Liceul Teoretic “Dante Alighieri”

Student: Ferenţ Ana-Maria

Coordinating teacher: Baicu Lucia

An scolar 2010-2011
Brooklyn Bridge
 Contents:

Chapter 1: Introduction
 Chapter 2: Construction
 Chapter 3: Pedestrian and
vehicular access
 Subchapter 3.1: Notable events
 Subchapter 3.2: 100th anniversary
celebrations
 Subchapter 3.3: 125th anniversary
celebrations

 Chapter 4: Cultural significance

 Chapter 5: Bibliography
Chapter 1: Introduction

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the

United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York
City boroughs of Manhattan andBrooklyn by spanning the East River. With
a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), it was the longest suspension
bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire
suspension bridge.
Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, it was
dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in a January 25, 1867 letter to the editor of
the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in
1915. Since its opening, it has become an iconic part of the New
York skyline. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and
a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.
  Chapter
2: Construction

Tablet signage on the Manhattan-side tower of the Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge was initially designed by German immigrant John

Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter
suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware
Aqueduct inLackawaxen, Pennsylvania, and the John A. Roebling
Suspension Bridge inCincinnati, Ohio.
 While conducting surveys for the bridge project, Roebling sustained a
crush injury to his foot when a ferry pinned it against a piling. After
amputation of his crushed toes he developed a tetanus infection which left
him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death, not long after he had
placed his 32 year-old son Washington Roebling in charge of the project.
Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result
of decompression sickness shortly after the beginning of construction on
January 3, 1870.This condition, first called "caisson disease" by the project
physician Dr. Andrew Smith, afflicted many of the workers working within
the caissons. After Roebling's debilitating condition left him unable to
physically supervise the construction firsthand, his wife Emily Warren
Roebling stepped in and provided the critical written link between her
husband and the engineers on-site. Under her husband's guidance, Emily
had studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the
strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable
construction. She spent the next 11 years assisting Washington Roebling
helping to supervise the bridge's construction.
When iron probes underneath the caisson found the bedrock to be
even deeper than expected, Roebling halted construction due to the
increased risk of decompression sickness. He later deemed
the aggregate overlying the bedrock 30 feet (9 m) below it to be firm
enough to support the tower base, and construction continued.
The Brooklyn Bridge was completed thirteen years later and was
opened for use on May 24, 1883. The opening ceremony was attended by
several thousand people and many ships were present in the East Bay for
the occasion. President Chester A. Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin
Edson crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by
Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower.
Arthur shook hands with Washington Roebling at the latter's home, after
the ceremony. Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony (and in fact
rarely visited the site again), but held a celebratory banquet at his house
on the day of the bridge opening. Further festivity included the
performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.1
1
Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 359–360. ISBN 0-
394-46095-2.
 On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed
what was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge. The bridge's main
span over the East River is 1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m). The bridge
cost $15.5 million to build and approximately 27 people died during its
construction
One week after the opening, on May 30, 1883, a rumor that the Bridge
was going to collapse caused a stampede, which crushed and killed at
least twelve people. On May 17, 1884, P. T. Barnum helped to squelch
doubts about the bridge's stability—while publicizing his famous circus—
when one of his most famous attractions, Jumbo, led a parade of 21
elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge.2

2
Prince, April Jones (2005). Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin. ISBN 061844887X
Plan of one tower for the Brooklyn Bridge, 1867

At the time it opened, and for several years, it was the longest
suspension bridge in the world—50% longer than any previously built —
and it has become a treasured landmark. Since the 1980s, it has been
floodlit at night to highlight its architectural features. The towers are built of
limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. Their architectural style is neo-
Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through
the stone towers. The paint scheme of the bridge is "Brooklyn Bridge Tan"
and "Silver", although it has been argued that the original paint was
"Rawlins Red".

Night view of Brooklyn Bridge.

At the time the bridge was built, the aerodynamicsof bridge building
had not been worked out. Bridges were not tested in wind tunnels until the
1950s—well after the collapse of the originalTacoma Narrows
Bridge (Galloping Gertie) in 1940. It is therefore fortunate that the open
truss structure supporting the deck is by its nature less subject to
aerodynamic problems. Roebling designed a bridge and truss system that
was six times as strong as he thought it needed to be. Because of this, the
Brooklyn Bridge is still standing when many of the bridges built around the
same time have vanished into history and been replaced. This is also in
spite of the substitution of inferior quality wire in the cabling supplied by the
contractor J. Lloyd Haigh—by the time it was discovered, it was too late to
replace the cabling that had already been constructed. Roebling
determined that the poorer wire would leave the bridge four rather than six
times as strong as necessary, so it was eventually allowed to stand, with
the addition of 250 cables. Diagonal cables were installed from the towers
to the deck, intended to stiffen the bridge. They turned out to be
unnecessary, but were kept for their distinctive beauty.
After the collapse in 2007 of the I-35W highway bridge in the city of
Minneapolis, increased public attention has been brought to bear on the
condition of bridges across the US, and it has been reported that the
Brooklyn Bridge approach ramps received a rating of "poor" at its last
inspection. According to a NYC Department of Transportation spokesman,
"The poor rating it received does not mean it is unsafe. Poor means there
are some components that have to be rehabilitated." A $725 million project
to replace the approaches and repaint the bridge was scheduled to begin
in 2009.
The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is detailed in the 1978
book The Great Bridge by David McCullough and Brooklyn Bridge(1981),
the first PBS documentary film ever made by Ken Burns. Burns drew
heavily on McCullough's book for the film and used him as narrator. It is
also described in Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a BBC
docudrama series with accompanying book.
Chapter 3: Pedestrian and
vehicular access

At various times, the bridge has carried horse-drawn and trolley traffic;
at present, it has six lanes for motor vehicles, with a separate walkway
along the centerline for pedestrians andbicycles. Due to the roadway's
height (11 ft (3.4 m) posted) and weight (6,000 lb (2,700 kg) posted)
restrictions, commercial vehicles and buses are prohibited from using this
bridge. The two inside traffic lanes once carried elevated trains of
the BMT from Brooklyn points to a terminal at Park Row via Sands
Street. Streetcars ran on what are now the two center lanes (shared with
other traffic) until the elevated lines stopped using the bridge in 1944,
when they moved to the protected center tracks. In 1950 the streetcars
also stopped running, and the bridge was rebuilt to carry six lanes of
automobile traffic.
A bird soars over the Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge is accessible from the Brooklyn entrances of

Tillary/Adams Streets, Sands/Pearl Streets, and Exit 28B of the
eastbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. In Manhattan, motor cars can
enter from either direction of the FDR Drive, Park Row, Chambers/Centre
Streets, and Pearl/Frankfort Streets. Pedestrian access to the bridge from
the Brooklyn side is from either Tillary/Adams Streets (in between the auto
entrance/exit), or a staircase on Prospect St between Cadman Plaza East
and West. In Manhattan, the pedestrian walkway is accessible from the
end of Centre Street, or through the unpaid south staircase of Brooklyn
Bridge-City Hall IRT subway station.
View from the pedestrian walkway. The bridge's cable arrangement forms a distinct
weblike pattern.

The Brooklyn Bridge has a wide pedestrian walkway open to walkers

and cyclists, in the center of the bridge and higher than the automobile
lanes. While the bridge has always permitted the passage of pedestrians
across its span, its role in allowing thousands to cross takes on a special
importance in times of difficulty when usual means of crossing the East
River have become unavailable.
During transit strikes by the Transport Worker Union in 1980 and 2005,
the bridge was used by people commuting to work, with
Mayors Koch and Bloomberg crossing the bridge as a gesture to the
affected public.
Following the 1965, 1977 and 2003 Blackouts and most famously after
the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, the bridge
was used by people in Manhattan to leave the city after subway service
was suspended. The massive numbers of people on the bridge could not
have been anticipated by the original designer, yet John Roebling
designed it with three separate systems managing even unanticipated
structural stresses. The bridge has a suspension system, a diagonal stay
system, and a stiffening truss. "Roebling himself famously said if anything
happens to one of [his] systems, 'The bridge may sag, but it will not
fall.'" The movement of large numbers of people on a bridge creates
pedestrian oscillations or "sway" as the crowd lifts one foot after another,
some falling inevitably in synchronized cadences. The natural sway motion
of people walking causes small sideways oscillations in a bridge, which in
turn cause people on the bridge to sway in step, increasing the amplitude
of the bridge oscillations and continually reinforcing the effect. High-density
traffic of this nature causes a bridge to appear to move erratically or "to
wobble" as happened at opening of the London Millennium Footbridge in
2000.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper c.1883

  Subchapter 3.1: Notable
events

 First jumper
The first person to jump from the bridge was Robert E. Odlum on May
19, 1885. He struck the water at an angle and died shortly thereafter from
internal injuries.Steve Brodie was the most famous jumper, or self-
proclaimed jumper (in 1886).

 Bungee jump
On June 1993, following 13 reconnoiters inside the metal structure,
and with the help of a mountain guide, Thierry Devaux performed (illegally)
eight acrobatic bungee jumps above the East River close to the Brooklyn
pier, in the early morning. He used an electric winch between each
acrobatic figure.

 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting

On March 1, 1994, Lebanese-born Rashid Baz opened fire on a van
carrying members of theChabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Movement,
striking sixteen-year-old student Ari Halberstamand three others traveling
on the bridge.Halberstam died five days later from his wounds. Baz was
apparently acting out of revenge for the Hebron massacre of 29 Muslims
by Baruch Goldstein that had taken place days earlier on February 25,
1994. Baz was convicted of murder and sentenced to a 141-year prison
term. After initially classifying the murder as one committed out of road
rage, the Justice Department reclassified the case in 2000 as a terrorist
attack. The entrance ramp to the bridge on the Manhattan side was named
the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp in memory of the victim.
  The 2003 plot
In 2003, truck driver Iyman Faris was sentenced to about 20 years in
prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda, after an earlier plot to
destroy the bridge by cutting through its support wires
with blowtorches was thwarted through information the National Security
Agency uncovered through wiretapped phone conversations and
interrogation of Al-Qaeda militants.

 2006 bunker discovery

In 2006, a Cold War era bunker was found by city workers near the
East River shoreline of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The bunker, hidden
within the masonry anchorage, still contained the emergency supplies that
were being stored for a potential nuclear attack by theSoviet Union.
  Subchapter 3.2: 100th
anniversary
celebrations
The centennary celebrations on May 24, 1983, saw a cavalcade of
cars crossing the bridge, led by President Ronald Reagan. A flotilla of
ships visited the harbor, parades were held, and in the evening the sky
over the bridge was illuminated by Grucci Fireworks.TheBrooklyn
Museum exhibited a selection of the original drawings made for the
bridge's construction, some by Washington Roebling himself.

 Subchapter 3.3: 125th

anniversary
celebrations
Beginning on May 22, 2008, festivities were held over a five-day period
to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The events kicked off with a live performance of the Brooklyn
Philharmonic in Empire–Fulton Ferry State Park, followed by special
lighting of the bridge's towers and a fireworks display.Other events held
during the 125th anniversary celebrations, which coincided with
the Memorial Day weekend, included a film series, historical walking tours,
information tents, a series of lectures and readings, a bicycle tour of
Brooklyn, a miniature golf course featuring Brooklyn icons, and other
musical and dance performances.
Just before the anniversary celebrations, the Telectroscope, which
created a video link between New York and London, was installed on the
Brooklyn side of the bridge. The installation lasted for a few weeks and
permitted viewers in New York to see people looking into a matching
telectroscope in front of London's Tower Bridge. A newly renovated
pedestrian connection to DUMBO was also unveiled before the
anniversary celebrations.

 Chapter 4: Cultural
significance

Contemporaries marveled at what technology was capable of and the

bridge became a symbol of the optimism of the time. John Perry
Barlow wrote in the late 20th century of the "literal and genuinely religious
leap of faith" embodied in the Brooklyn Bridge ... "the Brooklyn Bridge
required of its builders faith in their ability to control technology."
References to "selling the Brooklyn Bridge" abound in American culture,
sometimes as examples of rural gullibility but more often in connection with
an idea that strains credulity. For example, "If you believe that, I've got a
bridge to sell you."References are often nowadays more oblique, such as
"I could sell you some lovely riverside property in Brooklyn ...".George C.
Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who
had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting touristsThe
1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs is a joking reference to Bugs
"selling" a story of the Brooklyn Bridge to a naive tourist.
In his second book The Bridge, Hart Crane begins with a poem entitled
"Proem: To Brooklyn Bridge." The bridge was a source of inspiration for
Crane and he owned different apartments specifically to have different
views of the bridge.
It has been shown in films such as Captive Women, The Fifth
Element, Deep Impact, Godzilla, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, I
Am Legend, Life After People, Cloverfield, Zombi 2, Oliver &
Company, Enchanted and Kate & Leopold.
 Chapter 5:
Bibliography

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_bridge
 Prince, April Jones (2005). Twenty-One Elephants
and Still Standing.
 Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss