View source for Robert Moses

{{Short description|American urban planner (1888–1981)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Robert Moses
| image               = Robert Moses with Battery Bridge model.jpg
| caption             = Moses in 1939 with a model of his proposed [[Battery Bridge]]
| order1              = 49th
| office1             = Secretary of State of New York
| term_start1         = January 17, 1927
| term_end1           = January 1, 1929
| governor1           = [[Al Smith]]
| predecessor1        = [[Florence E. S. Knapp]]
| successor1          = [[Edward J. Flynn]]
| office2             = 1st Chairman of the [[New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation#NYS Council of Parks|New York State Council of Parks]]
| term_start2         = 1924
| term_end2           = 1963
| predecessor2        = ''Position established''
| successor2          = [[Laurance Rockefeller]]
| office3             = 1st [[New York City Department of Parks and Recreation#List of Park Commissioners|Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation]]
| term_start3         = January 18, 1934
| term_end3           = May 23, 1960
| appointer3          = {{cslist|[[Fiorello H. La Guardia]]|[[William O'Dwyer]]|[[Vincent R. Impellitteri]]|[[Robert F. Wagner Jr.]]}}
| predecessor3        = ''Position established''
| successor3          = [[Newbold Morris]]
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1888|12|18}}
| birth_place         = [[New Haven, Connecticut]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1981|7|29|1888|12|18}}
| death_place         = [[West Islip, New York]], U.S.
| resting_place       = [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)|Woodlawn Cemetery]], Bronx, New York City, U.S.
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]<ref>Robert Caro, ''The Power Broker'', 1975.</ref>
| spouse              = {{ubl|{{marriage|Mary Sims|1915|1966|end=died}}|{{marriage|Mary Alicia Grady|1966|<!--Omission per template instructions-->}}}}
| children            = 2
| footnotes           = <!-- <ref>{{Cite news|last=Goldberger |first=Paul |title=Robert Moses, Master Builder, is Dead at 92 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1218.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 30, 1981 |access-date=November 11, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Mary Grady Moses, 77 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/04/obituaries/mary-grady-moses-77.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 4, 1993 |access-date=November 11, 2009}}</ref> -->
| education           = {{ubl|[[Yale University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])|[[Wadham College, Oxford]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts|MA]])|[[Columbia University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])}}
}}

'''Robert Moses''' (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American [[urban planner]] and public official who worked in the [[New York metropolitan area]] during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the [[history of New York City]] and [[history of New York (state)|New York state]]. The grand scale of his infrastructure projects and his philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across the United States.{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=10–11}}

Never elected to any  public office, Moses held various positions throughout his more-than-40-year career. He held as many as 12 titles at once, including [[New York City Parks Commissioner]] and chairman of the [[Long Island State Park Commission]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/the-legacy-of-robert-moses/16018/|title=The legacy of Robert Moses|last=Sarachan|first=Sydney|date=January 17, 2013|website=Need to Know {{!}} PBS|language=en-US|access-date=December 3, 2019|archive-date=December 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206135026/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/the-legacy-of-robert-moses/16018/|url-status=dead}}</ref> By working closely with New York governor [[Al Smith]] early in his career, he became  an expert in writing laws and navigating and manipulating the workings of state government. He created and led numerous semi-autonomous [[Public authority|public authorities]], through which he controlled millions of dollars in revenue and directly issued [[Bond (finance)|bonds]] to fund new ventures with little outside input or oversight.

Moses's projects transformed the New York area and revolutionized the way cities in the U.S. were designed and built. As Long Island State Park Commissioner, Moses oversaw the construction of [[Jones Beach State Park]], the most visited public beach in the United States,<ref name="Jones Beach">{{cite news |url=http://www.longislandexchange.com/jones-beach.html |website=Long Island Exchange |title=Jones Beach |access-date=November 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121130008/http://www.longislandexchange.com/jones-beach.html |archive-date=January 21, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and was the primary architect of the [[Parkways in New York|New York State Parkway System]]. As head of the [[MTA Bridges and Tunnels|Triborough Bridge Authority]], Moses had near-complete control over bridges and tunnels in New York City as well as the tolls collected from them; he was responsible for, among others, the [[Robert F. Kennedy Bridge|Triborough Bridge]], the [[Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel]], and the [[Throgs Neck Bridge]], as well as several major highways. These roadways and bridges, alongside [[urban renewal]] efforts that destroyed huge swaths of tenement housing and replaced them with large [[New York City Housing Authority|public housing projects]], transformed the physical fabric of New York and inspired other cities to undertake similar development endeavors.

Moses's reputation declined after the publication of [[Robert Caro]]'s [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning biography ''[[The Power Broker]]'' (1974), which cast doubt on the purported benefits of many of Moses's projects and further cast Moses as [[racist]]. In large part because of ''The Power Broker'',<ref>{{Cite news |last=Burkeman |first=Oliver |date=2015-10-23 |title=Review: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/23/the-power-broker-robert-moses-and-the-fall-of-new-york-robert-caro-review |access-date=2024-03-23 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Moses came to be considered a controversial figure in the history of New York City as well as New York State.

==Background==
Moses was born in [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]], Connecticut, on December 18, 1888, to parents of [[History of the Jews in Germany|German Jewish]] descent, Isabella "Bella" (née Cohen; {{langx|yi|איזאַבעלאַ כהן משה}}) and Emanuel Moses ({{langx|yi|עמנואל משה}}).<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1218.html | title=Robert Moses, Master Builder, is Dead at 92| newspaper=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305003155/https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1218.html |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Caro|1974|p=25}} He spent the first nine years of his life living at 83 Dwight Street in New Haven, two blocks from [[Yale University]]. In 1897, the Moses family moved to New York City,{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=29}} where they lived on East 46th Street off [[Fifth Avenue]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs722a,0,7092161.story |title=The Master Builder |access-date=April 4, 2007 |last=DeWan |first=George |year=2007 |website=Long Island History |publisher=Newsday |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061211045554/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs722a%2C0%2C7092161.story |archive-date=December 11, 2006 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> Moses's father was a successful department store owner and [[real estate]] speculator in New Haven. In order for the family to move to New York City, he sold his real estate holdings and store, then retired.{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=29}} Moses's mother was active in the [[settlement movement]], with her own love of building. Robert Moses and his brother Paul attended several schools for their elementary and [[secondary education]], the [[Dwight School]] and the [[Mohegan Lake, New York#Historic places|Mohegan Lake School]], a military academy near [[Peekskill, New York|Peekskill]].{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=35}}

After graduating from [[Yale College]] (B.A., 1909) and [[Wadham College]], [[Oxford University|Oxford]] (B.A., Jurisprudence, 1911; M.A., 1913), and earning a Ph.D. in [[political science]] from [[Columbia University]] in 1914, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/robert_moses.html|title = Robert Moses}}</ref>

In 1915, Moses married Mary Louise Sims of Dodgeville, Wisconsin. They had two daughters, Mrs. Richard J. Olds (Barbara) of Greenwich, Conn., and Jane Rose Moses Collins.  Mary Sims Moses, who had remained virtually bedridden in their home from 1952–1966 with arthritis,<ref name="arthritis">{{cite web
 |title        = 1st Wife Leaves Moses $150,000
 |publisher    = Daily News
 |author       =
 |date         = October 5, 1966
 |url          = https://www.newspapers.com/image/461866469/?match=1&terms=%22mary%20a.%20grady%22%20%22robert%20moses%22}}</ref> died on September 6, 1966.  Moses subsequently married his secretary Mary Alicia Grady on October 4, 1966. [[Newsday]] reported on Grady's death in 1993, Grady had accompanied Moses on numerous vacations, prior to their marriage.<ref name="vacations">{{cite web
 |title        = Mary Moses, 77, Builder's Widow
 |publisher    = Newsday
 |author       = Vivienne Walt
 |date         = September 3, 1993
 |url          = https://www.newspapers.com/image/706629713/?match=1&terms=%22mary%20a.%20grady%22%20%22robert%20moses%22}}</ref> They lived in Manhattan's Gracie Terrace.<ref name="vacations"/>

==Career==
[[File:Robert Moses gubernatorial election poster, 1934.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.8|After losing his [[1934 New York state election|campaign for governor in 1934]], Moses never again sought elected office]]
Moses developed several plans to rid New York of [[Patronage#Politics|patronage hiring]] practices, including authoring a 1919 proposal to reorganize the New York state government, which was ultimately not adopted but drew the attention of [[Belle Moskowitz]], a friend and trusted advisor to Governor [[Al Smith]].{{sfn|Caro|1974}}  When the state [[Secretary of State of New York|Secretary of State's]] position became appointive rather than elective, Smith named Moses. He served from 1927 to 1929.<ref>{{cite news |date=December 19, 1928 |title=Moses Resigns State Position |url=https://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19281219.2.63.7# |newspaper=Cornell Daily Sun |location=Ithaca, NY |page=8}}</ref>

Moses rose to power with Smith, who was elected as governor in 1918, and then again in 1922. With Smith's support, Moses set in motion a sweeping consolidation of the New York State government. During that period Moses began his first foray into large-scale public work initiatives, while drawing on Smith's political power to enact legislation. This helped create the new [[Long Island State Park Commission]] and the State Council of Parks.<ref>{{cite web|last=Gutfreund|first=Owen|title=Moses, Robert|url=http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00375.html|publisher=Anb.org|access-date=December 24, 2014}}</ref> In 1924, Governor Smith appointed Moses chairman of the State Council of Parks and president of the Long Island State Park Commission.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacity00cave|url-access=limited|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0-415-25225-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacity00cave/page/n512 472]}}</ref> This centralization allowed Smith to run a government later used as a model for Franklin D. Roosevelt's [[New Deal]] federal government.{{original research inline|date=October 2022}} Moses also received numerous commissions that he carried out efficiently, such as the development of [[Jones Beach State Park]].{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} Displaying a strong command of [[law]] as well as matters of [[engineering]], Moses became known for his skill in drafting legislation, and was called "the best bill drafter in [[Albany, New York|Albany]]".<ref>{{harvnb|''The New Yorker''}}: "Published in the print edition of the July 22, 1974, issue, with the headline "The Best Bill-Drafter in Albany.""</ref> At a time when the public was accustomed to [[Tammany Hall]] corruption and incompetence, Moses was seen as a savior of government.{{sfn|Caro|1974}}

Shortly after [[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin D. Roosevelt's]] [[First inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt|inauguration]] in 1933, the [[United States federal government|federal government]] found itself with millions of [[New Deal]] dollars to spend, yet states and cities had few projects ready. Moses was one of the few local officials who had projects [[shovel ready]]. For that reason, New York City was able to obtain significant [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA), [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] (CCC), and other Depression-era funding. One of his most influential and longest-lasting positions was that of Parks Commissioner of New York City, a role he served from January 18, 1934, to May 23, 1960.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/commissioners|title=New York City Parks Commissioners : NYC Parks|website=www.nycgovparks.org|language=en|access-date=March 29, 2018}}</ref>

===Offices held===
The many offices and professional titles that Moses held gave him unusually broad power to shape urban development in the New York metropolitan region. These include, according to the New York Preservation Archive Project:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/robert-moses/|title=Robert Moses {{!}}|website=www.nypap.org|language=en-US|access-date=March 29, 2018}}</ref>
* [[Long Island State Park Commission]] (President, 1924–1963)
* New York State Council of Parks (Chairman, 1924–1963)
* [[Secretary of State of New York|New York Secretary of State]] (1927–1929)
* Bethpage State Park Authority (President, 1933–1963)
* Emergency Public Works Commission (Chairman, 1933–1934)
* Jones Beach Parkway Authority (President, 1933–1963)
* [[New York City Department of Parks and Recreation|New York City Department of Parks]] (Commissioner, 1934–1960)
* [[Triborough Bridge]] and Tunnel Authority (Chairman, 1934–1968)
* New York City Planning Commission (Commissioner, 1942–1960)
* New York State Power Authority (Chairman, 1954–1962)
* [[1964 New York World's Fair|New York's World Fair]] (President, 1960–1966)
* Staff of the [[Governor of New York]] (Housing Advisor, 1974–1975)

==Influence==
During the 1920s, Moses sparred with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], then head of the [[Taconic State Park]] Commission, who favored the prompt construction of a [[parkway]] through the [[Hudson Valley]]. Moses succeeded in diverting funds to his Long Island parkway projects (the [[Northern State Parkway]], the [[Southern State Parkway]], and the [[Wantagh State Parkway]]), although the [[Taconic State Parkway]] was later completed as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nycroads.com/roads/taconic/ |title=Taconic State Parkway |website=NYCRoads.com |access-date=May 25, 2006}}</ref> Moses helped build Long Island's [[Meadowbrook State Parkway]]. It was the first fully divided limited access highway in the world.<ref name="Leonard 1991 339">{{cite book|last=Leonard|first=Wallock|title=The Myth of The Master Builder|year=1991|publisher=Journal of Urban History|page=339}}</ref>

Moses was a highly influential figure in the initiation of many of the reforms that restructured [[New York state government]] during the 1920s. A 'Reconstruction Commission' headed by Moses produced a highly influential report that provided recommendations that would largely be adopted, including the consolidation of 187 existing agencies under 18 departments, a new executive budget system, and the four-year term limit for the governorship.{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=106, 260}}

=== WPA swimming pools ===
During the [[Great Depression|Depression]], Moses, along with Mayor [[Fiorello H. La Guardia]], was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those in [[Jacob Riis Park]], [[Jones Beach State Park|Jones Beach]], and [[Orchard Beach (Bronx)|Orchard Beach]].<ref name="NY1930">{{cite NY1930|page=717}}</ref>{{sfn|Caro|1974|p=456}} He devised a list of 23 pools around the city.<ref>{{Cite news|date=July 23, 1934|title=23 Bathing Pools Planned by Moses; Nine to Be Begun in a Month to Meet Shortage of Facilities Caused by Pollution|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/07/23/archives/23-bathing-pools-planned-by-moses-nine-to-be-begun-in-a-month-to.html|access-date=August 9, 2019|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite press release|title=Public Swimming Facilities in New York City.|date=July 23, 1934|publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation|access-date=January 6, 2021|page=3 (PDF p. 30)|url=http://nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/41861934_press_releases_part1.pdf}}</ref> The pools would be built using funds from the [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the [[New Deal]] to combat the Depression's negative effects.{{sfn|Caro|1974|p=456}}<ref name="nydn19340723">{{cite news|date=July 23, 1934|title=City to Construct 9 Pools To Provide Safe Swimming|page=8|work=New York Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35042789/|access-date=August 18, 2019|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref>

Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. These comprised ten pools at [[Astoria Park]], [[Betsy Head Park]], [[Crotona Park]], [[Hamilton Fish Park]], [[Highbridge Park]], [[Thomas Jefferson Park]], [[McCarren Park]], [[Red Hook Park]], [[Jackie Robinson Park]], and [[Sunset Park (Brooklyn park)|Sunset Park]], as well as a standalone facility at [[Tompkinsville Pool]].<ref name="NYC Parks Pools History">{{cite web|title=History of Parks' Swimming Pools|url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/pools|access-date=January 15, 2021|publisher=New York City Department of Parks and Recreation}}</ref> Moses, along with architects [[Aymar Embury II]] and [[Gilmore David Clarke]], created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums. The pools were to have several common features, such as a minimum {{Convert|55|yd|m|abbr=|adj=on}} length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials. To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the [[Streamline Moderne]] and [[Classical architecture|Classical]] architectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes.<ref name="NYC Parks Pools History" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Shattuck|first=Kathryn|date=August 14, 2006|title=Big Chill of '36: Show Celebrates Giant Depression-Era Pools That Cool New York|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/arts/design/big-chill-of-36-show-celebrates-giant-depressionera-pools-that.html|access-date=January 8, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Construction for some of the 11 pools began in October 1934.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=October 4, 1934|title=Park Work Is Begun on 2 Bathing Pools; Construction Under Way at High Bridge and Hamilton Fish – 7 Others to Be Started Soon|language=en-US|page=48|work=The New York Times|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/10/04/93645601.pdf|access-date=January 13, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week.{{sfn|Caro|1974|p=456}} Combined, the facilities could accommodate 49,000 swimmers.{{sfn|Gutman|2008|loc=p. 532, note 6}}  The eleven WPA pools were considered for [[New York City designated landmark|New York City landmark]] status in 1990.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Brozan|first=Nadine|date=July 30, 1990|title=A Crumbling Pool Divides a Neighborhood|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/30/nyregion/a-crumbling-pool-divides-a-neighborhood.html|access-date=January 11, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Ten of the pools were designated as New York City landmarks in 2007 and 2008.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Schuster|first=Karla|date=August 3, 2007|title=After 71 years Astoria Pool is among 10 outdoor public pools that the city is designating as landmarks|work=Newsday|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/280156824|url-access=subscription|access-date=May 12, 2021|id={{ProQuest|280156824}}}}</ref>

Moses allegedly fought to keep African American swimmers out of his pools and beaches. One subordinate remembers Moses saying the pools should be kept a few degrees colder, allegedly because Moses believed African Americans did not like cold water.{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=318–319}}

===Water crossings===

====Triborough Bridge====
[[File:Hell Gate and Triborough Bridges New York City Queens.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.3|Part of the Triborough Bridge (left) with [[Astoria Park]] and its pool in the center]]
Although Moses had power over the construction of all [[New York City Housing Authority]] public housing projects and headed many other entities, it was his chairmanship of the [[Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority|Triborough Bridge Authority]] that gave him the most power.{{sfn|Caro|1974}}

The Triborough Bridge (later officially renamed the [[Robert F. Kennedy Bridge]]) opened in 1936, connecting [[the Bronx]], [[Manhattan]], and [[Queens]] via three separate spans. Language in its Authority's [[Bond (finance)|bond]] contracts and multi-year Commissioner appointments made it largely impervious to pressure from mayors and governors. While New York City and New York State were perpetually strapped for money, the bridge's toll revenues amounted to tens of millions of dollars a year. The Authority was thus able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by selling bonds, a method also used by the [[Port Authority of New York and New Jersey]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Empire on the Hudson|last=Doig|first=Jameson W.|date=November 15, 2002|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-07677-7|language=en|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/empireonhudson00jame}}</ref> to fund large public construction projects. Toll revenues rose quickly as traffic on the bridges exceeded all projections. Rather than pay off the bonds, Moses used the revenue to build other toll projects, a cycle that would feed on itself.<ref name="Nexus">{{cite web|last=Carion|first=Carlos|title=Robert Moses|url=http://nexus.umn.edu/Courses/Cases/CE5212/F2009/CS3/cs3.pdf|publisher=Nexus.umn.edu|access-date=December 24, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141126180045/http://nexus.umn.edu/Courses/Cases/CE5212/F2009/CS3/CS3.pdf|archive-date=November 26, 2014}}</ref>

====Brooklyn–Battery link====
In the late 1930s a municipal controversy raged over whether an additional vehicular link between Brooklyn and [[Lower Manhattan]] should be built as a bridge or a tunnel. Bridges can be wider and cheaper to build, but taller and longer bridges use more ramp space at landfall than tunnels do.{{sfn|Caro|1974}} A "Brooklyn Battery Bridge" would have decimated [[The Battery (Manhattan)|Battery Park]] and physically encroached on the financial district, and for this reason, the bridge was opposed by the [[Regional Plan Association]], historical preservationists, [[Wall Street]] financial interests, property owners, various high society people, [[construction]] [[labor union|unions]], the Manhattan [[borough president]], Mayor [[Fiorello LaGuardia]], and governor [[Herbert H. Lehman]].{{sfn|Caro|1974}} Despite this, Moses favored a bridge, which could both carry more automobile traffic and serve as a higher visibility monument than a tunnel. LaGuardia and Lehman as usual had little money to spend, in part due to the [[Great Depression]], while the federal government was running low on funds after recently spending $105 million ($1.8 billion in 2016) on the [[Queens-Midtown Tunnel]] and other City projects and refused to provide any additional funds to New York.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/brooklyn-battery/ |title=Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (I-478) |publisher=Nycroads.com |access-date=March 12, 2014}}</ref> Awash in funds from Triborough Bridge tolls, Moses deemed that money could only be spent on a bridge. He also clashed with the chief engineer of the project, [[Ole Singstad]], who preferred a tunnel instead of a bridge.{{sfn|Caro|1974}}

Only a lack of a key federal approval thwarted the bridge project. President Roosevelt ordered the [[United States Department of War|War Department]] to assert that [[Strategic bombing|bombing]] a bridge in that location would block [[East River]] access to the [[Brooklyn Navy Yard]] upstream. Thwarted, Moses dismantled the [[New York Aquarium]] on [[Castle Clinton]] and moved it to [[Coney Island]] in Brooklyn, where it grew much bigger. This was in apparent retaliation, based on specious claims that the proposed tunnel would undermine Castle Clinton's foundation. He also attempted to raze Castle Clinton itself, the historic fort surviving only after being transferred to the federal government.{{sfn|Caro|1974}} Moses now had no other option for a trans-river crossing than to build a tunnel. He commissioned the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (now officially the [[Hugh L. Carey Tunnel]]), a tunnel connecting Brooklyn to [[Lower Manhattan]]. A 1941 publication from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority claimed that the government had forced them to build a tunnel at "twice the cost, twice the operating fees, twice the difficulty to engineer, and half the traffic," although engineering studies did not support these conclusions, and a tunnel may have held many of the advantages Moses publicly tried to attach to the bridge option.{{sfn|Caro|1974}}

This had not been the first time Moses pressed for a bridge over a tunnel. He had tried to upstage the Tunnel Authority when the [[Queens-Midtown Tunnel]] was being planned.<ref name="nycroads.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/queens-midtown/ |title=Queens-Midtown Tunnel |website=NYCRoads.com |access-date=August 1, 2010}}</ref> He had raised the same arguments, which failed due to their lack of political support.<ref name="nycroads.com"/>

===Post-war influence of urban development and projects===
[[File:United Nations HQ - New York City.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The [[headquarters of the United&nbsp;Nations]] in New York City, viewed from the [[East River]]. The [[United Nations Secretariat Building|Secretariat Building]] is on the left and the [[United Nations General Assembly Building|General Assembly Building]] is the low structure to the right of the tower. This set of buildings straddles the [[FDR Drive]], another of Moses's creations.]]

Moses's power increased after [[World War II]] after Mayor LaGuardia retired and a series of successors consented to almost all of his proposals. Named city "construction coordinator" in 1946 by Mayor [[William O'Dwyer]], Moses became New York City's ''de facto'' representative in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]. Moses was also given powers over [[New York City Housing Authority|public housing]] that had eluded him under LaGuardia. When O'Dwyer was forced to resign in disgrace and was succeeded by [[Vincent R. Impellitteri]], Moses was able to assume even greater behind-the-scenes control over [[infrastructure]] projects.{{sfn|Caro|1974}} One of Moses's first steps after Impellitteri took office was halting the creation of a citywide Comprehensive Zoning Plan underway since 1938 that would have curtailed his nearly unlimited power to build within the city and removed the Zoning Commissioner from power in the process. Moses was also empowered as the sole authority to negotiate in Washington for New York City projects. By 1959, he had overseen construction of 28,000 apartment units on hundreds of acres of land. In clearing the land for high-rises in accordance with the [[towers in the park]] concept, which at that time was seen as innovative and beneficial by leaving more grassy areas between high-rises, Moses sometimes destroyed almost as many housing units as he built.{{sfn|Caro|1974}}

From the 1930s to the 1960s, Robert Moses was responsible for the construction of the [[Triborough Bridge|Triborough]], [[Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge|Marine Parkway]], [[Throgs Neck Bridge|Throgs Neck]], [[Bronx-Whitestone Bridge|Bronx-Whitestone]], [[Henry Hudson Bridge|Henry Hudson]], and [[Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge]]s. His other projects included the [[Brooklyn-Queens Expressway]] and [[Staten Island Expressway]] (together constituting most of [[Interstate 278]]); the [[Cross-Bronx Expressway]]; many New York State [[Parkway (New York)|parkways]]; and other highways. Federal interest had shifted from parkway to [[freeway]] systems, and the new roads mostly conformed to the new vision, lacking the landscaping or the commercial traffic restrictions of the pre-war highways. He was the mover behind [[Shea Stadium]] and [[Lincoln Center]], and contributed to the [[United Nations headquarters]].{{sfn|Caro|1974}} On November 25, 1950, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]] appointed Moses along with former Secretary of War [[Robert P. Patterson]] and former New York State Supreme Court Justice [[Charles C. Lockwood]] as a member of the Temporary Long Island Railroad Commission, installed after the [[Richmond Hill train crash]] on November 22, 1950, that claimed 79 lives.<ref name=nyt261150>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/11/26/306681472.html?pageNumber=1 Dewey Names 3 Men to Study 'All Aspects' of the L.I. Road], The New York Times, November 26, 1950</ref> The Commission recommended the state purchase and operation by non-profit public authority of the railway service.<ref name=gdt080351>[http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/Geneva%20NY%20Daily%20Times/Geneva%20NY%20Daily%20Times%201951%20Jan-Mar%201951%20Grayscale/Geneva%20NY%20Daily%20Times%201951%20Jan-Mar%201951%20Grayscale%20-%200712.pdf Dewey Asks State Control of Long Island Road], ''Geneva Daily Times'', March 8, 1951</ref>

Moses had influence outside the New York area as well. Public officials in many smaller American cities hired him to design freeway networks in the 1940s and early 1950s. For example, [[Portland, Oregon]] hired Moses in 1943; his plan included a loop around the [[Downtown Portland|city center]], with [[spur route|spurs]] running through neighborhoods. Of this plan, only [[Interstate 405 (Oregon)|I-405]], its links with [[Interstate 5 in Oregon|I-5]], and the [[Fremont Bridge (Portland)|Fremont Bridge]] were built.<ref>{{cite web| title= Feb. 4, 1974: Portland kills the Mount Hood Freeway| url= http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-23466-feb-4-1974-portland-kills-the-mount-hood-freeway.html | date= November 5, 2014| first= Aaron|last= Mesh | publisher= [[Willamette Week]] | quote= Every great civilization has an origin story. For modern Portland, it is an exodus from Moses. That's Robert Moses, the master builder of New York City's grid of expressways and bridges who brought the Big Apple its car commuters, smog and sprawl. In 1943, the city of Portland hired Moses to design its urban future. Moses charted a highway loop around the city's core with a web of spur freeways running through neighborhoods. The city and state embraced much of the plan. The loop Moses envisioned became Interstate 405 as it links with I-5 south of downtown and runs north across the Fremont Bridge.|access-date= November 21, 2014}}</ref>

Moses himself did not drive an automobile.<ref name="asimov">{{Cite book |last= Asimov |first=Isaac |author-link= Isaac Asimov|title=Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts |page=105 |chapter=Eccentricities |isbn=978-0-448-15776-4|year=1979 |publisher= Grosset & Dunlap|location=New York}}</ref> Moses's highways in the first half of the 20th century were parkways—curving, landscaped "ribbon parks" that were intended to be pleasures to travel on, as well as "lungs for the city". However, [[post–World War II economic expansion]], and notion of the [[automotive city]], led to the creation of [[freeway]]s, most notably in the form of the vast, federally funded [[Interstate Highway System|Interstate Highway network]].{{sfn|Caro|1974}}

====Brooklyn Dodgers====
When the owner of the [[History of the Brooklyn Dodgers|Brooklyn Dodgers]], [[Walter O'Malley]], sought to replace the outdated and dilapidated [[Ebbets Field]], he proposed building a [[Brooklyn Dodgers proposed domed stadium|new stadium]] near the [[Long Island Rail Road]] on the corner of [[Atlantic Avenue (New York City)|Atlantic Avenue]] and [[Flatbush Avenue]] (at the current site of the [[Atlantic Terminal Mall]], across from the [[Barclays Center]], home of the [[NBA]]'s [[Brooklyn Nets]]). O'Malley urged Moses to help him secure the property through eminent domain, but Moses refused, having already decided to build a parking garage on the site. Moreover, O'Malley's proposal—to have the city acquire the property for several times as much as he had originally said he was willing to pay—was rejected by both pro- and anti-Moses officials, newspapers, and the public, as an unacceptable government subsidy of a private business enterprise.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/nyh/89.1/fetter.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505064446/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/nyh/89.1/fetter.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 5, 2010 |title=Revising the Revisionists: Walter O'Malley, Robert Moses, and the End of the Brooklyn Dodgers |date=Winter 2008 |publisher=New York History (New York State Historical Association) |first=Henry D. |last=Fetter  }}</ref>

Moses envisioned New York's newest stadium being built in Queens' [[Flushing Meadows]] on the former (and as it turned out, future) site of the [[1964 New York World's Fair|World's Fair]], where it would eventually host all three of the city's major league teams of the day. O'Malley vehemently opposed that plan, citing the team's [[Brooklyn]] identity. Moses refused to budge and, after the 1957 season, the Dodgers left for [[Los Angeles]] and the [[New York Giants (baseball)|New York Giants]] left for [[San Francisco]].{{sfn|Caro|1974}} Moses was later able to build the 55,000-seat multi-purpose [[Shea Stadium]] on the site. Construction ran from October 1961 to its delayed completion in April 1964. The stadium attracted an expansion franchise, the [[New York Mets]], who played at Shea until 2008, when the stadium was demolished and replaced with [[Citi Field]]. The NFL's [[New York Jets]] also played its home games at Shea from 1964 until 1983, after which the team moved its home games to the [[Meadowlands Sports Complex]] in New Jersey.<ref name="Murphy">{{cite news|last=Murphy|first=Robert|title=OMalley-vs-Moses |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-e-murphy/omalley-vs-moses-a-half-c_b_219569.html|work=Huffington Post|date=June 24, 2009}}</ref>

===End of the Moses era===
[[File:Unisphere.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.3|View of the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair as seen from the observation towers of the New York State pavilion. The Fair's symbol, the [[Unisphere]], is the central image.]]
Moses's reputation began to fade during the 1960s. Around this time, Moses's political acumen began to fail him, as he unwisely picked several controversial political battles he could not possibly win. For example, his campaign against the free [[Shakespeare in the Park (New York City)|Shakespeare in the Park]] program received much negative publicity, and his effort to destroy a shaded playground in [[Central Park]] to make way for a parking lot for the expensive [[Tavern on the Green|Tavern-on-the-Green]] restaurant earned him many enemies among the middle-class voters of the [[Upper West Side]].

[[File:30 years of progress, 1934-1964 - Department of Parks - 300th anniversary of the City of New York - New York World's Fair. (1964) (16478136350).jpg|thumb|left|A 1964 Parks Department map showing numerous Robert Moses projects, including several highways that went unbuilt or were only partially completed.]]
The opposition reached a climax over the demolition of [[Pennsylvania Station (1910–1963)|Pennsylvania Station]], which many attributed to the "development scheme" mentality cultivated by Moses<ref>{{cite news |title=Rethinking Robert Moses |first=Phillip |last=Lopate |author-link=Phillip Lopate |url=http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20070313/rethinking-robert-moses |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301063044/http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20070313/rethinking-robert-moses |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 1, 2009 |magazine=[[Metropolis (architecture magazine)|Metropolis]] |date=March 13, 2007 |access-date=October 9, 2010 |ref=CITEREFLopate2007b }}</ref> even though it was the impoverished [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] that was actually responsible for the demolition.<ref name="The Nation">{{Cite journal |title=Robert Moses: The Master Builder |first=Jane Holtz |last=Kay |url=http://www.janeholtzkay.com/articles/masterbuilder.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040716090628/http://janeholtzkay.com/Articles/masterbuilder.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 16, 2004 |journal=The Nation |date=April 24, 1989 |volume=248 |page=569 |access-date=October 9, 2010 |issue=16 }}</ref> This casual destruction of one of New York's greatest architectural landmarks helped prompt many city residents to turn against Moses's plans to build a [[Lower Manhattan Expressway]], which would have gone through [[Greenwich Village]] and what is now [[SoHo]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://greeneconomics.blogspot.com/2007/05/robert-moses-new-york-citys-master.html |title=Environmental and Urban Economics: Robert Moses: New York City's Master Builder? |publisher=Greeneconomics.blogspot.com |date=May 6, 2007 |access-date=March 12, 2014}}</ref> This plan and the [[Mid-Manhattan Expressway]] both failed politically. One of his most vocal critics during this time was the urban activist [[Jane Jacobs]], whose book ''[[The Death and Life of Great American Cities]]'' was instrumental in turning opinion against Moses's plans; the city government rejected the expressway in 1964.<ref>{{Cite news| url =https://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/video/the-dig-web-video-the-master-builder-1977/925/|title= The Next American System&nbsp;— The Master Builder (1977)|publisher=[[PBS]] |date =February 3, 2010}}</ref>

Moses's power was further eroded by his association with the [[1964 New York World's Fair]]. His projections for attendance of 70 million people for this event proved wildly optimistic, and generous contracts for Fair executives and contractors made matters worse economically. Moses's repeated and forceful public denials of the fair's considerable financial difficulties in the face of evidence to the contrary eventually provoked press and governmental investigations, which found accounting irregularities.<ref name="Nexus"/> In his organization of the fair, Moses's reputation was now undermined by the same personal character traits that had worked in his favor in the past: disdain for the opinions of others and high-handed attempts to get his way in moments of conflict by turning to the press. The fact that the fair was not sanctioned by the [[Bureau of International Expositions]] (BIE), the worldwide body supervising such events, would be devastating to the success of the event.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGMdyCdCT9c| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211114/zGMdyCdCT9c| archive-date=November 14, 2021 | url-status=live|title=Robert Moses: Long Island's Master Builder|website=YouTube| date=November 28, 2009|access-date=December 24, 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Moses refused to accept BIE requirements, including a restriction against charging ground rents to exhibitors, and the BIE in turn instructed its member nations not to participate.<ref name="learn.columbia">{{cite web|url=http://www.learn.columbia.edu/moses/|title=Robert Moses|publisher=Learn.columbia.edu|access-date=December 24, 2014|archive-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028002201/http://www.learn.columbia.edu/moses/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The United States had already staged the sanctioned [[Century 21 Exposition]] in [[Seattle, Washington|Seattle]] in 1962. According to the rules of the organization, no one nation could host more than one fair in a decade. The major European democracies, as well as Canada, Australia, and the Soviet Union, were all BIE members and they declined to participate, instead reserving their efforts for [[Expo 67]] in [[Montreal]].

[[File:Verrazano-Narrows Bridge- The Beginning (15097870444).jpg|thumb|Robert Moses gives a salute after the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the [[Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge]] on November 21, 1964]]
After the World's Fair debacle, New York City mayor [[John Lindsay]], along with Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]], sought to direct toll revenues from the [[Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority]]'s (TBTA) bridges and tunnels to cover deficits in the city's then financially ailing agencies, including the [[New York City Subway|subway system]]. Moses opposed this idea and fought to prevent it.<ref name="The Nation"/> Lindsay then removed Moses from his post as the city's chief advocate for federal highway money in Washington.

The legislature's vote to fold the TBTA into the newly created [[Metropolitan Transportation Authority]] (MTA) could have led to a lawsuit by the TBTA bondholders. Since the bond contracts were written into state law, it was unconstitutional to impair existing contractual obligations, as the bondholders had the right of approval over such actions. The largest holder of TBTA bonds, and thus agent for all the others, was the [[Chase Manhattan Bank]], headed then by [[David Rockefeller]], the governor's brother. No suit was filed. Moses could have directed TBTA to go to court against the action, but having been promised a role in the merged authority, Moses declined to challenge the merger. On March 1, 1968, the TBTA was folded into the MTA and Moses gave up his post as chairman of the TBTA. He eventually became a consultant to the MTA, but its new chairman and the governor froze him out—the promised role did not materialize, and for all practical purposes Moses was out of power.<ref name="Murphy"/>

[[File:Robert Moses, in office, Randall Island, N.Y., 1978 - gtfy.02743.jpg|thumb|right|125px|Moses in 1978]]
Moses had thought he had convinced Nelson Rockefeller of the need for one last great bridge project, a span [[Long Island Crossing|crossing Long Island Sound]] from [[Rye (town), New York|Rye]] to [[Oyster Bay (hamlet), New York|Oyster Bay]]. Rockefeller did not press for the project in the late 1960s through 1970, fearing public backlash among suburban Republicans would hinder his re-election prospects. A 1972 study found the bridge was fiscally prudent and could be environmentally manageable (according to the comparatively low environmental impact parameters of that period), but the anti-development sentiment was now insurmountable and in 1973 Rockefeller canceled plans for the bridge.

====''The Power Broker''====
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?112640-1/power-broker-robert-moses Presentation by Robert Caro on Robert Moses and urban development at the Brookings Institution, September 28, 1998], [[C-SPAN]]}}
{{Main|The Power Broker}}
Moses's image suffered a further blow in 1974 with the publication of ''[[The Power Broker]]'', a [[Pulitzer Prize]]–winning biography by [[Robert A. Caro]]. Caro's 1,200-page opus (edited down from 2,000 or so pages) showed Moses generally in a negative light; essayist [[Phillip Lopate]] writes that "Moses's satanic reputation with the public can be traced, in the main, to ... Caro's magnificent biography".<ref>{{Cite news|title=A Town Revived, a Villain Redeemed |first=Phillip |last=Lopate |author-link=Phillip Lopate |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/nyregion/thecity/11moses.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=February 11, 2007 |at=Section 14, col. 1 |access-date=August 1, 2010 |ref=CITEREFLopate2007a}}</ref>{{sfn|Caro|1974}} For example, Caro describes Moses's lack of sensitivity in the construction of the [[Cross-Bronx Expressway]], and how he disfavored [[public transit]]. Much of Moses's reputation is attributable to Caro, whose book won both the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1975 and the [[Francis Parkman Prize]] (which is awarded by the [[Society of American Historians]]), and was named one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books of the twentieth century by the [[Modern Library]].<ref name="learn.columbia" />{{sfn|Caro|1974}} Upon its publication, Moses denounced the biography in a 23-page statement, to which Caro replied to defend his work's integrity.<ref name="Boeing2017Moses">{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317570292|author=Boeing, G.|title=We Live in a Motorized Civilization: Robert Moses Replies to Robert Caro|journal=SSRN|date=2017|pages=1–13|access-date=August 13, 2017|doi=10.2139/ssrn.2934079|arxiv=2104.06179|s2cid=164717606}}</ref>

Caro's depiction of Moses's life gives him full credit for his early achievements, showing, for example, how he conceived and created Jones Beach and the New York State Park system, but also shows how Moses's desire for power came to be more important to him than his earlier dreams. Moses is blamed for having destroyed more than a score of neighborhoods by building 13 expressways across New York City and by building large [[urban renewal]] projects with little regard for the urban fabric or for human scale.{{sfn|Caro|1974}} Yet the author is more neutral in his central premise: the city would have developed much differently without Moses. Other U.S. cities were doing the same thing as New York in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; [[Central Artery|Boston]], [[Embarcadero Freeway|San Francisco]], and [[Alaskan Way Viaduct|Seattle]], for instance, each built highways straight through their downtown areas just as Moses wished to do in New York.{{sfn|Caro|1974}} The New York City architectural [[intelligentsia]] of the 1940s and 1950s, who largely believed in such proponents of the automobile as [[Le Corbusier]] and [[Mies van der Rohe]], had supported Moses. Many other cities, like [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]], [[Chicago]], and [[St. Louis]], also built massive, unattractive public housing projects.<ref name="Glaeser2007">{{cite news |last1=Glaeser |first1=Edward |author-link1=Edward Glaeser |date=January 19, 2007 |title=Great Cities Need Great Builders |url=http://www.nysun.com/arts/great-cities-need-great-builders/47012/ |newspaper=[[The New York Sun]] |access-date=October 9, 2010 |archive-date=October 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024043702/http://www.nysun.com/arts/great-cities-need-great-builders/47012/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{sfn|Caro|1974}}  Caro also points out that Moses [[#Racism|demonstrated racist tendencies]].{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=510, 514}}  These allegedly included opposing black World War II veterans' intentions to move into a residential complex specifically designed for these veterans,<ref name=nyplmoses/> {{Failed verification|date=December 2019}} and purportedly trying to make swimming pool water cold in order to drive away potential African American residents in white neighborhoods.<ref name="nyt2cities">{{Cite news|last=Powell|first=Michael|date=May 6, 2007|title=A Tale of Two Cities|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/nyregion/thecity/06hist.html|access-date=August 1, 2010|quote=As for the pool-cooling, Mr. Caro interviewed Moses's associates on the record ("You can pretty well keep them out of any pool if you keep the water cold enough," he quotes Sidney M. Shapiro, a close Moses aide, as saying).}}</ref>

People had come to see Moses as a bully who disregarded public input, but until the publication of Caro's book, they had not known many details of his private life—for instance, that his older brother Paul had spent much of his life in poverty. Moses was said to have blocked Paul, an engineer, from being hired for any public service jobs including major [[infrastructure]] projects that Moses himself had spearheaded.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://professornerdster.com/power-broker-by-robert-caro-summary-analysis-of-chapter-26/ | title=Power Broker by Robert Caro – Summary & Analysis of Chapter 26 | date=February 18, 2020 }}</ref> Paul, whom Caro interviewed shortly before the former's death, claimed Robert had exerted undue influence on their mother to change her will in Robert's favor shortly before her death.{{sfn|Caro|1974}} Caro notes that Paul was on bad terms with their mother over a long period and she may have changed the will of her own accord, and implies that Robert's subsequent treatment of Paul may have been legally justifiable but was morally questionable.{{sfn|Caro|1974}}

==Death==
[[File:Robert Moses Crypt 1024.jpg|thumb|right|The crypt of Robert Moses]]

During the last years of his life, Moses concentrated on his lifelong love of [[human swimming|swimming]] and was an active member of the Colonie Hill Health Club.

Moses died of [[heart disease]] on July 29, 1981, at the age of 92 at [[Good Samaritan Hospital (West Islip)|Good Samaritan Hospital]] in [[West Islip, New York]].

Moses was of Jewish origin and raised in a [[Secularism|secularist]] manner inspired by the [[Ethical Culture]] movement of the late 19th century. He was a convert to Christianity<ref>{{Cite news|title=Legacy of Moses Hailed |first=Joyce |last=Purnick |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/01/nyregion/legacy-of-moses-hailed.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 1, 1981 |at=Section 2, col. 1, p. 29 |access-date=August 1, 2010}}</ref> and was interred in a crypt in an outdoor community mausoleum in [[Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[The Bronx, New York City]] following services at St. Peter's by-the-Sea [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] in [[Bay Shore, New York]].
<ref>{{cite web | url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/robert-moses-biased-against-blacks-and-latinos-and-difficulty-with-his-judaism/#:~:text=But%20after%20college%2C%20Moses%20converted,for%20governor%20against%20Herbert%20H | title=The Blogs: Robert Moses: Biased Against Blacks and Latinos and Difficulty with His Judaism }}</ref>

==Legacy==

Various locations and roadways in New York State bear Moses's name. These include two state parks, [[Robert Moses State Park – Thousand Islands]] in [[Massena (village), New York|Massena, New York]] and [[Robert Moses State Park|Robert Moses State Park – Long Island]], the [[Robert Moses Causeway]] on Long Island, and the [[Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant]] in [[Lewiston, New York]]. The [[Niagara Scenic Parkway]] in [[Niagara Falls, New York]] was originally named the Robert Moses State Parkway in his honor; its name was changed in 2016. The [[Moses-Saunders Power Dam]] in [[Massena, New York]] also bears his name. Moses also has a school named after him in [[North Babylon, New York]] on Long Island; there is also a [[Robert Moses Playground]] in New York City. There are other signs of the surviving appreciation held for him by some circles of the public. A statue of Moses was erected next to the [[Village hall|Village Hall]] in his long-time hometown, [[Babylon (village), New York|Babylon Village, New York]].

During his tenure as chief of the state park system, the state's inventory of parks grew to nearly {{Convert|2600000|acre}}. By the time he left office, he had built 658 playgrounds in New York City alone, plus {{Convert|416|mi}} of parkways and 13 bridges.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1218.html |title=Robert Moses, Master Builder, is Dead at 92 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 30, 1981 |access-date=March 12, 2014}}</ref> The proportion of [[New York state public-benefit corporations|public benefit corporations]] is greater in New York than in any other [[U.S. state]], however, making them the prime mode of infrastructure building and maintenance in New York and accounting for 90% of the state's debt.<ref>{{Cite news |title= New York's 'shadow government' debt rises to $140 billion |date= September 2, 2009 |agency= [[Associated Press]] |newspaper= [[The Post-Standard]] |location= Syracuse |url= http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/new_yorks_shadow_government_de.html |access-date= December 16, 2010 }}</ref>

==Appraisal==

===Criticism and ''The Power Broker''===
Moses's life was most famously characterized in [[Robert Caro]]'s 1974 award-winning biography ''[[The Power Broker]]''.

The book highlighted his practice of starting projects certain to cost more than the initial funding approved by the [[New York State Legislature]], knowing the legislature would eventually have to fund the full project to avoid appearing to have provided ineffective oversight ({{italics correction|''[[:wikt:fait accompli|fait accompli]]''}}). He was also characterized as using his political power to benefit cronies, including a case in which he secretly shifted the planned route of the [[Northern State Parkway]] large distances to avoid impinging on the estates of the rich, but told owners of the family farms who lost land that it was an unbiased decision based on "engineering considerations."{{sfn|Caro|1974}} The book also charged that Moses [[libel]]ed officials who opposed him, attempting to have them removed from office by calling them [[communists]] during the [[Red Scare]]. The biography further notes that Moses fought against schools and other public needs in favor of his preference for parks.{{sfn|Caro|1974}}

Moses's critics charge that he preferred automobiles over people. They point out that he displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in New York City and destroyed traditional neighborhoods by building multiple expressways through them. The projects contributed to the ruin of the [[South Bronx]] and the [[amusement park]]s of [[Coney Island]], caused the [[History of the Brooklyn Dodgers|Brooklyn Dodgers]] and the [[History of the New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]] [[Major League Baseball]] teams to relocate to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively, and precipitated the decline of public transport from [[disinvestment]] and neglect.{{sfn|Caro|1974}} His building of expressways also hindered the [[proposed expansion of the New York City Subway]] from the 1930s to well into the 1960s because the parkways and expressways that were built replaced, at least to some extent, the planned subway lines. The 1968 [[Program for Action]] (which was never completed) was hoped to counter that.{{sfn|Caro|1974}} Other critics charge that he precluded the use of public transit, which would have allowed non-car-owners to enjoy the elaborate recreation facilities he built.

====Racism====
Caro's ''The Power Broker'' also accused Moses of building low bridges across his parkways to make them inaccessible to public transit buses, thereby restricting "the use of state parks by poor and lower-middle-class families" who did not own cars. Caro also wrote that Moses attempted to discourage Black people in particular from visiting Jones Beach, the centerpiece of the Long Island state park system, by such measures as making it difficult for Black groups to get permits to park buses, and assigning Black lifeguards to "distant, less developed beaches".{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=318–319}} While the exclusion of commercial vehicles and the use of low bridges where appropriate were standard on earlier parkways, where they had been instituted for aesthetic reasons, Moses appears to have made greater use of low bridges, which his aide Sidney Shapiro said was done to make it more difficult for future legislatures to allow access for commercial vehicles.{{sfn|Caro|1974|p=952}}<ref name="Campanella">{{cite news |last1=Campanella |first1=Thomas |title=How Low Did He Go? |url=https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/07/how-low-did-he-go/533019/ |newspaper=Bloomberg.com |date=July 9, 2017 |access-date=July 25, 2018}}</ref>  Woolgar and Cooper refer to the claim about bridges as an "urban legend".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Woolgar |first1=Steve |last2=Cooper |first2=Geoff |title=Do Artefacts Have Ambivalence? Moses' Bridges, Winner's Bridges and Other Urban Legends in S&TS |journal=Social Studies of Science |date=1999 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=433–449 |doi=10.1177/030631299029003005 |jstor=285412 |s2cid=143679977 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/285412 |access-date=November 17, 2021 |issn=0306-3127|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Moses vocally opposed allowing Black war veterans to move into [[Stuyvesant Town]], a Manhattan residential development complex created to house World War II veterans.<ref name=nyplmoses>{{cite web |title=Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City |first=Cynthia |last=Chaldekas |url=http://www.nypl.org/blog/2010/03/16/wrestling-moses-jane-jacobs |website=[[New York Public Library]] |date=March 16, 2010 |access-date=October 9, 2010}}</ref>{{sfn|Caro|1974}} In response to the biography, Moses defended his forced displacement of poor and minority communities as an inevitable part of urban revitalization: "I raise my [[wikt:stein|stein]] to the builder who can remove [[ghetto]]s without moving people as I hail the chef who can make omelets without breaking eggs."<ref name="Boeing2017Moses" />

Additionally, there were allegations that Moses selectively chose locations for recreational facilities based on the racial compositions of a neighborhood, such as when he selected sites for eleven pools that opened in 1936. According to one author, Moses purposely placed some pools in neighborhoods with mainly white populations to deter African Americans from using them, and other pools intended for African Americans, such as the one in Colonial Park (now [[Jackie Robinson Park]]), were placed in inconvenient locations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wiltse|first=Jeff|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cRQxbEaV0KUC&pg=PA140|title=Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-8078-8898-8|page=140|access-date=January 10, 2021}}</ref> Another author wrote that of 255 playgrounds built in the 1930s under Moses's tenure, only two were in largely Black neighborhoods.<ref>{{cite book|last=Riess|first=Steven A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5Kwjz4Kl3gC&pg=PA148|title=City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-252-06216-2|series=An Illini book|page=148}}</ref> Caro wrote that close associates of Moses had claimed they could keep African Americans from using the [[Thomas Jefferson Pool]], in then-predominantly-white [[East Harlem]], by making the water too cold.{{sfn|Caro|1974|pp=512–514}}<ref name="nyt2cities" /> Nonetheless, no other source has corroborated the claim that heaters in any particular pool were deactivated or not included in the pool's design.{{sfn|Gutman|2008|pp=537–538}}

In addition, Moses took a favorable view of the [[British Empire]] and a racism much broader than solely towards the African-American community, speaking of Empire as useful in stemming the "rise of the lesser breeds without the law".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-13 |title=Winston Churchill's Mother? You've Got the Wrong Brooklyn Address  |url=https://hellgatenyc.com/winston-churchill-mother-plaque-cobble-hill-wrong-address |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=Hell Gate |first1=Glen |last1=Jeffries |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ceremonies in Honor of Lady Churchill {{!}} WNYC {{!}} New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News |url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/ceremonies-in-honor-of-lady-churchill/ |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=WNYC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Honoring Memory of Winston Churchill's Mother; Plaque Unveiled on Brooklyn Home, Birthplace of Churchill's Mother |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/03/27/93359009.html?pageNumber=31# |access-date=2024-08-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

===Reappraisal===
Some scholars have attempted to rehabilitate Moses's reputation by contrasting the scale of works with the high cost and the slow speed of public works in the decades following his era. The peak of Moses's construction occurred during the economic duress of the [[Great Depression]], and despite the era's woes, Moses's projects were completed in a timely fashion and have been reliable public works since then, which compares favorably to the delays that New York City officials have had in redeveloping the [[Ground Zero]] site of the former [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] or to the delays and technical problems surrounding the [[Second Avenue Subway]] and Boston's [[Big Dig (Boston, Massachusetts)|Big Dig]] project.<ref name="Glaeser2007" />

Three major exhibits in 2007 prompted a reconsideration of his image among some intellectuals, as they acknowledged the magnitude of his achievements. According to the [[Columbia University]] [[history of architecture|architectural historian]] [[Hilary Ballon]] and colleagues, Moses deserves a better reputation. They argue that his legacy is more relevant than ever and that people take the parks, playgrounds, and housing that Moses built, now generally binding forces in those areas, for granted even if the old-style New York neighborhood was of no interest to Moses himself. Moreover, were it not for Moses's public infrastructure and his resolve to carve out more space, New York might not have been able to recover from the blight and flight of the 1970s and the 1980s to become today's economic magnet.<ref name="nyt-2007-01-28">{{Cite news|title=Rehabilitating Robert Moses |first=Robin |last=Pogrebin |author-link=Robin Pogrebin |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3D61F30F93BA15752C0A9619C8B63 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 28, 2007 |at=p. 1, Section 2, col. 3 |access-date=August 1, 2010}}</ref>

"Every generation writes its own history," said [[Kenneth T. Jackson]], a historian of New York City to the ''New York Times'' in 2007. "It could be that ''The Power Broker'' was a reflection of its time: New York was in trouble and had been in decline for 15 years. Now, for a whole host of reasons, New York is entering a new time, a time of optimism, growth and revival that hasn't been seen in half a century. And that causes us to look at our infrastructure," said Jackson. "A lot of big projects are on the table again, and it kind of suggests a Moses era without Moses," he added.<ref name="nyt-2007-01-28" /> Politicians are also reconsidering the Moses legacy; in a 2006 speech to the [[Regional Plan Association]] on downstate transportation needs, New York Governor-elect [[Eliot Spitzer]] stated a biography of Moses written today might be called ''At Least He Got It Built'': "That's what we need today. A real commitment to get things done."<ref name="Spitzer speech">{{cite web |url=http://www.rpa.org/pdf/SpitzerRPATransportation.pdf |title=Downstate Transportation Issues Speech |first=Eliot |last=Spitzer |author-link=Eliot Spitzer |date=May 5, 2006 |website=Regional Plan Association |access-date=February 15, 2007 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927110733/http://www.rpa.org/pdf/SpitzerRPATransportation.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2006}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
* Moses is the subject of a satirical song by [[John Forster (musician)|John Forster]] entitled "The Ballad of Robert Moses", included on his 1997 album ''Helium''.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Forster: the Ballad of Robert Moses |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/the-ballad-of-robert-moses-mt0002285889 |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=January 5, 2018}}</ref>
* In season 3, episode 2 of the television series ''[[Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt]]'', [[List of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episodes#Season 3 (2017)|"Kimmy's Roommate Lemonades"]], Kimmy is shown considering attendance at several New York City colleges with comedic names based on the city's culture and history.  One was originally called "Robert Moses College for Whites", and its sign has been altered by crossing out "Whites" and replacing it with the word "Everyone".<ref name="Pape2017">{{cite news |last=Pape |first=Allie |date=May 19, 2017 |title=Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Recap: Furiosity |work=Vulture |publisher=New York Media |location=New York, NY |url=http://www.vulture.com/2017/05/unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-recap-season-3-episode-2.html}}</ref>
* Moses is the subject of a critical song by [[New York hardcore|NYHC]] band [[Sick of It All]] entitled "Robert Moses was a racist", included on their 2018 album ''Wake the sleeping dragon!''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sick of It All: ''Robert Moses was a racist'' |url=https://www.discogs.com/es/Sick-Of-It-All-Wake-The-Sleeping-Dragon/master/1445775
|publisher=[[Discogs]] |access-date=April 19, 2019}}</ref>
* The band [[Bob Moses (band)|Bob Moses]] is named after Robert Moses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/vancouver-duo-bob-moses-on-going-from-a-parking-lot-to-the-grammys/wcm/818cfa4e-2988-435a-925a-7d5a579737ec|title = Vancouver duo Bob Moses on going from a parking lot to the Grammy Awards}}</ref>
* A fictionalized version of Moses is the main villain of ''The Unsleeping City'', the third season of the web series ''[[Dimension 20]]''.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Sarah Shachat |title=How 'Dimension 20' Brings Tabletop RPGs to Life — and Zombie Bear Death |url=https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/dimension-20-tabletop-rpg-dropout-sets-1234937196/ |website=[[IndieWire]] |access-date=29 March 2024 |date=21 December 2023}}</ref>
* The character of Moses Randolph in ''[[Motherless Brooklyn (film)|Motherless Brooklyn]]'' is based on Robert Moses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/edward-norton-why-he-placed-motherless-brooklyn-robert-moses-new-york-180973429/|title=Edward Norton on Why He Placed 'Motherless Brooklyn' in Robert Moses' New York|website=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|first=Chris|last=Klimek|date=October 30, 2019|access-date=November 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101203233/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/edward-norton-why-he-placed-motherless-brooklyn-robert-moses-new-york-180973429/|archive-date=November 1, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>
* At the beginning of the [[COVID-19 pandemic|COVID pandemic]], when many TV commentators, politicians and others worked from their homes, ''[[The New York Times]]'' noted the frequent placement of ''The Power Broker'' as a background element.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rubinstein |first1=Dana |title=Lights. Camera. Makeup. And a Carefully Placed 1,246-Page Book. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/nyregion/power-broker-tv.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=March 20, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=May 28, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=  https://web.archive.org/web/20220320141244/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/nyregion/power-broker-tv.html |archive-date=March 20, 2022 }}</ref>
* The [[West Side Story (2021 film)|2021 film adaptation]] of ''[[West Side Story (musical)|West Side Story]]'' adds the historical context of New York City's urban gentrification in the 1950s. During the song "[[America (West Side Story)|America]]", a group of [[Puerto Ricans|Puerto Rican]] demonstrators appear, protesting their pending evictions, and one of them holds a sign condemning Moses.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hornaday |first1=Ann |title='West Side Story' is an urgent, utterly beautiful revival |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/west-side-story-movie-review/2021/12/07/fa8badc0-56df-11ec-a808-3197a22b19fa_story.html |date=December 7, 2021 |access-date=January 17, 2022 |agency=Washington Post}}</ref>
* The 2022 play ''[[Straight Line Crazy]]'' depicts Robert Moses's shaping of New York City.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ralph Fiennes Leads World Premiere of Straight Line Crazy, Opening 23 March at London's The Bridge |url=https://playbill.com/article/ralph-fiennes-leads-world-premiere-of-straight-line-crazy-opening-march-23-at-londons-the-bridge |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413135949/https://playbill.com/article/ralph-fiennes-leads-world-premiere-of-straight-line-crazy-opening-march-23-at-londons-the-bridge |archive-date=13 April 2022 |accessdate=April 15, 2022 |website=Playbill}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col}}
* [[Car culture]]
* ''[[Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation]]''
* [[Modernist architecture]]
* [[Transportation in New York City]]
* [[Urban sprawl]]
* [[M. Justin Herman]]
* [[Edward J. Logue]]
* [[Edmund Bacon (architect)]]
* [[Austin Tobin]] – Port Authority Executive Director
* [[Long Island State Parkway Police]]
* [[New York State Park Police]]
* [[New York State Police]]
{{end div col}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book | last=Ballon | first=Hilary | title=Robert Moses and the modern city : the transformation of New York | publisher=W.W. Norton & Co | location=New York | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-393-73243-6 | oclc=76167277 }}
* {{cite book | last=Berman | first=Marshall | title=All that is solid melts into air : the experience of modernity | publisher=Viking Penguin | location=New York, N.Y.| year=1988 | isbn=978-0-14-010962-7 | oclc=16923119 }}
* {{Cite Power Broker}}
* {{cite magazine |last1=Caro |first1=Robert A. |date=July 22, 1974 |title=The Power Broker—I: How Robert Moses Transformed New York |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1974/07/22/the-power-broker-i-the-best-bill-drafter-in-albany |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |pages=32–64 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250114222925/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1974/07/22/the-power-broker-i-the-best-bill-drafter-in-albany |archive-date=January 14, 2025 |ref={{SfnRef|''The New Yorker''}}}}
* {{cite book | last=Christin | first=Pierre | title=Robert Moses : Master Builder of New York City | publisher=Nobrow | location=London | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-907704-96-3 | oclc=875240382 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Christin |first1=Pierre |last2=Balez|first2=Olivier| title=Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City | publisher=Nobrow | location=London | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-910620-36-6}}
* {{cite journal | last=Doig | first=Jameson W. | title=Regional Conflict in the New York Metropolis: the Legend of Robert Moses and the Power of the Port Authority | journal=Urban Studies | publisher=Sage Publications | volume=27 | issue=2 | year=1990 | issn=0042-0980 | doi=10.1080/00420989020080181 | pages=201–232 | bibcode=1990UrbSt..27..201D | s2cid=146841751 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Gutman |first1=Marta |date=December 2008 |title=Race, Place, and Play: Robert Moses and the WPA Swimming Pools in New York City |journal=[[Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians]] |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=532–561 |doi=10.1525/jsah.2008.67.4.532 |jstor=10.1525/jsah.2008.67.4.532 }}
* {{cite book | last=Krieg | first=Joann | title=Robert Moses : single-minded genius | publisher=Heart of the Lakes Pub | location=Interlaken, N.Y | year=1989 | isbn=978-1-55787-041-4 | oclc=18961485 }}
* {{cite book | last=Lewis | first=Eugene | title=Public entrepreneurship : toward a theory of bureaucratic political power : the organizational lives of Hyman Rickover, J. Edgar Hoover, and Robert Moses | publisher=Indiana University Press | location=Bloomington | year=1980 | isbn=978-0-253-17384-3 | oclc=6581080 }}
* {{cite book | last=Moses | first=Robert | title=Public Works: A Dangerous Trade | publisher=McGraw-Hill | year=1970 | url=https://archive.org/details/publicworksdange00mose | url-access=registration }}
* {{cite web | last=Rogers | first=Cleveland | title=Robert Moses | website=The Atlantic | date=January 1, 1939 | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1939/02/robert-moses/306543/ }}
* {{cite book | last=Rodgers | first=Cleveland | title=Robert Moses: Builder for Democracy | publisher=Holt | year=1952 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dp0YAAAAYAAJ }}
* {{cite news |last=Vidal |first=Gore |title=Emperor of Concrete: What Robert Moses Did to New York City |work=New York Review of Books |department=Review of The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1974/10/17/emperor-of-concrete/?srsltid=AfmBOorCqIhCeqD1HlScUwratNeayTfCwkr7gy0-5YsW49-f96_2nMFQ |date=October 17, 1974}}
{{refend}}

===Other sources===
{{refbegin}}
'''Exhibits:'''
* [https://www.flickr.com/photos/newyorktransitmuseum/sets/72157620817429952/ "The Triborough Bridge: Robert Moses and the Automobile Age"] exhibit at the New York Transit Museum
* [http://www.learn.columbia.edu/moses/ "Robert Moses and the Modern City"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028002201/http://www.learn.columbia.edu/moses/ |date=October 28, 2017 }} exhibit February 2007 thru May 2007 at 3 New York City museums
* [http://www.metropolismag.com/December-1969/Looking-Back-at-Moses/ "Looking Back at Moses"] a trio of New York museums
* [http://pureandapplied.com/robert-moses/ Photographs from the Museum of the City of New York exhibit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203134814/http://pureandapplied.com/robert-moses/ |date=December 3, 2013 }}

'''Papers:'''
* [http://archives.nypl.org/mss/2071 Robert Moses papers, 1907–1980], held by the Manuscripts and Archives Division, [[New York Public Library]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010502174335/http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/LI-sound-4/ Online letters of Moses]
* [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2934079 Moses's response to Robert Caro's accusations]

'''Archival Audio:'''
* [http://www.wnyc.org/series/robert-moses/ The Robert Moses Collection] at [http://wnyc.org/archives The WNYC Archives]

'''Interviews:'''
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20021022175808/http://www.wiredforbooks.org/robertmoses/ 1973 audio interview of Robert Moses by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, RealAudio at Wired for Books.org]}}
* [https://archive.org/details/openmind_ep226 Robert A. Caro talks to Richard D. Heffner about Robert Moses on the Open Mind, 1998]
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0360 Robert Moses Papers (MS 360)]. Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95822|description="Longines Chronoscope with Robert Moses (February 11, 1953)"}}
* [https://archives.nypl.org/mss/2071 Robert Moses papers, 1907–1980, held by the Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library]

{{S-start}}
{{S-off}}
{{Succession box
| title = [[Secretary of State of New York]]
| before = [[Florence E. S. Knapp]]
| years = January 17, 1927 – January 1, 1929
| after = [[Edward J. Flynn]]
}}
{{S-civ}}
{{succession box
| before = Unified
| title = Commissioner of the [[New York City Department of Parks and Recreation]]
| years = January 18, 1934 – May 23, 1960
| after = [[Newbold Morris]]
}}
{{S-gov}}
{{succession box
| before = Established
| title = Chairman of the [[New York State Council of Parks]]
| years = April 30, 1924 – January 1, 1963
| after = [[Laurance Rockefeller]]
}}
{{Succession box
| title = Chairman of the [[Triborough Bridge Authority]]
| before = [[Nathan Burkan]]
| years = November 14, 1936 – April 25, 1946
| after = Merged into Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
}}
{{Succession box
| title = Chairman of the [[Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority]]
| before = Unified
| years = April 26, 1946 – February 29, 1968
| after = Merged into [[Metropolitan Transportation Authority]]
}}
{{succession box
| before = John E. Burton
| title = Chairman of the [[New York Power Authority]]
| years = March 8, 1954 – January 1, 1963
| after = James A. FitzPatrick
}}
{{S-ppo}}
{{Succession box
| title = [[Governor of New York|Republican Nominee for Governor of New York]]
| before = [[William Joseph Donovan]]
| after = [[William F. Bleakley]]
| years = [[1934 New York state election|1934]]
}}
{{S-end}}

{{New York Secretary of State}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moses, Robert}}
[[Category:Robert Moses projects| ]]
[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1981 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from New Haven, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Politicians from New York City]]
[[Category:Secretaries of state of New York (state)]]
[[Category:New York City Department of Parks and Recreation]]
[[Category:New York (state) Republicans]]
[[Category:American civil servants]]
[[Category:American Ashkenazi Jews]]
[[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Converts to Christianity from Judaism]]
[[Category:Al Smith]]
[[Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Dwight School alumni]]
[[Category:Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni]]
[[Category:Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford]]
[[Category:20th-century New York (state) politicians]]
[[Category:American segregationists]]
[[Category:Jews from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Jews from Connecticut]]
[[Category:Fiorello La Guardia political appointees]]
[[Category:Urban planning in New York City]]