and the city provided $16,5 million, while the other $12 million came from the Public Works Administration. The city could not take on any more debt to fund the project, leading the New York City controller to recommend that the parkway be delayed. To provide funding for the new parkway, money for a new courthouse for the Appellate Division had to be eliminated, along with subway improvements and additional funding from the 1939 capital budget. The borough of Manhattan paid 66% of the cost, while Queens and Brooklyn each paid 17%. The new parkway would help connect other transportation facilities throughout Brooklyn and Queens, and as a result, plans for a connection to South Brooklyn and the West Side and East Side Highways. The city also appropriated $3.327 million for the land acquisition for the new alignment, plus the engineering work. Moses notified the board that he had $5 million worth of contracts to let so that work could start as soon as possible. The board also accepted the $12 million federal contribution for the new project. The name of the parkway system was changed in December 1938 from the "Circumferential Parkway" to the Belt Parkway, on request by Mayor of New York City Fiorello LaGuardia, who settled an argument of different names, one of which included using the last three letters of Brooklyn and the first three of Queens to make the Lynque Parkway. However, people felt that name was a bit too absurd and Moses and the city agreed to the new Belt name, and removed the former name due to many people who could not pronounce the former name. Another proposed name for the new roadway, among others, was suggested by LaGuardia, calling the road the Ringstrasse Parkway. The Queens section of the Belt Parkway was ultimately named Cross Island Parkway, usurping that name from the parallel Francis Lewis Boulevard. Construction Almost immediately after the parkway was approved by the city, bids were flowing in for new project contracts to construct the new parkways. The Belt system would be constructed via numerous contracts, which involved grading the new parkway, constructing bridges, and paving the new highway. 66 spans of bridges were going to be constructed for the entire system, with the section of the Cross Island Parkway between Fort Totten and the Whitestone Bridge approach being bid on by December 23, 1938. By this point, already seven