Metro

‘Cops forced me to live in the Manhattan Bridge’

A homeless man living within beams of the Manhattan Bridge claims he was forced to build that precarious nest because cops have torn down his shanty on more stable ground.

The Post first reported on Sunday that at least two men now make their home in this dangerous spot, high above the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

One of the residents — a 40-something Chinese immigrant, who would only identify himself as “Joe” — said he used to live in encampments that he built on a grassy patch, just off the bike on-ramp to the Manhattan Bridge.

But over the past 13 years of homelessness in New York, cops have always torn down those quarters, he said.

“Five times they take down. Five times!” Joe said of what had been his more stable shanties.

Joe then pointed at his current home — a crevice above the bike path and subway tracks and below cars on the span’s upper deck.

It’s about 150 feet east into the bridge’s Brooklyn-bound side.

“I build here,” Joe said, pointing at his death-defying spot. “Not take down.”

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The Manhattan Bridge as seen from downtown Brooklyn.
The Manhattan Bridge as seen from downtown Brooklyn.Spencer Burnett
The entrance to one of the shelters built into the framing of the Manhattan Bridge by homeless men.William Farrington
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A shelter made between the steel beams of the Manhattan Bridge hangs above the walkway.William Farrington
A shelter made between the steel beams of the Manhattan Bridge hangs above the walkway.William Farrington
The entrance to one of the shelters built into the framing of the Manhattan Bridge by homeless men.William Farrington
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The interior of a cramped shelter made by homeless men in the Manhattan Bridge's framing.William Farrington
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The man gets a mini-workout every day, climbing up and down a chain-link fence that separates subway tracks from the bike path on the Manhattan Bridge’s lower level.

That fence is Joe’s impromptu stairway to the coffin-size space he calls home.

When The Post found Joe this week, he was plucking his eyebrows, using a broken mirror wedged into the bridge ledge.

He appears to be in his late 40s, with rotten and missing lower teeth.

Joe was remarkably well dressed, given his lot in life, in a striped men’s dress shirt, a light blue and black striped sweater vest and jeans. He was wearing open sandals with socks.

In his broken English, Joe explained that his last steady job was in a kitchen.

He told The Daily Mail newspaper that he’s been living in the bridge for the last year and that he’s lost a lot of money gambling.

The man fortifies his bridge abode with discarded wood he finds in nearby Chinatown.

Additional reporting by David K. Li