in the path of the canal. During construction, in April 1893, the dams were destroyed in a heavy storm, causing the canal bed to be flooded before the canal was completed. The foundations for the bridge's abutments were sunk into the bed of the canal using caissons. The bridge opened on January 1, 1895. At the time, it was one of several swing bridges that had been built on the Harlem River, and it was the second-oldest major bridge in New York City behind the Brooklyn Bridge. After the Marble Hill section of the canal opened on June 17, 1895, the Harlem Ship Canal Bridge was able to swing open for boat traffic. The Harlem Ship Canal Bridge connected the islands of Manhattan and Marble Hill, as the Spuyten Duyvil Creek continued to flow around the northern side of Marble Hill until 1914. Another bridge on the northern side of Marble Hill opened in 1900; it carried Broadway over the old creek bed and, along with the King's and Farmers' Bridges, provided direct connections to the Bronx. That span, which had also been called the Broadway Bridge, was demolished by the late 1920s. Second span Around 1900, the city sold the Harlem Ship Canal Bridge to the Rapid Transit Construction Company, which was building the first city subway line. The subway's West Side Branch was to cross the Harlem River Ship Canal above Broadway, which necessitated modifying or replacing the existing bridge. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), which had been formed to operate the subway, determined the existing structure could not support the elevated subway line, choosing instead to build a second, double-decker swing bridge. The old substructure was deemed to be sufficiently strong to support the weight of a new span. The need to replace the Harlem Ship Canal Bridge was further emphasized in 1903, when the New York State Legislature passed legislation allowing the realignment of the New York Central Railroad's Spuyten Duyvil Line (now the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line) along the Harlem River's eastern bank. The railroad wished to avoid a grade crossing with the Metropolitan Street Railway's streetcar tracks, to be built on the lower deck. Ultimately, the city made an agreement with the three railroads to relocate the first span down the Harlem River, only ten years after it had been constructed. The old Harlem Ship Canal Bridge became the University Heights Bridge, which