In the Saddle (Part 1 of 3)

Core idea

In the Saddle — Caro's title — captures Moses at peak operating tempo through 1936-1939. He ran the Parks Department, the Triborough Authority, the Long Island State Park Commission, the State Council of Parks, and the State Power Authority simultaneously. He delivered the Triborough Bridge (opened July 1936), the Henry Hudson Parkway, the Belt Parkway, the FDR Drive, hundreds of new pools and playgrounds. La Guardia, in his own ferocity, was both impressed and increasingly worried — Moses had become bigger than the city's mayor.

Why it matters

Triborough opens July 1936

The Triborough Bridge — three bridges and a viaduct connecting Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx via Randall's Island — opened to traffic July 11, 1936. It was the largest single public-works project in NYC since the Brooklyn Bridge. Moses had taken a half-built scandal in 1933 and produced a functioning crossing in three years.

Twelve appointive positions

By the late 1930s Moses held twelve appointive positions simultaneously. The press took to listing them in profiles. Each position had its own bureaucracy under his command. Caro emphasizes that the multiplicity was not an accident — Moses had drafted the legislation that created several of the positions specifically so he could hold them.

Key takeaways

Mental model

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Practical application

Example

J. Edgar Hoover held the directorship of the FBI from 1924 to 1972 — 48 years across eight presidents. He held only one position, but the duration was the equivalent of multiplicity. Moses-with-twelve and Hoover-with-one are variations of the same theme.

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