Williamsburg Bridge

Williamsburg Bridge
Carries	8 lanes of roadway, 2 tracks of the J M Z trains of the New York City Subway, pedestrians, and bicycles
Crosses	East River
Locale	Manhattan and Brooklyn, in New York City
Maintained by	New York City Department of Transportation
Design	Suspension bridge and truss causeways
Total length	7,308 feet (2,227 m)
Width	118 feet (36 m)
Longest span	1,600 feet (490 m)
Vertical clearance	10 feet 6 inches (3.2 m) (inner roadways only)
Clearance below	135 feet (41 m) at mean high water
Opened	December 19, 1903 (December 19, 1903)
Toll	Free
Daily traffic	106,783 (2008)
Connects: Manhattan at Delancey St. with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn
Coordinates	40.713°N 73.97°W / 40.713; -73.97

The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (Interstate 278). It once carried New York State Route 27A and was planned to carry Interstate 78, though these plans were aborted by the cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway and Bushwick Expressway.

This is one of four toll-free crossings between Manhattan and Brooklyn or Queens.

History

 

Historical film clip of a procession during the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903.

Construction on the bridge, the second to cross this river, began in 1896, with Leffert L. Buck as chief engineer, Henry Hornbostel as architect and Holton D. Robinson as assistant engineer, and the bridge opened on December 19, 1903 at a cost of $24,200,000. At the time it was constructed, the Williamsburg Bridge set the record for the longest suspension bridge span on Earth. The record fell in 1924, when the Bear Mountain Bridge was completed.

It is an unconventional structure, as suspension bridges go; though the main span hangs from cables in the usual manner, the side spans leading to the approaches are supported by trusswork, drawing no support from the cables above. The main span of the bridge is 1,600 feet (490 m) long. The entire bridge is 7,308 feet (2,227 m) long between cable anchor terminals, and the deck is 118 feet (36 m) wide. The height at the center of the bridge is 135 feet (41 m) and each tower is 335 feet (102 m); these measurements taken from the river's surface at high-water mark.

This bridge and the Manhattan Bridge are the only suspension bridges in New York City that still carry both automobile and rail traffic. In addition to this two-track rail line, connecting the New York City Subway's BMT Nassau Street Line and BMT Jamaica Line, there were once two sets of trolley tracks.

The Brooklyn landing is between Grand Street and Broadway, which both had ferries at the time. The five ferry routes operated from these landings withered and went out of business by 1908.

Had the Lower Manhattan Expressway been built, the Williamsburg Bridge would have been designated Interstate 78.

The bridge has been under reconstruction since the 1980s, largely to repair damage caused by decades of deferred maintenance. The bridge was completely shut down to motor vehicle traffic and subway trains on April 12, 1988 after inspectors discovered severe corrosion in a floor beam. The cast iron stairway on the Manhattan side, and the steep ramp from Driggs Avenue on the Williamsburg side to the footwalks, were replaced to allow handicapped access in the 1990s. Since the new bike path opened, the bridge has become the most heavily bicycled span in North America

A celebration was held on June 22, 2003, to mark the 100th anniversary of the bridge and the area surrounding Continental Army Plaza was filled with musical performers, exhibits on the history of the bridge, and street vendors. Dignitaries marched across the bridge carrying the 45-star American flag used in a game of capture the flag played by workers after the placement of the final cable in June 1902. A truck-sized birthday cake was specially made for the event by Domino Sugar, which had a factory on the East River waterfront near the bridge. The bridge was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2009.

In 1999, Gandhi Engineering designed, engineered, and installed the pedestrian bridge along the Williamsburg Bridge.^{[citation needed]}

Rail tracks

The rapid transit tracks in the center of the bridge were initially used by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company elevated railroad. Today, the New York City Subway's J M Z trains use these tracks.

Full span, as seen from Wallabout Bay with Greenpoint and Long Island City in background

Two tracks on the south side carried streetcars from the Brooklyn side:

• Williamsburg Bridge Local, 1904–1948
• Nostrand Avenue Line, 1904–1923 and 1931–1948
• Ralph Avenue Line, 1905–1908; Ralph and Rockaway Avenues Line, 1908–1923 and 1931–1948
• Tompkins Avenue Line, 1906–1923 and 1931–1947
• Reid Avenue Line, 1904–1923 and 1931–1937
• Broadway Line, 1904–1923
• Franklin Avenue Line, 1904–1923
• Grand Street Line, 1904–1923
• Sumner Avenue Line, 1904–1923
• Wilson Avenue Line, 1904–1923
• Bushwick Avenue Line, 1904–1921
• Nostrand-Culver Line and Nostrand-Prospect Line, 1906–1919

Two north-side tracks carried Manhattan streetcars:

• Grand Street Line, 1904–1932
• Post Office Line, 1919-1932
• Seventh Avenue-Brooklyn Line, 1911-1919
• 8th Street Crosstown Line, 1904–1911
• 14th Street-Williamsburg Bridge Line, 1904–1911
• Fourth Avenue and Williamsburg Bridge Line, 1904–1911

In popular culture

• The 1928 Edward Hopper painting "From Williamsburg Bridge" depicts a long-gone building as seen from the bridge's since remodeled walkway.
• In reference to the area’s large Yiddish-speaking population, a sign on the Western approach to the bridge reads, "Leaving Brooklyn: Oy Vey!"
• The Williamsburg Bridge appears in the movies A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Naked City (1948), Johnny Suede (1991), Scent of a Woman (1992), American Gangster (2007), Serpico (1973), the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die, The French Connection (1971), The Siege (1998), Léon (1994), and The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie.
• The bridge is mentioned several times in the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith. It is also referenced in the novels The Alienist (1994) by Caleb Carr and City of Bones, the first book of The Mortal Instruments. A scene in the book The Last Olympian takes place on the bridge.
• During a sabbatical from performing, American jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins would go to the Williamsburg Bridge for practice sessions, in order to spare a neighboring expectant mother the noise. His 1962 album The Bridge, produced on his return from retirement, was titled after the bridge.
• East Bay rockers Black Cat Music, have a song titled "Williamsburg Bridge Song". The song "True Dreams of Wichitah", by Soul Coughing, includes the lyric "And you can stand on the arms of the Williamsburg Bridge crying 'Hey man, well this is Babylon'"
• The area by the bridge was the location for Depeche Mode's 1990 single "Policy Of Truth". It was also used as cover art for their following song "World In My Eyes".
• Aerialist Seanna Sharpe used the top of the bridge to stage an acrobatic performance on July 12, 2011.
• The Korean group BIGBANG filmed their "Bad Boy" music video on and around the bridge in 2012.
• The bridge, placed in a fictional Gotham City, is destroyed along with neighboring Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge in the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises.
• In the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man, The Lizard tossed cars over the bridge only for Spider-Man to catch them with his web-lines.
• Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Susan McKeown's 2012 album Belong opens with a duet with fellow Irish singer-songwriter Declan O'Rourke entitled "On The Bridge to Williamsburg".

Gallery

• 

  Fireworks on opening night, 1903

• 

  The bridge under construction, seen from the Brooklyn side

• 

  The bridge damaged by fire while under construction in 1902

• 

  View of cables and saddle housing

• 

  From South 6th Street on the Brooklyn side

• 

  Train on Williamsburg Bridge

• 

  Bicycle and pedestrian path

References

Notes

External links

• Preliminary proposal for a new Williamsburg Bridge by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
• Williamsburg Bridge info from NYCDOT
• Williamsburg Bridge at Structurae
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NY-128, "Williamsburg Bridge," at the Library of Congress
• nycroads.com Williamsburg page. Has excellent construction photos (taken from Parsons Transportation Group (parsons.com site), the successor company to the design firm that executed the original design) as well as replacement bridge proposal details.
• NYCsubway.org - Williamsburg Bridge
• Williamsburg Bridge photographs from the pedestrian walkway by Lindsay Blair Brown
• NYCDOT Bicycle counts on Williamsburg Bridge and other major bike routes