx — The Expressway That Cut a Borough

About This Tour

Trace the path of the expressways that reshaped the Bronx, displacing thousands of families and permanently altering the borough's social and physical geography. Robert Moses's highway network, conceived as a solution to mid-century traffic congestion, cut through dense residential neighborhoods with little regard for the communities it fractured, severing long-standing social ties and eroding the economic vitality of once-thriving commercial corridors. This tour examines the complicated legacy of that infrastructure, considering both its role in connecting the region and its devastating impact on the people who called these neighborhoods home. Alongside the story of displacement and disruption, the tour also explores his beloved park projects, verdant spaces that reflected Moses's genuine, if paternalistic, commitment to providing recreation and green respite for city dwellers. These parks remain vital community resources today, standing in stark contrast to the concrete corridors that run alongside them. Finally, the tour considers the bridges that connected the borough to the rest of the city, engineering marvels that facilitated commerce and mobility while further embedding the automobile into the daily life of New Yorkers. Together, these elements reveal the duality at the heart of Moses's vision: a planner capable of extraordinary ambition and genuine civic idealism, yet one whose methods often inflicted lasting harm on working-class and minority communities. Walking this route offers a sobering, clear-eyed look at how infrastructure decisions made decades ago continue to shape the Bronx's neighborhoods, economy, and collective memory today. Much of what we understand about Robert Moses today comes from the work of Robert Caro, whose landmark 1974 biography The Power Broker drew on years of archival research and hundreds of interviews to expose how a never-elected official amassed extraordinary power over New York's parks, roads, and bridges. Caro's Pulitzer-winning account remains the definitive study of Moses's legacy, and his framing of Moses as a figure who prioritized automobile mobility over community life shapes how these tours read the infrastructure around you. A note before you begin: Robert Moses tours don't necessarily offer beautiful views. His work could be quite utilitarian at times — concrete overpasses, retaining walls, and highway embankments rather than picturesque vistas. But this bold infrastructure profoundly affects how the people living here navigate their daily lives and reinforces patterns of economic segregation that persist to this day. It explains why some parts of New York City are wonderfully walkable, while others feel cut off and car-dependent. As you walk, you'll also get to see how modern-day green space initiatives are softening the impact of Moses's more controversial work, reclaiming spaces beneath and beside his highways for community use, planting gardens, and building waterfront access where once there was only asphalt and chain-link fence.

Tour Highlights

Tour Route & Stops