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Picture Credits:
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We are celebrating the 120th Anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, (1883 - 2003)
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The city across the river where a haunting beauty stands,
Above the Eastern River, with majesty so grand!
These granite towers rise to hold the span aloft,
With massive Gothic strength, yet artistically so soft.
Foot and rail and carriage where the people ply their way,
The ships beneath came proudly passed the portals' passageway.
The tide below, the sky above where clouds embrace its spires,
The latticed steel of cables graced, picturesque, inspired!
From one man's dream came his dear son's scheme,
To fill a desperate need, from temporal to starlit beam.
The commerce laden river freed from barges, boats and ships,
For lives connect from shore to shore in deepened fellowship.
Its timeless lines reflect the day when men built with their hands,
Stone by stone the towers laid its web of steel to span.
And stretch across in stillness, made the ages stop sublime,
"Here's a monument to man," it's said, "a moment locked in time."
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Facts about the Brooklyn Bridge:
Architect: John Augustus Roebling (1806-1869) - he died of tetanus in July 1869), his son Washington Augustus Roebling (1837-1926) completed the project. He developed decompression sickness (the bends) also known as "caisson disease," in 1872 and with the help of his wife Emily, completed the work from his sick bed.
Type: Suspension bridge with Gothic stone masonry piers, bridge deck, steel cables.
Dates: Plans approved July 1869
Construction began January 2, 1870
Opening day, May 24, 1883, 2 pm
Length of the river span: 1,595.5 feet
Total length of the bridge: 5,989 feet
Width of bridge floor: 85 feet
Suspension cables: four each of 15.75 inches in diameter, 3,578.5 feet long, containing 5,435 wires each with a total length of 3,515 miles of wire per cable!
Tower height above high water: 276 feet
Roadway height above high water: 119 feet (at the towers)
Total weight of masonry: 14,680 tons.
Source: The Brooklyn Museum
Suggested reading: "The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge," David McCullough, Simon & Schuster, Jan. 1983
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