Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr. and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer gathered last week on the University Heights Bridge, high above the Harlem River, to celebrate the structure’s 100th birthday and announce the start of Bronx Week.

To accommodate the ceremony, police shut down two lanes of traffic on the bridge, which connects 207th Street in Manhattan with West Fordham Road in the Bronx. It was a chaotic scene as bumper-to-bumper traffic passed the enthusiastic onlookers assembled in the closed lanes.

The University Heights Bridge opened on Jan. 8, 1908. From the start, the bridge was received well in both practical and aesthetic terms. By the early 1980s, however, the bridge had fallen into disrepair and the city decided to destroy it. But the Landmarks Preservation Commission rescued the bridge in 1984 by declaring it a landmark. Ultimately, talk of demolition died and millions of dollars facilitated the bridge’s restoration in the 1990s.

After the press conference, Carrión and Stringer walked to the Bronx and Manhattan sides of the bridge, respectively, and then met back in the center for a celebratory handshake. Marching bands from both boroughs followed their elected leaders. DeWitt Clinton High School’s band represented the Bronx.

“When we perform an event like this, we become one city, one people,” said Stringer, who recalled walking across the bridge as a youth to shop on Fordham Road.

Carrión said it was the city’s infrastructure that allowed it to prosper. “This bridge is part of that success,” he said. “This global city works because of this.”