The
Brooklyn Bridge: An Appreciation by Keith Miller
The building of a bridge link between New York and Brooklyn was an idea which had been discussed for some time- the first serious recorded proposal Smoke-blackened, a little more than halfway in its passage across the was put forth as early as 1800. The advandecades to the present, the great Bridge presides over surviving tages of a bridge connecting New York schooners at the Fulton Fish Market. This photograph, taken by Bob with Brooklyn were obvious: manufacMcGlinchey in 1939, shows the seaworn schooner Olivia Brown at rest turers and farmers could get their goods to under the Bridge, her scars from seafaring gloriously reflect in the river the New York market cheaper and faster, that has welcomed many such venturers home from the sea. Her story is told on page 37 of this issue by Bob's son Bob. commuters from Brooklyn would gain a reliable alternative to the East River ferries ; moreover it was felt that a bridge would turn Brooklyn into a boom town , causing property values to soar. ture of the past , massive and protective In 1867 John A. Roehling, a wealthy the busiest stretches of navigable water on meets the architecture of the future , light , New Jersey inventor, engineer and wire earth. The Roehling plan called for the rope manufacturer was named as chief largest suspension bridge in the world; aerial, open to sunlight, an architecture of engineer of the proposed project. Under one uninterrupted central span poised bevoids rather than solids." Mumford goes the terms of a state charter, a private comtween two huge stone towers would leap on to summarize the impact of the bridge, pany was to build and operate the "East from shore to shore over the masts of "Beyond any other aspect of New York , I River Bridge'!......nothing in the charter ships. The towers served an important think, the Brooklyn Bridge has been a stipulated what kind of bridge was to be function-they would bear the weight of source of joy and inspiration to the artist. built , nor was the approval of the cities of four cables which in turn would support All that the age had just cause for pride Brooklyn or New York required. Roehin-its skill in handling iron , its personal the roadway high above the river traffic. heroism in the face of dangerous indusling, as designer, had a completely free As designed, the structure was to be a harhand in the conceptualization of a strucmony of forces-the cables in tension , the trial processes, its willingness to attempt the untried and the impossible-came to a ture that was to become his masterpiece. towers in compression. head in the Brooklyn Bridge." Roehling wrote in 1867, " The completed In the preliminary stages of surveying work, when constructed in accordance . for the bridge construction John Roehling with my designs, will not only be the was injured in an accident which was to Mr. Miller, a Canadian artist, offers his own vision of the Bridge on page 2 6. This result in his death less than a month later. greatest bridge in existence, but it will be the greatest engineering work of the contiThe full burden of the job of Chief appreciation is extracted from a larger historical essay available from Smith Engineer was left to his son Washington , Gallery, New York. nent , and of the age. Its most conspicuous features, the great towers, will serve as then in his early twenties . Washington Roehling had been involved in all aspects NarE: A Brooklyn Museum exhibition exlandmarks to the adjoining cities, and they will be entitled to be ranked as national of the preliminary planning, and it was felt ploring the historic, cultural and artistic that he was the only person who could meanings of the Bridge is open through monuments. As a great work of art and as June 19. The chronology, history, technola successful specimen of advanced bridge carry forward his father's projected plans. Today the bridge remains as both a ogy and social impact of the Bridge is reengineering, this structure will forever corded, with brilliant illustrations in a testify to the energy, enterprise and wealth monument and a functional roadwayof that community which shall secure its more than 150 million people use the large format 180-page catalog, "The Great erection." bridge each year. Yet it is the power of the F.ast River Bridge," available for $18.50 The main challenge to the project was bridge as an architectural symbol which from the Museum Shop or $20. 50 postthe East River itself; a turbulent tidal still excites the imagination; Lewis Mum- paid, from The Brooklyn Museum Shop, 188 F.astem Parkway, Brooklyn NY 11238. strait which in the 19th century was one of ford wrote, " In this structure the architecSEA HISlDRY, SUMMER 1983
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