Brooklyn Bridge opens on this day, May 24, 1883

I believe trains and trolleys ceased crossing the bridge in 1944.

1884: P.T. Barnum demonstrated the safety of the bridge by parading across it with a herd of 21 elephants.

1885: Robert E. Odlum was the first man to jump off the bridge, but did not survive the fall.

2006: City workers conducting a regular bridge inspection found a cold-war era supply chamber inside the foundation near the Manhattan shoreline. More than 350,000 items, including half-century-old water drums, food canisters, and medical supplies were found inside the chamber. The supplies were to have been used in the event of a nuclear attack on New York City.
(How could this have been forgotten?)
 
good to remember that there was a time when we actually built stuff and cared about our infrastructure and believed government had an important role to play in both.
tony
 
assume that is true, doesnt really effect my point in any way. bridges, tunnels, dams, highways, sewers, roads etc etc etc were built with the intent to create an infrastructure necessary for this country's growth, competitveness and to improve the lives of its people. the fact that on a micro level some sought to take advantage of that is not a societal commentary.
 
There were some human costs in these constructions. I remember a television show about such engineering marvels and in particular a huge iron steam ship ... when they eventually scrapped her they found the bodies of several children inside the double iron hull. They were part of the riveting process apparently and a couple had perished during their labours, entombed in the vessel for it's entire career.
 
Keith said:
There were some human costs in these constructions. I remember a television show about such engineering marvels and in particular a huge iron steam ship ... when they eventually scrapped her they found the bodies of several children inside the double iron hull. They were part of the riveting process apparently and a couple had perished during their labours, entombed in the vessel for it's entire career.
Click to expand...

SS Great Eastern

"Whilst it is rumoured that a human skeleton was found inside Great Eastern's double hull, the same thing has been said of RMS Titanic and the Hoover Dam (among others); and inspection hatches in the inner hull would have provided an easy escape. The ship was the subject of one programme in the BBC documentary series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World which repeated the tale about two dead bodies in the hull, including a child worker, although stated it as a rumour. An episode of Haunted History implied that the find of the skeleton was indeed factual. One of the narrators of the segment read an article published from the time when Great Eastern was being dismantled. The article stated that the workers broke into a compartment in the inner shell on the port side, and did find a skeleton"
 
May 6, 1983 on the bridge. Our wedding day.

8834626760_cc63df0158.jpg


Somewhere, in my archive, I have pictures from the 100th anniversary of the bridge, celebrated a few short weeks after this picture. There was a huge fireworks display that we attended downtown on the Manhattan side. It was so crowded I wondered if we'd be crushed.
 
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