‘I cut out one little house at a time’: the trucker who spent decades building a tiny replica of NYC

Joe Macken’s He Built This City is a 50-by-27ft piece made of wood and cardboard, held together by glue and sheer determination. Photograph: David Lurvey/Museum of the City of New York

In 2003, Joe Macken built a miniature model of a bridge out of popsicle sticks. He wanted it to look like a “hybrid” of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. Soon after, Macken, who grew up in Middle Village, Queens, moved his family to a small town upstate, more than 160 miles from the city. Macken loaded his bridge on the moving truck. It did not make the trip.

“It got destroyed, and I was kind of bummed,” said Macken, who is now 63. “So I figured, let me build something better.”