Brooklyn Bridge

Location: East River. Park Row, Manhattan to Adams Street, Brooklyn

Architects: John A. and Washington Roebling.

The Brooklyn Bridge, highly recognizable landmark and cultural icon, was the dream of John A. Roebling, the inventor of wire cable and an accomplished bridge builder. Designed in 1867, the bridge's prototype was a similar, though smaller structure over the Ohio River at Cincinnati. The dramatic butressed gothic towers are constructed entirely of granite. The roadway platform is hung on two-inch diameter steel suspenders strung from two pairs of cables - the catenaries - sixteen inches in diameter. Each cable is composed of 5,296 galvanized steel wires (the total length of wire used is 14,357 miles). Each of the four cables is capable of sustaining a live load of 12,000 tons. The opening of the bridge in 1883 was marred by the deaths of twelve pedestrians, who were trampled during a panic set off by a shouted warning, anonymous and groundless, that the bridge was in danger of imminent collapse. The bridge affords magnificent views of the East River, the harbor and downtown Manhattan. The pedestrian feels drawn into an association with the bridge and all of New York.

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