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Running head: THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE & HOW IT IMPACTED NEW YORK






Nicole Sgambati
The Brooklyn Bridge & How It Impacted New York City
Molloy College












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A walk over the Brooklyn Bridge is a desire most individuals residing outside of
New York City have. This bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, located over the
East River, has made itself into a powerful presence in the everyday life of many New
Yorkers (Brooklyn Museum, 1983). The German creator of the bridge, John Augustus
Roebling, was known to be a wealthy wire rope manufacturer and a builder of
unprecedented suspension bridges (McCullough, 1972).
In 1856 Roebling drew rough plans for an immense multi-span bridge to arch
over Blackwell Island in the East River, but changed the location in 1857 to a site near
the city halls of Manhattan and Brooklyn (Trachtenberg, 1965). Right before the Civil
War, Roebling made his proposal in letters to the New York Press, but the nation was not
focused on new constructions (Trachtenberg, 1965). The bridge company was finally
formed in 1865 and chartered in 1867, also known as the year Roebling became
appointed chief engineer (Trachtenberg, 1965). Unfortunately, John Augustus Roebling
did not live to see his bridge, his son, Washington Roebling, replaced his father as chief
engineer and supervised the construction. Dying at the age of sixty-three, John Roebling,
in 1869 died being the victim in a cruel accident that consisted of his foot being caught
and crushed between timbers. This resulted in death two weeks later, after refusing
medical attention (Trachtenberg, 1965).
Many individuals believed that this bridge would make Brooklyn prosper with the
pace doubling, similar to what the steam ferries had done. Brooklyn was soon to be
viewed as important due to this new monumental structure (McCullough, 1972). Life
would become much easier for the Brooklyn residents who traveled to New York daily to
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earn a living. Some of the Brooklyn business people and Kings County politicians were
even claiming that the bridge would make Brooklyn the biggest city in America, a most
heady prospect indeed and not an unreasonable one either (McCullough, 1972).
Life before the building of the bridge was difficult for the traveling citizens of
Brooklyn. Ferries were providing the rides across the East River daily and by 1869 the
number was more than 50 million passengers (Brooklyn Museum, 1983). It was the
severe winters that were rough on the commuters. Many people did not want to have to
worry about being stranded due to the ferries being shut down during the wintery storms.
Like most situations, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge had been filled with
drama. Up to six hundred men had worked on the project at once, and over twenty lost
their lives (Trachtenberg, 1965). The Opening Ceremonies were a public drama, a
contrived pageant with a tone both festive and solemn (Trachtenberg, 1965). An
interesting fact many people do not know about The Opening Ceremonies was the big
commotion that was made, they had the President of the United States sit on the platform.
They even had the leaders from government, business, and religion wove a spell of
rhetoric to rid the city of evil visitations (Trachtenberg, 1965). The Opening Ceremonies
purpose was to have the speakers receive the bridge into the historical and moral
experience of the cities, and to establish its place in the mind (Trachtenberg, 1965). In
1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened. This New York City landmark rolled in the
opportunities, dominating the New York Skyline (Trachtenberg, 1965). With the bridge
complete, Roeblings wife, Emily, romantically, was the first person to travel across the
completed bridge by carriage (PBS, 2002).
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Years later, with the Brooklyn Bridge handling half a million people a day, two
more bridges were finally complete. The Manhattan Bridge, fairly close to the Brooklyn
Bridge, and the Queensboro Bridge (McCullough, 1972). With these new passageways,
Brooklyn had changed more than ever before. In 1898 with a population of nearly a
million people and still the third-largest city in the United States, Brooklyn had
relinquished its independence to become a borough of New York. Due to this bridge,
Brooklyn was seeing stimulated growth, raised property values, and the Bridge helped to
provide a safe, reliable alternative to the ferries. (McCullough, 1972). People were now
had the opportunity to work in Manhattan, while still having the chance to raise their
families in Brooklyn.
The Bridge became an icon, encompassing both Old World tradition and New
World innovation in its combination of stone Gothic towers and steel cables, the
Brooklyn Bridge has seized the imagination of a multitude of artists as the quintessential
American emblem (Brooklyn Museum, 1983). Its amazing how these many different
artists have their own perspectives of how they see the beautiful monument.
From a personal experience, getting to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge is
something everyone should do at least once in his or her lives. At first one can be
intimidated, and even startled by hearing that the walk is over a mile long. Walking over
the bridge makes up for the amount of walking being done. The views, not only are
amazing, but they can be labeled as simply breath taking. The walk surprisingly goes
quick when you are with an upbeat fun group of people who can appreciate the view as
much as yourself. What catches the eye, is the fact that there are so many different
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people of different ethnicities who hang out, stroll, and bike ride across this bridge. Its
not just one culture; its multiple cultures coming together to enjoy this historical
landmark.
The Brooklyn Bridge, known as the eighth wonder of the world, reflects the
optimism and entrepreneurial spirit of the late 19
th
century (PBS, 2002). Entailing
individual tenacity and sacrifice this monument has created a new type of world (PBS,
2002). People could now climb the East River, while crossing from Brooklyn to
Manhattan and feel a thrill like no other.














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Works Cited
The Great East River Bridge, 1883-1983. (1983). New York: Brooklyn Museum
Trachtenberg, A. (1979). Brooklyn Bridge: fact and symbol (Phoenix ed.). Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
McCullough, D. G. (1972). The Great Bridge. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Today in History. (n.d.). : June 12. Retrieved July 11, 2014, from
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jun12.html
(n.d.). PBS. Retrieved July 11, 2014, from
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/brooklynbridge/timeline/