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Coordinates: 40°42′23″N 73°59′51″W / 40.706344°N 73.997439°W / 40.706344; -73.997439
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Image:LOC Brooklyn Bridge and East River Edit 3.jpg|Brooklyn Bridge in 1982.
Image:LOC Brooklyn Bridge and East River Edit 3.jpg|Brooklyn Bridge in 1982.
Image:Brooklyn Bridge at Dusk.jpg|Brooklyn Bridge at Dusk
Image:Brooklyn Bridge at Dusk.jpg|Brooklyn Bridge at Dusk
Image:Brooklyn_Bridge_Fulton_St.jpg|Brooklyn Bridge as seen from Old Fulton Street
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Revision as of 02:19, 19 February 2009

Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge, spanning the East River, in 2007.
Coordinates40°42′20″N 73°59′47″W / 40.70567°N 73.99633°W / 40.70567; -73.99633
CarriesMotor vehicles (cars only), elevated trains (until 1944), streetcars (until 1950), pedestrians, and bicycles
CrossesEast River
LocaleNew York City (Manhattan–Brooklyn)
Maintained byNew York City Department of Transportation
Characteristics
DesignSuspension/Cable-stay Hybrid
Total length5,989 feet (1825 m)
Width85 feet (26 m)
Longest span1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m)
Clearance below135 feet (41 m) at mid-span
History
DesignerJohn Augustus Roebling
OpenedMay 24, 1883
Statistics
Daily traffic145,000
TollFree both ways
Location
Map
For other uses, see Brooklyn Bridge (disambiguation).
East River Bridge redirects here. For a list of East River Bridges, see List of fixed crossings of the East River.

The Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States, stretches 5,989 feet (1825 m)[1] over the East River, connecting the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn (on Long Island). Upon completion, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, the first steel-wire suspension bridge, and the first bridge to connect to Long Island. Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in an 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle,[2] and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an iconic part of the New York skyline. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.[3][4][5]

History and events

Construction

Plan of one tower for the Brooklyn Bridge, 1867
Currier & Ives print (1877)

Construction began on January 3, 1870. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed thirteen years later and was opened for use on May 24, 1883. The opening ceremony was attended by several thousand people and many ships were present in the East Bay for the occasion. President Chester Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin Edson crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower. Arthur shook hands with Washington Roebling, who, along with his father John Roebling, designed and built the bridge. Further festivity included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.[6]

On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed what was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Long Island. The bridge's main span over the East River is 1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m). The bridge cost $15.5 million to build and approximately 27 people died during its construction.[7]

One week after the opening, on May 30, 1883, a rumor that the Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede, which crushed and killed twelve people.[8] On May 17, 1884, P. T. Barnum helped to squelch doubts about the bridge's stability—while publicizing his famous circus—when one of his most famous attractions, Jumbo, led a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge.[9][10][11][12]

At the time it opened, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world — 50% longer than any previously built — and it has become a treasured landmark. For several years the towers were the tallest structures in the Western Hemisphere. Since the 1980s, it has been floodlit at night to highlight its architectural features. The towers are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. Their architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers.

The bridge was designed by German-born John Augustus Roebling in Trenton, New Jersey. Roebling had earlier designed and constructed other suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio and the Waco Suspension Bridge in Waco, Texas, that served as the engineering prototypes for the final design.

During surveying for the East River Bridge project, Roebling's foot was badly injured by a ferry, pinning it against a pylon; within a few weeks, he died of tetanus. His son, Washington, succeeded him, but in 1872 was stricken with caisson disease (decompression sickness, commonly known as "the bends"), due to working in compressed air in caissons.[13] The occurrence of the disease in the caisson workers caused him to halt construction of the Manhattan side of the tower 30 feet (10 m) short of bedrock when soil tests underneath the caisson found bedrock to be even deeper than expected. Today, the Manhattan tower rests only on sand.[14] Washington's wife, Emily Warren Roebling, became his aide, learning engineering and communicating his wishes to the on-site assistants. When the bridge opened, she was the first person to cross it. Washington Roebling rarely visited the site again.

Brooklyn approach with elevated BMT and streetcar tracks and trains, ca. 1905

At the time the bridge was built, the aerodynamics of bridge building had not been worked out. Bridges were not tested in wind tunnels until the 1950s — well after the collapse of the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie) in 1940. It is therefore fortunate that the open truss structure supporting the deck is by its nature less subject to aerodynamic problems. Roebling designed a bridge and truss system that was six times as strong as he thought it needed to be. Because of this, the Brooklyn Bridge is still standing when many of the bridges built around the same time have vanished into history and been replaced. This is also in spite of the substitution of inferior quality wire in the cabling supplied by the contractor J. Lloyd Haigh — by the time it was discovered, it was too late to replace the cabling that had already been constructed. Roebling determined that the poorer wire would leave the bridge four rather than six times as strong as necessary, so it was eventually allowed to stand, with the addition of 250 cables. Diagonal cables were installed from the towers to the deck, intended to stiffen the bridge. They turned out to be unnecessary, but were kept for their distinctive beauty.

After the collapse of the I-35W highway bridge in the city of Minneapolis, increased public attention has been brought to bear on the condition of bridges across the US, and it has been reported that the Brooklyn Bridge approach ramps received a rating of "poor" at its last inspection.[15] According to a NYC Department of Transportation spokesman, "The poor rating it received does not mean it is unsafe. Poor means there are some components that have to be rehabilitated.” A $725 million project to replace the approaches and repaint the bridge is scheduled to begin in 2009.[16]

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is detailed in the 1972 book The Great Bridge by David McCullough[17] and Brooklyn Bridge (1981), the first PBS documentary film ever made by Ken Burns.[18] Burns drew heavily on McCullough's book for the film and used him as narrator.[19] It is also described in Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a BBC docudrama series with accompanying book.

First jumper

The first person to jump from the bridge was Robert E. Odlum on May 19, 1885. Robert, a swimming teacher, made the jump in a costume bearing his initials.[citation needed] He survived the pre-announced jump, but died shortly thereafter from internal injuries.[20]

Brooklyn Bridge
Built1883
Architectural styleGothic
NRHP reference No.75001237
Added to NRHP1966[21]

Later changes in use

At various times, the bridge has carried horse-drawn and trolley traffic; at present, it has six lanes for motor vehicles, with a separate walkway along the centerline for pedestrians and bicycles. Due to the roadway's height (11 feet posted) and weight (6,000 lb posted) restrictions, commercial vehicles and buses are prohibited from using this bridge. The two inside traffic lanes once carried elevated trains of the BMT from Brooklyn points to a terminal at Park Row. Streetcars ran on what are now the two center lanes (shared with other traffic) until the elevated lines stopped using the bridge in 1944, when they moved to the protected center tracks. In 1950 the streetcars also stopped running, and the bridge was rebuilt to carry six lanes of automobile traffic.

1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting

Main article: Brooklyn Bridge Shooting

On March 1, 1994, Lebanese-born Rashid Baz opened fire on a van carrying members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Movement, striking sixteen-year-old student Ari Halberstam and three others traveling on the bridge. Halberstam died five days later from his wounds. Baz was apparently acting out of revenge for the Hebron massacre of 29 Muslims by Baruch Goldstein that had taken place days earlier on February 25, 1994. Baz was convicted of murder and sentenced to a 141-year prison term. After initially classifying the murder as one committed out of road rage, the Justice Department reclassified the case in 2000 as a terrorist attack. The entrance ramp to the bridge on the Manhattan side was named the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp in memory of the victim.[22]

The 2003 plot

In 2003, truck driver Iyman Faris was sentenced to about 20 years in prison for providing material support to al-Qaeda, after an earlier plot to destroy the bridge by cutting through its support wires with blowtorches was thwarted through information the National Security Agency uncovered through wiretapped phone conversations and interrogation of Al-Qaeda militant and mastermind on September 11, 2001 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.[23][citation needed]

2006 bunker discovery

In 2006, a Cold War era bunker was found by city workers near the East River shoreline of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The bunker, hidden within the masonry anchorage, still contained the emergency supplies that were being stored for a potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.[24]

125th Anniversary celebrations

On May 24, 2008, festivities were held over the entire Memorial Day week-end to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge.[25]

Pedestrian access

Brooklyn Bridge at night
Cross section diagram

The Brooklyn Bridge is accessible from the Brooklyn entrances of Tillary/Adams Streets, Sands/Pearl Streets, and Exit 28B of the eastbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. In Manhattan, motor cars can enter from either direction of the FDR Drive, Park Row, Chambers/Centre Streets, and Pearl/Frankfort Streets. Pedestrian access to the bridge from the Brooklyn side is from either Tillary/Adams Streets (in between the auto entrance/exit), or a staircase on Prospect St between Cadman Plaza East and West. In Manhattan, the pedestrian walkway is accessible from the end of Centre Street, or through the unpaid south staircase of Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall IRT subway station.

The Brooklyn Bridge has a wide pedestrian walkway open to walkers and cyclists, in the center of the bridge and higher than the automobile lanes. While the bridge has always permitted the passage of pedestrians across its span, its role in allowing thousands to cross takes on a special importance in times of difficulty when usual means of crossing the East River have become unavailable.

During transit strikes by the Transport Workers Union in 1980 and 2005 the bridge was used by people commuting to work, with Mayors Koch and Bloomberg crossing the bridge as a gesture to the affected public.

Following the 1965, 1977 and 2003 Blackouts and most famously after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the bridge was used by people in Manhattan to leave the city after subway service was suspended. The massive numbers of people on the bridge could not have been anticipated by the original designer, yet John Roebling designed it with three separate systems managing even unanticipated structural stresses. The bridge has a suspension system, a diagonal stay system, and a stiffening truss. "Roebling himself famously said if anything happens to one of [his] systems, 'The bridge may sag, but it will not fall.'"[26] The movement of large numbers of people on a bridge creates pedestrian oscillations or "sway" as the crowd lifts one foot after another, some falling inevitably in synchronized cadences. The natural sway motion of people walking causes small sideways oscillations in a bridge, which in turn cause people on the bridge to sway in step, increasing the amplitude of the bridge oscillations and continually reinforcing the effect. This high-density traffic causes a bridge to appear to move erratically or "to wobble" as happened at opening of the London Millennium Footbridge in 2000.[27]

Cultural significance

Contemporaries marveled at what technology was capable of and the bridge became a symbol of the optimism of the time. John Perry Barlow wrote in the late 20th century of the "literal and genuinely religious leap of faith" embodied in the Brooklyn Bridge … the Brooklyn Bridge required of its builders faith in their ability to control technology."[28]

References to "selling the Brooklyn Bridge" abound in American culture, sometimes as examples of rural gullibility but more often in connection with an idea that strains credulity. For example, "If you believe that, I have a wonderful bargain for you…" References are often nowadays more oblique, such as "I could sell you some lovely riverside property in Brooklyn ... ". George C. Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting tourists.[29]

In his second book The Bridge, Hart Crane begins with a poem entitled "Poem: To Brooklyn Bridge." The bridge was a source of inspiration for Crane and he owned different apartments specifically to have different views of the bridge.

In the 1972 film The Hot Rock, the Brooklyn Bridge was shown as a visual icon of New York City. The partially-finished World Trade Center was also shown.

Panoramas

1896 Panorama
File:Panorma BB.jpg
A panorama of the bridge
A panorama standing on the bridge, 2006
  • Brooklyn Bridge, also known as the East River Bridge, seen from Manhattan, as drawn (and woodcut) in a Swedish monthly magazine in August 1874.
    Brooklyn Bridge, also known as the East River Bridge, seen from Manhattan, as drawn (and woodcut) in a Swedish monthly magazine in August 1874.
  • On the promenade, Brooklyn Bridge, New York c.1899
    On the promenade, Brooklyn Bridge, New York c.1899
  • Newsboys selling on Brooklyn Bridge c.1908
    Newsboys selling on Brooklyn Bridge c.1908
  • A World Trade Center view of the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, and the East river.
    A World Trade Center view of the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, and the East river.
  • Mural of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, with the real thing in background. (picture taken 1981).
    Mural of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, with the real thing in background. (picture taken 1981).
  • Brooklyn Bridge and Ferrybank Restaurant
    Brooklyn Bridge and Ferrybank Restaurant
  • Brooklyn Bridge in 1982.
    Brooklyn Bridge in 1982.
  • Brooklyn Bridge at Dusk
    Brooklyn Bridge at Dusk
  • Brooklyn Bridge as seen from Old Fulton Street
    Brooklyn Bridge as seen from Old Fulton Street

References

  1. ^ "NYCDOT Bridges Information". New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  2. ^ E.P.D. (January 25, 1867), "Bridging the East River -- Another Project", The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 2, retrieved 2007-11-26
  3. ^ a b "Brooklyn Bridge". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2007-09-11. Cite error: The named reference "nhlsum" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ ["The Brooklyn Bridge", February 24, 1975, by James B. Armstrong and S. Sydney Bradford "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination"]. National Park Service. 1975-02-24. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  5. ^ [The Brooklyn Bridge--Accompanying 3 photos, from 1975. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination"]. National Park Service. 1975-02-24. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  6. ^ Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss. NY, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 359–360. ISBN 0-394-46095-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ "Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1841-1902 Online". Retrieved 2007-11-23.
  8. ^ Reported in NY Times, issue 1883-5-30
  9. ^ Bildner, Phil. Twenty-One Elephants. ISBN-10: 0689870116; ISBN-13: 978-0689870118
  10. ^ Prince, April Jones. Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing. ISBN-10: 061844887X; ISBN-13: 978-0618448876
  11. ^ P.T. Barnum - MSN Encarta
  12. ^ Strausbaugh, John (November 9, 2007), When Barnum Took Manhattan, The New York Times, p. 2, retrieved 2008-09-21
  13. ^ Butler WP (2004). "Caisson disease during the construction of the Eads and Brooklyn Bridges: A review". Undersea Hyperb Med. 31 (4): 445–59. PMID 15686275. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
  14. ^ "GlassSteelandStone: Brooklyn Bridge-tower rests on sand". Retrieved 2007-02-20.
  15. ^ "Brooklyn Bridge Is One of 4 With Poor Rating". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  16. ^ "Brooklyn Bridge called 'safe' - DOT says span is okay despite getting a 'poor' rating". Courier-Life Publications. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
  17. ^ Amazon.com: The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge: David McCullough: Books
  18. ^ Brooklyn Bridge . About the Film | PBS
  19. ^ Burns, Ken
  20. ^ "Odlum's Leap to Death". The New York Times. May 20, 1885. p. 1. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  21. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.
  22. ^ Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp
  23. ^ Iyman Faris
  24. ^ Cold War "Time Capsule" Found in Brooklyn Bridge
  25. ^ NY Times archived reports in issue dated 2008-5-23
  26. ^ village voice > news > Point of Collapse by Robert Julavits
  27. ^ Strogatz, Steven. (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order, pp. 174-175, 312, 320.
  28. ^ Cultural Significance
  29. ^ http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbrooklynbridge.htm

Further reading

  • Cadbury, Deborah .(2004), Dreams of Iron and Steel. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-716307-X
  • McCullough, David. (1972). The Great Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-21213-3
  • Haw, Richard. (2005). The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3587-5
  • Haw, Richard. (2008). Art of the Brooklyn Bridge: A Visual History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-95386-3
  • Strogatz, Steven. (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. New York: Hyperion books. 10-ISBN 0-7868-6844-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-7868-6844-5 (cloth) [2nd ed., Hyperion, 2004. 10-ISBN 0-7868-8721-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-7868-8721-7 (paper)]
  • Strogartz, Steven, Daniel M. Abrams, Allan McRobie, Bruno Eckhardt, and Edward Ott. et al. (2005). "Theoretical mechanics: Crowd synchrony on the Millennium Bridge," Nature, Vol. 438, pp, 43–44....link to Nature article...Millennium Bridge opening day video illustrating "crowd synchrony" oscillations
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