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Due to police activity, all Manhattan bound lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge are closed. Consider alternate routes and allow for additional travel time. Citizen says: Group of People Marching. Officers are on scene where a group of people is marching on Brooklyn Bridge. Officers are shutting down traffic in the area.
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed / suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River.
- 1,595.5 ft (486.3 m)
- 6,016 ft (1,833.7 m; 1.1 mi)
- May 24, 1883; 140 years ago
- East River
- Boss Tweed Helped Get The Project started.
- At Least 20 People Died During The Bridge’s Construction.
- It Was The Longest Suspension Bridge in The World—By far.
- The Bridge Opened with A Massive Celebration.
- A Tragedy occurred Almost immediately.
- The Bridge Toll Was Higher Than It Is now.
- At The Time, The Bridge Connected Two Different Cities.
- The Bridge Quickly Became A Cultural Sensation.
- The Bridge Has Always Attracted Daredevils and Showmen.
- Peregrine Falcons Nest Atop it.
William M. “Boss” Tweed, the infamously corrupt head of New York City’s Tammany Hall political machine, latched on to the Brooklyn Bridgeproject from the very beginning. According to sworn testimony, he gave later, he facilitated up to $65,000 in bribes to New York’s aldermen in order to win their backing for a $1.5 million bond issue. He then beca...
The first fatality came in 1869 before construction had even begun. German-born John A. Roebling, who designed the bridge, was taking compass readings one afternoon when his foot was crushed between some pilings and a boat. His toes were amputated, and a few weeks later he died of tetanus. Other workers fell off the 276-foot-high towers, were hit b...
A few high-profile collapses in the first half of the 19th century prevented suspension bridges from immediately catching on. Undeterred, Roebling figured out how to stabilize them, largely by adding a web truss to either side of the roadway platform. He built four suspension bridges in the 1850s and 1860s, including one over the Ohio River and ano...
Huge crowds gathered on May 24, 1883, to watch the bridge’s opening ceremony, which The New York Times described, in reference to Brooklyn, as “the greatest gala day in the history of that moral suburb.” President Chester A. Arthur, New York Governor (and future president) Grover Cleveland and various local politicians marched onto the bridge, acco...
A week after the opening, on Memorial Day, an estimated 20,000 people were on the bridge when panic started, allegedly over a rumor that it was about to collapse. Twelve people were crushed to death on a narrow stairway, and others emerged bloodied and in some cases without clothes. One eyewitness described men and women “with their limbs contorted...
When the Brooklyn Bridge first opened, it cost a penny to cross by foot, 5 cents for a horse and rider and 10 cents for a horse and wagon. Farm animals were allowed at a price of 5 cents per cow and 2 cents per sheep or hog. Under pressure from civic groups and commuters, the pedestrian toll was repealed in 1891. The roadway tolls were then rescind...
Brooklyn did not become part of New York City until 1898, following a referendum that passed there by just 277 votes (out of more than 129,000 cast). Prior to the merger, it was the fourth most populous city in the country—behind only New York, Chicago and Philadelphia—with loads of manufacturing jobs, many churches, relatively low crime and good s...
The Brooklyn Bridge has arguably inspired more art than any other manmade structure in the United States. Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol and dozens of other well-known painters have incorporated it into their works, as have photographers (Walker Evans); documentarians (Ken Burns); playwrights (Arthur Miller); novelists (Henry Miller); newspaper colu...
Circus entertainer P.T. Barnum took 21 elephants over the bridge in May 1884 to show that it was safe. The following year, Robert E. Odlum, a swimming instructor from Washington, D.C., became the first to leap into the East River below. He died, but a number of later jumpers survived, including one man allegedly trying to impress his girlfriend and...
Peregrine falcons are the fastest animals on record, capable of reaching speeds over 200 miles per hour. They disappeared from the eastern United States due to DDT poisoning but made a comeback after the pesticide was banned in 1972. Surprisingly, the birds soon began thriving in New York City, where they nest on bridges, church steeples and skyscr...
- Jesse Greenspan
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When the Brooklyn Bridge opened on May 24, 1883, it was a modern, majestic marvel—the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time, and the first connection between Brooklyn and Manhattan. With two 278-foot tall, neo-Gothic stone towers, the bridge combines form with function, offering beauty and inspiring awe—then and now.
Jul 1, 2022 · The Brooklyn Bridge is an engineering marvel, with its use of large pneumatic caissons and steel-wire suspension cables. (Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) The New York Bridge Co. hired Roebling as chief engineer. Roebling’s plan for the bridge — which would become the largest suspension bridge in the world — called for a central ...
Jan 30, 2024 · Last Updated: April 18, 2024. The Brooklyn Bridge— the world’s first steel suspension bridge —is a beloved landmark and a cultural icon of NYC which is frequently celebrated in art, poetry, song, and film.
Feb 21, 2020 · Measuring at sixteen thousand feet long and two hundred seventy-six feet tall, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world in 1883. The bridge was seven times taller than another structure in New York.
