The Brooklyn Bridge
In the winter of 1852, John Roebling and his 15 year-old son, Washington were riding a ferry boat across the East River from New York to Brooklyn. John Roebling was an engineer. His specialty was building bridges. As he looked across the East River, he could picture the bridge he wanted there. For years after that, John tried to convince people that his plan for a bridge across the East River was a good one. But most people thought it was nearly impossible to bridge the wide and powerful river. John knew it would be difficult. There were many problems to be solved. The bridge would have to be strong enough to withstand the swift currents and powerful winds of the East River. It could not get in the way of the hundreds of boats that traveled on the river every day. It had to be so high that the masts of tall sailing ships could easily pass under it. And it had to be long. The East River was nearly half a mile wide at that point. But John also knew about a type of bridge that could solve all the problems. It was called a suspension bridge.
Every suspension bridge is different, but they all work in the same way. The roadway doesn't rest on supports. Instead it hangs in the air, suspended from thick cables. Only two towers are needed to hold up the cables, and they can be placed far apart to keep the river open for boat traffic. Finally in 1867 The New York Bridge Company made John A. Roebling engineer. In just three months he produced all drawings, cross sections, location plans, preliminary surveys, estimated cost, took sounding, and wrote his proposal. In June of 1869 John finished the design for the bridge. He and Washington climbed out onto the end of a pier to determine the exact l...
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...trians had a view of New York Harbor that was as breathtaking as the bridge itself.
On May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bride was opened. Stores, businesses, and even the Brooklyn schools were closed for the day. People came from all over the country to be a part of the opening ceremony. Washington Roebling peered through his binoculars as Chester A. Arthur, president of the United States, walked across the bridge to meet Emily on the other side.
That night, there was a great party in honor of the Roeblings' beautiful bridge. Hundreds of thousands of people cheered for over an hour as fireworks exploaded from the towers. New York had never had such a celebration!
Washington and Emily watched the fireworks from their bedroom window. After 14 years the long struggle was over. The Brooklyn Bridge was built. This became the "Eighth Wonder Of The World."
Have you ever thought about driving over a suspension bridge held up by cables? That’s what the Mackinac Bridge is. With the building of the Mackinac Bridge there has been many positive effects that have come out of it.
“It was designed with a twenty-two foot roadway and one five-foot sidewalk” (Silver). The silver bridge is a very long bridge. “An eye-bar is a long steel plate having large circular ends with an "eye" or hole through which a pin is used to connect to other eyebars (to make a chain) or to other parts of the bridge.” according to Richard Fields. The whole bridge was built using the eye-bar suspension.
A privately owned company constructed the current Peace Bridge in 1927. It became a link between Fort Erie, Canada and Buffalo, New York. The bridge is over one mile long, 5,800 feet, and holds three lanes of traffic. The center lane may go north or south depending on the volume of traffic. In 1934, the Great Depression caused a change. The Peace Bridge became publicly owned. As a result there were no taxes to be paid, and financing for projects could be obtained by issuing bonds at a low interest rate. The publicly owned bridge instituted a board of governors called the Peace Bridge Authority, PBA. The board, which made all decisions, was made up of six Americans and three Canadians. Fr...
Many New Yorkers believe that the waiting period of a year was not enough time for the American citizens to grieve and rebuild their lives. This allows us to conclude that there is a respectable amount of time needed for healing of the mourners and respect of the dead before creating a memorable monument. Fischl’s Tumbling Woman is possibly one of the most scrutinized pieces of artwork surround 9/11 because of its release date on the first anniversary of 9/11. Many other artists and American citizens created sanctum like memorials with pictures and candles. These representations of 9/11 did not receive scrutiny like the Tumbling Woman monument, which leads me to believe that the timing of the release of the monument may not have lead to the scrutiny of the
Since it would be easier and less expensive to build a bridge rather than a tunnel, a bridge was initially thought to be a better solution. However, to construct a bridge over the Hudson River it would require a minimum clearance of 200 ft. for ships to travel to and from Hudson River ports. Since the Manhattan side of the Hudson did not meet the 200-foot elevation requirement needed for a bridge, new and expensive apparatuses would have to be built on the New York side. Also, a bridge would be affected by poor weather conditions more than a tunnel. In 1913, the joint coalition finally decided to construct a tunnel.2
In 1939, the city of San Francisco hosted an international exhibition, named the Golden Gate Fair in honor of the construction by the city of the world's two largest suspension bridges, the Golden Gate and San Francisco-Oakland, which spanned the San Francisco Bay. With all the skill that could be mustered by American engineers, an island was constructed amidst the Pacific waters, becoming the largest ever manmade island. Christened Treasure Island, this would be the location of the 1939 Exhibition. The visions of a fair surrounded by the glory of the Pacific Ocean had finally materialized. However, this captivating scene took place as Europe verged on the edge of disaster. Germany had already begun its annexation of neighboring countries and threatened to unleash conflict on a global level. In only two short years the United States would be fully involved in this catastrophe. Furthermore, at the time of the fair the United States had just emerged from the Great Depression, which had affected the country in many ways. This fair seemed to provide a brief interlude between these two very difficult times in American history. For this event the U.S. decided to turn attention away from the international climate and focus on the beauty of the Pacific, which ironically is named for peace.
In the first place, the ferry system is outdated and needs to be replaced by a bridge at Scotland Wharf, which would be safer for drivers crossing the James River. The ferry system has been in operation for...
On May 24, 1854, construction began of the Victoria Bridge. This was a difficult task for the workers given the size of the bridge (“almost two miles in length from shore to shore” ) was the largest construction project during this period of time. Moreover, the construction of the bridge did not cease during the winter months. Therefore, many of the workers on the bridge would continue even while the St-Lawrence River froze underneath their
In The Artificial River, Carol Sheriff describes how when the digging of the Erie Canal began on July 4, 1817, no one would have been able to predict that the canal would even be considered a paradox of progress. One of the major contradictions of progress was whether or not triumphing art over nature was even considered progress. People were not sure during the nineteenth century if changing the environment for industrialization was necessarily a good thing. Another contradiction to progress that resulted from the Erie Canal was when people started holding the state government responsible for all their financial misfortunes. An additional contradiction to progress that the Erie Canal displayed was how many of its workers were either children, or men that lived lives that were intemperate and disrespectful to women. As American history students look back at the Erie Canal today, they generally only imagine how the canal was extraordinary for the residents of New York, but not all the issues and problems it also produced.
On September11, 2001 at 8:46 am an American Airline Plane carrying 96 passengers crashed into the side of the north Twin Tower in New York City. Several minutes later another plane crashed into the second Twin Tower. It didn’t take long after the second plane struck for the second tower to fully collapse. At 10:28 am the first tower followed suite and collapsed leaving many people including fire fighters and police officers trapped in the debris from the falling towers. The debris from the falling towers also caused the surrounding building to catch a fire, including World Trade 7 which at 5:20 pm collapsed luckily they were able to evacuate the building. Over 3,000 people were killed that day in New York City and in Washington, D.C. The days after 9/11 brought a significant amount of change to our country.
Following the steps of the Dutch who first came to Lower Manhattan, we embarked on the Staten Island Ferry on Sunday, Nov. 10, and we could see one of the world’s most famous figures: The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French to the U.S. that was put in such a strategic and historic place. The view of the green icon from the boat that was transporting passengers from Staten Island to Lower Manhattan, with the skyline of New Jersey in the background, and New York to our right, was a delightful experience. Not one person on the ferry was like the other, one could see people from all over the world, joined together and representing New York’s diversity, trying to relive the same experience that the Dutch had centuries ago. Some people take this ride every day for work; others were simply tourists or inhabitants of the New York metropolitan area.
The 14-year construction of this urban landmark that stretched across the East River was completed in May of 1883. This was not only a bridge; it stood for many significant symbols. During this time period, the industrial aspects of things were at its peak and this represented the strength of the industry. Also it symbolized the use of immigrant workers and how much time and effort they put into making this bridge. Twenty seven men died while creating this bridge and that is something that most people forget when looking at the bridge, people risked there lives while giving a society that people needed. Not only that but it took tons and tons of steel and iron in order to complete this bridge and it was part of the steel and iron boom. This landmark led to the rise o...
preventing the war. This was a two-day event in New York, the first day the
The bridge was designed at a time when America was moving toward streamline products, this included the design of bridges. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a sleek, graceful looking suspension bridge. Suspension bridges consist of many cables anchored...
In her essay,”Importance of the Golden Gate Bridge,” Stephanie Stiavetti suggest that “It maintained this point of pride for nearly 25 years until the Verrazano- Narrows Bridge was built in New York in 1964. Today, this historic San Francisco landmark holds its place as the second largest suspension bridge in the country, behind Verrazano Narrows.” Back then, experts thought that it would be impossible to build a bridge across the tides and currents in that area because strong currents and tides would make construction extremely difficult and dangerous. The water is over 500 feet deep in the center of the channel, and along with the area's strong winds and thick fog, the idea of building a bridge there seemed nearly impossible. Despite all of the problems of building a bridge across the Golden Gate, Joseph Strauss was named as lead engineer for the project. Construction began January 5, 1933, and in the end cost more than $35 million to