Brooklyn Bridge turns 140
The 140th anniversary of the day the Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic is May 24, 2023. At the time of its completion, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn across the East River.
The bridge, designed by engineer John Augustus Roebling, is a National Historic Landmark designated by the U.S. National Park Service.
Portrait of Washington A. Roebling, who completed the Brooklyn Bridge started by his father, John A. Roebling. When his father died in 1869, he took over leading the construction and completed the bridge with his wife Emily, despite suffering paralysis due to Caisson Disease (decompression sickness) in 1872. (AP Photo)
Construction began on the bridge in 1869 and finished in 1883. Numerous complications occurred through the years, including the death of the designer John A. Roebling at the beginning of construction following an accident that occurred on a ferry slip while he was examining the worksite.
His son, Washington Roebling, and daughter-in-law Emily Warren Roebling undertook direction of the construction of the bridge until it was completed in 1883.
This is an 1876 photo showing the construction on the east tower of the Brooklyn Bridge, under construction as viewed from the Brooklyn side of the East River. (AP Photo)
Officers of the New York and Brooklyn Corporation, and workmen, inspect the cable anchorage on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge during construction, October 1878. (AP Photo)
The following text is from The Associated Press article, "Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge”, printed in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids Iowa – Thursday, May 24, 1883
To-Day's News
Associated Press Report
Brooklyn's Bridge
Completion of the Great Bridge connecting Brooklyn and New York.
NEW YORK, MAY 24. — To-day was a gala day in Brooklyn. Throughout the city there appeared to be a general surrender of business to sight seeing and celebration. The main business avenues, the heights and many streets clear out into the suburbs were decked most gaily with flags and bunting and flowers for the bridal with city over the river. The public building, private houses, street cars, wagons and trucks, all flying colors of all nations in honor of the opening of the high bridge. On every hand preparations are being made for illumination to-night. Great satisfaction is expressed among the people of Brooklyn at this completion, of which so much is expected for their city. Venders of bridge souvenirs were about in hundreds and hundreds and found ready sale for their wares. Enterprising merchants took the opportunity of advertising their wares on the backs of pictures of the Brooklyn bridge. Fulton street from the furthest end to the river front was gay with colors. The decoration of the Academy of Music has occupied a small army of men, and is being prepared for the reception to-night.
The President and Cabinet, together with other distinguished invited guests, entered carriages on the south side of the hotel, and preceded by military escort moved down Fifth avenue and Broadway to city hall park, where the member of the common council received the President and Cabinet.
The picket fence in front of the bridge has been removed and a strong force of police guard the approach. Crowds began to gather early, and waited with patience the arrival of the procession and the beginning of the ceremonies.
Through Columbia Heights and streets opening into that fashion neighborhood the decorations were very general and the effect handsome. The houses of Col. Roebling, chief engineer of the bridge, and Mayor Lowe, of Brooklyn, were decked with flowers and bunting and coat of arms of New York and Brooklyn. The invalid engineer will receive the president and mayor in the evening for a brief hour. The Colonel is feeling better to-day, but is to weak leave his house and share in the ceremonies at the bridge.
The 7th regiment, detailed as military escort for the occasion, assembled at the armory in full uniform this morning. A guard of twenty was detailed to march along the side of the president's carriage. The command marched down Park and Fifth avenue to Fifth Avenue Hotel, the president's quarters, where it was drawn up. The sidewalks along the route were lined with people.
Pedestrians stroll along the promenade of the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, in New York, 1891. (AP Photo)
People walk on the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset, Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
When bridge designer John A. Roebling incorporated the promenade into the design of the bridge, he said it was important that the people take part in the leisures afforded by the bridge.
Since it was first opened, the Brooklyn Bridge promenade has served as a walkway for leisurely strolls, as the backdrop of protests and marches, and has been used as a way to travel from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back during emergencies such as public transportation strikes, blackouts, and during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack.
Throughout the 20th century, the bridge has been a popular setting in literature, film and television shows.
Women wearing dust masks flee across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn following the collapse of both World Trade Center towers Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Demonstrators march across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, March 1, 1964 en route to the Board of Education Offices in Brooklyn to press their demands for improved educational facilities for Puerto Ricans in the citys school system. The marchers, estimated at more than 2,000 rallied outside City Hall and then marched to Brooklyn. Towers of the bridge and part of New York City skyline are in the background. (AP Photo)
Band of CORE demonstrators cross the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan in New York City, July 17, 1965 during protest march to police headquarters. Group was protesting the fatal shooting of a black man by a rookie patrolman in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant section on July 15. (AP Photo/Dave Pickoff)
Protesters march on the Brooklyn Bridge after a rally in Cadman Plaza Park, Thursday, June 4, 2020, in New York. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Commuters carry bicycles up the steps as they cross the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan on April 1, 1980. A strike by the city's 35,000 transit workers forced millions of commuters to find alternative means of transportation. The strike lasted 11 days. (AP Photo/Carlos Rene Perez)
This gif image shows the buildings of Manhattan's financial district darkened during the blackout of July 13, 1977 and the transition to the lights of lower Manhattan shining across New York's East River in a nighttime view on July 14, 1977. (AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine)
This is a close-up view of the towers and cables of the Brooklyn Bridge as painters can be seen on the cables in New York City on July 26, 1929. (AP Photo)
New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit officers participate in a rescue training exercise atop New York's Brooklyn Bridge on Monday, Sept. 18, 2000. (AP Photo/Robert Mecea)
According to the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) the total length of the bridge and approaches is 6,016 feet, with a main span of 1,595.5 feet and 135 feet of clearance at the center.
The bridge has been a target for possible suicides and pranksters for many years.
Robert E. Odlum is depicted in this art showing his leap from the Brooklyn Bridge, July 23, 1886. Although he was a seasoned athlete and swimming instructor, he died from internal injuries from the impact of the 135-foot fall. Odlum was the first person to make the leap. (AP Photo)
A woman identified as Linda Oliveri, 25, of Brooklyn, is lowered from a beam 230 feet above the East River in New York by police rescuers, Aug. 25, 1976. Mrs. Oliveri stopped traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for a half-hour as she threatened to leap before being pulled to safety. (AP Photo/MC)
New York City's Brooklyn Bridge is seen looming over a sightseeing boat, July 3, 1964. In the background is the lower Manhattan skyline. (AP Photo)
A view of Manhattan, showing the Woolworth Building, center, and the Brooklyn Bridge, in 1925. (AP Photo)
The 10,000-ton Treaty Cruiser U.S.S. New Orleans passes beneath Brooklyn Bridge on its way to the Atlantic from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, April 12, 1933. (AP Photo)
Aircraft carrier Monterey passing under the Brooklyn Bridge, New York on Nov. 16, 1945. (AP Photo/John Rooney)
Extensive reconstruction was performed on the bridge from 1944 to 1954, removing railroad and trolley tracks and converting the roadway from two lanes to three lanes. Continuous construction projects throughout the last century have been performed to update for modern traffic needs, included adding designated bicycle lanes to accommodate an increase in cyclists using the bridge.
Reconstruction operations for the improvement of Brooklyn Bridge to relieve traffic congestion are shown in progress on May 10, 1944, under supervision of the Board of Transportation, which is spending $1,092, 000 for the relocation of tracks of street cars running between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the demolition of terminals at both ends of the structure. (AP Photo/Robert Kradin)
Some of the beams and other steel work of New York City's Brooklyn Bridge is being salvaged and reused in the modernization of the structure, seen May 24, 1950. Workmen are shown guiding one of the steel breams, which was formerly around the old car tracks, into place at a new location on the bridge. (AP Photo/Robert Kradin)
A crew of workmen are shown on the south roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge removing track at the left, May 24, 1950. The men at the right are removing steel uprights and overhead cross beams during the widening of the bridge roadbed. (AP Photo/Robert Kradin)
A workman in goggles and mask cuts away steel up-rights that stood alongside the old car tracks on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, May 24, 1950. The work to the bridge was done to widen the roadway on which he is standing. The skyscapers of lower Manhattan are visible in the background. (AP Photo/Bob Kradin)
The Brooklyn Bridge spans the East River and frames part of the Manhattan skyline in this striking night photo taken from the Brooklyn side of the river, May 15, 1958. When it opened in 1883 it was the largest suspension bridge in the world and the first to incorporate steel-wire in its construction. (AP Photo/Hans Von Nolde)
Eriko Takahashi of Yokohama, Japan, snaps a photograph of one tower of the Brooklyn Bridge from her vantage point in the DUMBO section of the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, July 15, 2010. The history of this offbeat Brooklyn neighborhood includes Dutch settlers, George Washington, Walt Whitman, the man who designed the Brooklyn Bridge, and a 21st-century chocolate shop. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Text Excerpts
From "Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge”, printed in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids Iowa – Thursday, May 24, 1883
Text and photo curation by Kathleen Elliott
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