NYC Tears Down Manhattan Bridge Tramp’s Makeshift SRO

The Manhattan Bridge tramp officially received the boot for his tiny but impressive abode on Tuesday – the city would need an electrician to cut off the power source he installed in the hut before workers could take it down.

The street dweller who lived rent-free among the city’s best river views, appeared not to be there when his makeshift shack on the side of the historic span’s cycle path was destroyed and the pieces bursts were swept away, local fruit seller Mohammed said. Ali.

« Around noon, a sanitation truck pulled up, you know, a garbage truck, and three sanitation guys got out, and two police cars pulled over, » Ali, 32, of the Queens, which sold fruit near Forsyth Street in Manhattan at the time.

“The sanitation guys started quickly. They broke a whole thing real fast, and they knocked everything down and [were] launch [it into] back of the truck, and everyone left,” Ali said.

The structure was so firmly anchored in its illicit location that city workers had to use hammers to knock it down – and a Department of Transportation worker also had to climb over a section of the bridge at one point to get better traction to tear off the roof. .

The DOT also had to call in an electrician because the shack was apparently siphoning electricity from an electrical box on the bridge and the wires needed to be safely cut before the shack could be completely destroyed, amNewYork reported.

Remnant wires hung from a metal box on the deck after the hovel was swept away, while a bicycle lock and two retractable plastic blades were the only things left from where the shack was.

The wanderer’s 16-square food structure was made of plywood and cardboard and provided him with sleeping and cooking spaces — not to mention rent-free, million-dollar water views, according to exclusive photos from Post Monday. .

The shack had a « sink » area where the homeless man stored staples such as Jiffy peanut butter, sardines, coke and orange juice.

The drifter, a Chinese man who looks to be in his 50s or 60s, even decorated the space, including with colorful ABC posters and a mirror.

He crawled in and out of the illegal hovel through a small plywood door which he secured with the bike lock.

The tramp had identified himself as Zou Yifan to The Post and said he had become homeless after the rent for his apartment was increased.

Ali welcomed the dismantling of the hut.

« The city has to do it, » insisted the seller. “These guys are unpredictable. Sometimes they mind their own business, but sometimes they go coo-coo.

He said a few months ago, « There was a whole bunch of guys up there screaming and drinking.

« They don’t bother me, but they scare a lot of people, » he said.

He said that Yifan “used to live here next to me here.

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