Ambulance Hastens Carlton Avenue Bridge Reopening

The long-awaited reopening of the Carlton Avenue Bridge took place Monday morning just in time: not only for the Jay-Z concert at the nearby Barclays Center on Sept. 28, but also for an ambulance en route to the hospital. 

As construction workers and officials from Forest City Ratner were holding a small ceremony at the site before officially opening the street, an ambulance drove up, said Pacific Street resident and neighborhood activist N. Wayne Bailey, who had come to the bridge to mark the occasion.

After a moment's hesitation, officials allowed the ambulance pass through, making it the first vehicle to cross the bridge since it closed in 2008 to facilitate construction on the Atlantic Yards' Barclays Center.

"Someone said, 'We might have just saved someone's life,'" Bailey said.