Brooklyn Bridge, October 29, 2009
Rob Hickman on a 24" and Keith Nelson on a 24"
After a ride around the cobblestone streets of DUMBO, we went up and over the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall in Manhattan. Despite fears of difficult wood planking and aggressive German tourists, the span was surely the easiest and most pleasant of all our East River crossings. This was bridge number three.
From the New York City Department of Transportation:
Arguably the most influential bridge in American history, the Brooklyn Bridge remains one of New York City’s most celebrated architectural wonders. Designed by the brilliant engineer John Augustus Roebling (1806-1869) and completed by his equally ingenious son Washington Roebling (1837-1926), this elegant structure was, at the time of its completion in 1883, the longest suspension bridge in the world. Anchored across the lower East River by two neoGothic towers and a delicate lacework of steel-wire cables, the soaring lines of the Brooklyn Bridge have inspired countless architects, engineers, painters and poets to pursue their own expressions of creative excellence, among them Frank Lloyd Wright, Hart Crane, Walt Whitman, Georgia O'Keefe, Joseph Stella, John Marin and Lewis Mumford.
Statistics:
Construction Commenced - January 3, 1870
Opened to traffic - May 24, 1883
Total length - 6016 feet
Length of Main Span - 1595.5 feet
Length of each of the four cables - 3578.5 feet
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