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    Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge
    Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge
    Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge
    Ebook216 pages59 minutes

    Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge

    By John B Manbeck

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    About this ebook

    The Brooklyn Bridge resounds throughout popular culture as an iconic image. Yet its creation was fraught with turmoil. Working with the relatively untested theory of suspension, John Roebling designed a suspension bridge modeled after his Cincinnati-Covington Bridge, but he died before construction even began. His son Washington then accepted the challenge—only to end up paralyzed while working on the bridge. However, with his strong-willed perseverance and help from his wife, he drove the project through to completion.

    As the only bridge connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan at the time, the Brooklyn Bridge carried half a million people daily. The photographs in Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge illustrate not only those traveling the bridge but also the hurdles that over 1,000 American and immigrant workers endured to build this magnificent symbol. Today, admirers from around the world gather on its historical walkway to gaze, admire, and pay homage to the majesty of the Brooklyn Bridge, "the Eighth Wonder of the Modern World.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTurner Publishing Company
    Release dateSep 1, 2009
    ISBN9781618584328
    Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge

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      Book preview

      Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge - John B Manbeck

      HISTORIC PHOTOS OF

      THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

      TEXT AND CAPTIONS BY JOHN B. MANBECK

      Revised traffic patterns: Engineers build new traffic patterns as shown in this cross-section drawing of the bridge.

      HISTORIC PHOTOS OF

      THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

      Turner Publishing Company

      200 4th Avenue North • Suite 950

      Nashville, Tennessee 37219

      (615) 255-2665

      www.turnerpublishing.com

      Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge

      Copyright © 2009 Turner Publishing Company

      All rights reserved.

      This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2008910983

      ISBN-13: 978-1-59652-525-2

      Printed in China

      09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16—0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      CONTENTS

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      PREFACE

      INSPIRATION: SUSPENSION (1860S)

      THE CREATIVE YEARS: CROSSING THE DIVIDE (1869–1883)

      TRIUMPH: THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE MODERN WORLD (1883)

      VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE: SKY, LAND, AND SEA (1884–1920)

      FROM SHORE TO SHORE: A GREAT CITY (1921–1982)

      A BRIDGE FOR ALL TIME: MAGNIFICENCE (1983-2001)

      THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE: A TIMELINE

      NOTES ON THE IMAGES

      Suspension Bridge song sheet: This popular song appeared as a tribute to the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge, the closest model to Roebling’s next assignment, the Brooklyn Bridge.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      This volume, Historic Photos of the Brooklyn Bridge, is the result of the cooperation and efforts of many individuals, organizations, and corporations. It is with great thanks that we acknowledge the valuable contribution of the Brooklyn College Library Archives; the Brooklyn Historical Society; the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection; the Library of Congress; the New York State Archives; and the Queens Borough Public Library, Long Island Collection for their generous support.

      We would also like to thank the following individuals for valuable contributions and assistance in making this work possible:

      Joy Holland, Brooklyn Public Library

      Marianne LaBatto and Michael Armstrong

      Julie May, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn College Archives Library

      My wife, Virginia, who helped shape my choice of words

      I’m greatly indebted to David McCullough for the inspiration he provided in The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972). Other useful references have been A&E’s Modern Marvels series production about the Brooklyn Bridge; Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol by Alan Trachtenberg; and Ken Burns’ first documentary, The Brooklyn Bridge.

      Now that this book has re-created the pains and effort of building the daring enterprise called the Brooklyn Bridge, may it be a tribute to the many forces involved with its original creation.

      ———————

      With the exception of touching up imperfections that have accrued with the passage of time and cropping where necessary, no changes have been made to the images. The focus and clarity of many images are limited to the technology and the ability of the photographer at the time they were taken.

      PREFACE

      Within this city of towering steel skyscrapers, the most impressive structure was created from stone and steel over 100 years ago, stands only 274 feet tall and emerged from Brooklyn. In the city of New York with its constantly altering skyline, only the Brooklyn Bridge has remained constant for over a century.

      The towers’ Gothic arches evoke the majesty of another time, their peaks reminiscent of the crenellated turrets of a castle. Yet there the bridge stands, connecting the shores of Brooklyn and Manhattan, the first permanent link between two key segments of New York City. It started when Brooklyn and New York existed as individual cities. It commands attention still.

      The bodies of water that swept around the islands of New York posed an obstacle to the mobility of the population, but the people resigned themselves to watercraft, from rowboats to steamers. As early as 1788, dreamers fantasized about bridges across the East River—a pontoon bridge by John Stevens in 1807, a wooden Rainbow Bridge by Thomas Pope in 1811, and a chain suspension bridge in 1829. But it took industrialization and Roebling engineering to succeed in suspending a steel bridge across the waters.

      After experimenting with aqueducts in Pennsylvania and bridges at Niagara Falls and in Ohio, John Roebling, a manufacturer of steel wire and cable, drew up blueprints for the first realistically conceived East River bridge. With his son Washington, also an engineer, John studied construction possibilities and considered contingencies and alternatives. When John died in 1869, Washington took over; when he was injured, his wife Emily assisted. The bridge was a family affair.

      After 14 years, multiple deaths, charges of corruption, and politically inspired delays, the bridge opened for traffic on May 24, 1883. That Brooklyn

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