Happy Birthday To The Brooklyn Bridge

One of my favorite structures in the world & a movie star, my best Brooklyn Bridge moments in cinema history would include Diane Keaton & Woody Allen under the tower in Manhattan & the ancient Italian grandfather leading his pack of dogs to howl at the full moon in Moonstruck. The bridge offered inspiration for major artists such as Walt Whitman, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hart Crane & Georgia O’Keefe.

“The work which is most likely to become our most durable monument, & to convey some knowledge of us to the most remote posterity, is a work of bare utility; not a shrine, not a fortress, not a palace, but a bridge."

Harper's Weekly (1883)

Plans for a crossing between the city of Brooklyn & lower Manhattan dated back to the early 1800's. When the East River crossing was planned, Brooklyn, with about 400,000 residents, was still more rural than urban. NYC, which at the time consisted only of Manhattan, had twice as many residents, & the bridge was seen as a solution to overcrowding in Manhattan while spurring development in Brooklyn. The bridge would enable people & goods to cross the turbulent East River quickly, regardless of weather conditions.

In 1855, John Roebling, a famous bridge designer, proposed a suspension bridge over the East River after becoming impatient with the Fulton Street Ferry. Roebling worked out every detail of the bridge, from its massive granite towers to the 4 steel cables. He thought his design entitled the bridge "to be ranked as a national monument a great work of art."

The bridge took 13 years to build. 27 workers lost their lives trying to complete it. Roebling himself died from a tetanus infection after his foot was crushed in an accident & his son Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sickness from working in the channels below the river. His wife- Emily Warren Roebling provided the critical written link between her husband & the engineers on site. Under her husband's guidance, she studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge specifications, & the intricacies of cable construction. She spent the next 11 years assisting Washington Roebling helping to supervise the bridge's construction.

On this day in 1883, the opening ceremony was attended by 5000 people. President Chester Arthur & the Mayor of NYC crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon cacophony & were greeted by the Mayor of Brooklyn when they reached the Brooklyn side. Arthur shook hands with Washington Roebling at the latter's home, after the ceremony. Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony, & never visited the bridge again. He held a party at his house on the day of the bridge opening.

On that first day, 1800 vehicles & 150,300 people crossed what was then the only land passage between Manhattan & Brooklyn. Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge. She carried a chicken.

The bridge's main span over the East River is 1,595 feet high. The bridge cost $15.5 million to build.

One week after the opening, a rumor that the Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede, which crushed & killed 12 people.

When I was living in NYC in the mid-1970s, Dan Rodill, an aspiring playwright, climbed up the Manhattanside tower to draw attention to his unemployment. When the police tried to talk him down, Rodill handed them a press release.

I walked across the bridge on foot on a spring day in 1977. It was thrilling & I enjoyed a monumental view of the Manhattan skyline. I kicked around Brooklyn Heights, when Brooklyn was not the center of hipster cool.

On September 11, 2001, tens of thousands of people fled by foot across the bridge to escape the destruction at the World Trade Center.

The Brooklyn Bridge had become a symbol of not only of the greatness of NYC, but also of American ingenuity. I continue to find the bridge a wondrous thing to behold, a construction of beauty in the best of all American cities. It remains one of my most favorite structures in the world.