If you have very strong feelings about the looming demolition of the old Kosciuszko Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens — and a pet wolf — there’s a happening for you coming up.
A Facebook event created by Brian Hersey is looking for “a band of dedicated warriors” to defend the now-defunct old span of the Kosciuszko Bridge from its ill fate with wolves and swords (both of which are no-nos in New York City, by the way).
Hersey came up with the idea after seeing a lot of posts on social media about New Yorkers being excited for the bridge’s looming demise.
“Nobody was really speaking up for the old bridge. I thought there were two sides,” he told Metro, adding that he has no particular relationship with the Kosciuszko Bridge. “Aside from the fact that I’ve been caught in traffic on it about five billion times. It has become an iconic part of the skyline, so there is that aspect of old New York going away.”
Thinking he’d get a few friends to like it, as of Wednesday, Hersey’s event has 673 RSVPs and more than 1,600 interested in attending, which made him “completely gobsmacked and flabbergasted. This has led to real actual talking to people and planning to make this a thing where there is a date and a time and people can just be lunatics and dress up and do what they want to do,” he said. “Maybe there will be a real wolf or two. How people want to come, I’m leaving it wide open. I just like the idea of people’s creativity and imagination running amok.”
And for the group member who asked if ninjas will be allowed to attend, “a ninja does qualify as a sword-carrying warrior,” Hersey said.
While his event is currently scheduled for July 11, that date will change once the official demolition day is announced by the powers that be. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment about Hersey’s offbeat event or the actual demolition, which likely will not feature any explosives as the bridge is slated to be dismantled and lowered onto a barge sometime this summer.
Hersey kept mum about what he will be wearing on whatever day is the original Kosciuszko Bridge’s last.
“That is to be unveiled in due time. I don’t want to excite people too much,” he said with a laugh.
The original Kosciuszko Bridge opened in 1939 and closed after Phase 1 of its new, $555 million span opened at the end of April. This first portion is a Queens-bound bridge with three lanes of traffic in both directions.
Phase II’s Brooklyn-bound bridge is slated to open in 2020, and will give four lanes of traffic to Brooklyn and five to Queens. It will also feature a 20-foot-wide walkway and bikeway.
The new span of the Kosciuszko Bridge was the first major bridge to open in New York City since the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964 to connect Brooklyn and Staten Island.
