When the Queensboro Bridge first opened in 1909, the Queens neighborhoods of Long Island City and Astoria were relatively undeveloped. There were some industrial sites along the East River, and some small residential blocks to support them, but it was nothing like you find today. Economic development of the area can greatly be attributed to the bridge and the new-found ease of traveling to and through Manhattan. This side-by-side comparison photograph shows the Queens side of the bridge about 100 years apart.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently recommended a giant steel and concrete hurricane barrier that would span New York Harbor, protecting the City from storm surges and flooding.

The proposal will undoubtedly be controversial, given that such a barrier could cost $20 billion or more, and will take years to plan and build. Environmentalists meanwhile fear that the barriers, even with movable gates, would seriously impede the flow of sea life and water. (Riverkeeper says the proposal "threaten[s] the very life of the Hudson River.") But others argue that barriers are a more secure and centralized way of protecting the metropolitan region than the piecemeal approach undertaken so far.

Check out the accompanying article on WNYC for more.