Brooklyn Bridge. When it opened on 24 May 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world and among the most celebrated creations of the nineteenth century. In 1867, the New York State legislature chartered a company to build a bridge across the East River, between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, to provide more reliable transportation than the existing ferries for a growing stream of commuters. John Augustus Roebling (1806–1869), a German‐born wire manufacturer, designed a span that incorporated many innovations, including extensive use of steel. When Roebling died of injuries in 1869, as construction was about to begin, his son, Washington Roebling (1837–1926), took over as chief engineer. Though crippled by the bends while supervising excavation for the bridge towers, the younger Roebling conquered innumerable technical problems during the long course of construction.
The Brooklyn Bridge helped pave the way for the consolidation of the cities of Brooklyn and New York in 1898. Its success spurred a national wave of bridge building. Though the bridge carried massive vehicular traffic, generations of New Yorkers found its elevated walkway a haven from the city's bustle.
From its opening, the Brooklyn Bridge served as a symbol of the new industrial America. Though the novelist Henry
James deemed it a “monster” obliterating the city of his youth, the cultural critic Lewis
Mumford judged it an artistic success as “a fulfillment and a prophecy” of the Machine Age. The painters John Marin and Joseph Stella saw the bridge as embodying modernity, while the poet Hart Crane in
The Bridge (1930) viewed it as an affirmation of faith in the possibilities of America. As the twentieth century ended, the Brooklyn Bridge continued to move commuters into and out of
New York City's downtown business district while conjuring up hope and harmony.
Bibliography
Alan Trachtenberg , Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol, 1965.
David McCullough , The Great Bridge, 1972.
Joshua B. Freeman
