In 1853, the only way to get from Brooklyn to New York City was by ferry boat. John Roebling, a famous bridge builder, was on a ferry stuck between ice chunks in the middle of winter. He set out to design and build a bridge connecting these two cities.
Building the Brooklyn Bridge would not be an easy undertaking. The bridge would need to be high enough so that tall ships could sail under. People worried about the cost of the bridge, would the bridge be safe?
In 1869, John took engineers, businessmen and politicians on a bridge tour to see the bridges that he had built. The group was impressed …show more content…
The towers are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. The towers are 276 feet high and the design is Neo-Gothic. The clearance below is 135 feet.
The cables are made of thousands of thin wires, but when wrapped together, they become a huge thick cable. The Brooklyn Bridge has four main cables that are sixteen inches thick. The cables are anchored to large buildings on either side of the bridge. They are held in place by tons of stone.
Wire rope hangs from the cables, called suspenders. Suspenders actually suspend the roadway. The roadway is sections of steel, each piece is hung from the ropes and cables. The Brooklyn Bridge has a pedestrian walk way above the road.
The Brooklyn Bridge when completed was 5,989 feet long, 85 feet wide the longest span is 1,595 feet. There are fourteen thousand miles of wire in the cables. The bridge weighs more than fourteen thousand tons. It cost more than $15 million to build and took over 13 years to complete.
The bridge was funded by the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Company. The building of the bridge went over budget and the State of New York financed the remainder of the project.
Over 25 men died in the making of the Brooklyn …show more content…
Emily Roebling was the first person to cross the bridge. She carried a rooster as a symbol of victory. 150,300 people crossed the bridge that day, including President Chester A. Arthur. 1,800 vehicles crossed the bridge on opening day. It cost one cent to walk across and five cents per vehicle.
May 30, 1883 with hundreds of people on the bridge there was a rumor that it was about to collapse this cause a stampede and 12 people were killed.
In 1884, P. T. Barnum to publicize his circus and to help prove the bridge was safe led a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge.
Today, the Brooklyn Bridge is one the most recognizable landmarks in New York. The Brooklyn Bridge is a popular tourist destination, providing beautiful views of the city. It is featured in many films and televisions shows. It is the second busiest bridge in New York with 144,000 vehicles crossing every day.
In 1964, the Brooklyn Bridge was named a National Historic Landmark. In 1972, it was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
John Roebling, designed the Brooklyn Bridge to be six times stronger than it needed to be, because of this the Brooklyn Bridge is still standing today at 133 years