What do leaflets contain?

T.J.

Singh

Kevan Prasad

10-22-09

2nd

Period

Brooklyn Bridge

Questions

1. Brooklyn

contained 400,000 residents and New York had at least 800,000. So

they needed a bridge to stop the overcrowding in New York and spur

industrial development in Brooklyn which at the time was more rural

than urban.

2. The bridge's

construction was very complicated, but it was considered the

beginning of modern bridge construction. They started off by laying

down the two main towers, one on the Brooklyn side and one on the

Manhattan side. This was the first suspension bridge to use steel

wire instead of iron wire for the cables and supports. Not only did

vertical wires extending from the main cables hold up the road, but

also diagonal supports were implemented to strengthen the bridge.

The bridge was to have two elevated railway tracks in middle of the

platform, and four lanes on either side of the tracks. Two lanes on

two outer roadways for carriages and horseback riders. There was

also an elevated promenade for pedestrians and bicyclists. The

Brooklyn Bridge was built to be six times stronger than it needed

to be support and resist all of its loads and streses.

3. The bridge

cost $15.1 million to build, $3.8 million of which was used to

purchase land for approaches and the rest was used on construction.

Unfortunately this was twice the original estimate of $7

million.

4. The Brooklyn

bridge was dedicated on May 23, 1883 by President Chester Arthur

and Governor Grover Cleveland.

5. The Bridge

became a symbol of the greatness of New York and American ingenuity

even before it opened.

6. A woman who

was walking up the Manhattan side tripped and her female companion

screamed. The scream prompted a rumor that the bridge was about to

collapse. All of this chaos caused a panic in which 12 people were

killed and 35 other were seriously enjured.

7. The effect

of the bridge 10 years after if opened was that Brooklyn had

annexed adjoining towns until it had encompassed all of King

County. By 1898 the bridge had helped unite Manhattan with

Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island to form Greater New

York. In the same year the bridge was readied to allow automobiles

and trolleys.

8. A. Bridges

like the Brooklyn Bridge were needed because many towns and cities

had become overcrowded with Immigration. So as a result, jobs were

needed and they were only available in other cities, many of which

could only be reached after much travel or struggle. But bridges

made it so convenient and quick to just travel between towns and

cities. And to switch from an agricultural nation to and industrial

one, we needed to have transport systems for goods and for trading

purposes. As the number of factories began to increase, so did the

number of commuters and immigrants. As immigration and factories

grew, the majority of the job market moved from rural to urban

jobs. So as people began to rush to the cities, they needed

transport systems to travel and live in the other cities.

B. The Brooklyn Bridge and others

similar to it radically changed where lived. Before such

significant bridges, you had to live relatively close to where you

worked. You couldn't live in another city or a distant part of the

same city. But once such bridges as the Brooklyn Bridge were built,

you could live in other cities or in any part of town and still get

to work relatively fast and easily. Trade was now quicker than ever

due to such easy transport systems. On a nationwide scale, trade

was very hard and complicated due to gigantic natural obstacles

standing in the way, but bridges made trade much more agile and

efficient.