BROOKLYN BRIDGE

New York, NY

Work on the bridge started in 1869, was completed in 1883, and it has since become an icon of New York City. It connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn across the East River. The span is 1,600 feet and it was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. The two towers are built of New York limestone and Maine granite. They were built by floating two caissons (giant upside-down boxes made of southern yellow pine) in the East River, and then beginning to build the stone towers on top of them until they sank to the bottom of the river. Compressed air was then pumped into the caissons, and workers entered the space to remove the sediment, until the caissons sank to bedrock. Sound dangerous? The whole weight of the bridge still sits upon a 15-foot thickness of southern yellow pine wood now buried in sediment. The bridge=s anchorages at each end were built with numerous passageways and compartments, which the city rented out as wine cellars, as they were always at 60deg F. In 1978, a faded inscription was discovered on a wall reading: "Who loveth not wine, women and song, he remaineth a fool his whole life long."

The bridge was designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling. While conducting a survey for the bridge, his foot was crushed between a ferry and the piling. His toes were amputated, but he developed a tetanus infection from which he died in 1869. But not before having placed his 32-year-old son in charge of the project.

This sketch was completed from a park at the foot of the bridge, during a break from the Manhattan Dance Competition, held in Brooklyn. If you’re now thinking Manhattans competition might be called the Brooklyn Dance Competition, wrong - it’s called Empire.