Location: East River. Park Row, Manhattan
to Adams Street, Brooklyn
Architects: John A. and Washington Roebling
Date Completed: 1883
Height: 272 feet (83 meters)
Length: 6016 feet (1834 meters)
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.
Brooklyn Bridge
