NEW YORK CITY, New York (AFP) - Traffic on a much-used bridge into Manhattan suffered major delays on Friday when a truck caught fire midway across the span.

Thick columns of black smoke billowed from the Queensboro bridge into a clear blue sky, but no one was injured, as firefighters brought the late-morning blaze under control.

"There are no injuries and we don't know the reason for the fire," a spokesman for the Fire Department of New York told Agence France-Presse.

Completed in 1909, the double-decker cantilever Queensboro bridge - one of the longest of its kind in North America - spans the East River between Manhattan and the borough of Queens.

It is one of New York's busiest bridges, carrying 178,000 vehicles a day, according to the city's department of transportation, which operates it.

It appears in the iconic poster for Woody Allen's 1979 comedy Manhattan and inspired The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) by Simon and Garfunkel.