Williamsburg Bridge Could Be Renamed After This Jazz Musician

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — A Brooklyn council member wants to rename the Williamsburg Bridge after jazz legend Sonny Rollins, the saxophonist who famously used a pedestrian walkway on the bridge as a practice space in the 1950s.

Council Member Stephen Levin introduced a bill this week proposing to rename the bridge after Rollins, who is 87 years old. Levin, a Democrat who represents Williamsburg and downtown Brooklyn in City Council, is joining a growing movement of advocates who want to rename the bridge to honor the jazz pioneer.

"Looking around New York City you’ll see plenty of monuments to politicians," Levin said in a statement. "You won’t see many monuments to cultural pioneers that embody the spirit of the city. The story of Sonny Rollins and the Williamsburg Bridge is a distinctly New York cultural story."

The Sonny Rollins Bridge Project has been calling for a new name for the bridge to "honor a living musical legend." Rollins famously recorded 21 albums between 1953 and 1959, before taking a hiatus from the public life at the height of his career. During this time, he would practice the saxophone on a pedestrian walkway at the Williamsburg Bridge, often staying there for 16 hours a day. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"One day I was on Delancey Street, and I walked up the steps to the Williamsburg Bridge and came to this big expanse. Nobody was there, and it was beautiful," Rollins wrote in a 2015 New York Times piece. "I went to the bridge to practice just about every day for two years. I would walk north from Grand Street, two blocks up to Delancey Street, and then from Delancey Street down to the entrance of the bridge. Playing against the sky really does improve your volume, and your wind capacity."

When he returned to the jazz scene in November 1961, he was a more confident, refined player, historians say. His first new recording was called "The Bridge."

Rollins's career continued for decades more, and included being inducted to the American Academy of Arts of Sciences and being awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

Image credit: Andrew Burton / Stringer / Getty Images New