Simon & Garfunkel: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

New York City has long represented the pinnacle of achievement in the U. S.  Frank Sinatra once sang, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”  But he was just echoing a sentiment that’s been around since the 1920s…and even earlier.

In the entertainment industry, when you dream of New York City, you’re really thinking about Manhattan.  Carnegie Hall is there.  Broadway.  Madison Square Garden.  Rockefeller Center.  The jazz clubs of 52nd Street.  The songwriters writing their hits in The Brill Building.

It’s the promised land.

And if you’re a couple of hopeful musicians from the borough of Queens who are eager to take your place among the stars, the quickest way to get to the island of Manhattan is the Queensboro Bridge…which lets you off on the Manhattan side between 59th and 60th Streets.  And that’s why some people refer to it as “The 59th Street Bridge.” And yes, Paul Simon was crossing that bridge, feeling pretty good about life, when the inspiration struck to create a song by that name.

Here’s a video of Simon & Garfunkel performing the song at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967.