Brooklyn Bridge & DUMBO Explorer

1. 

   Mission 1

   The Impossible Bridge

   When construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began in 1869 most engineers considered it impossible. The bridge took 14 years to build, cost the lives of at least 27 workers, and when it opened in 1883 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world by nearly double the previous record. Chief engineer John Roebling died before construction began. His son Washington took over, only to be incapacitated by decompression sickness. Washington's wife Emily supervised construction for the final decade and was the first person to cross the completed bridge.

2. 

   Mission 2

   The Caissons Below

   The Brooklyn Bridge's two towers are anchored to bedrock by massive wooden chambers called caissons that were sunk to the riverbed and pressurized with compressed air to keep water out while workers dug the foundations by hand. When workers came up too quickly the dissolved nitrogen in their blood formed bubbles — decompression sickness — which killed and permanently disabled dozens of workers including chief engineer Washington Roebling. The Brooklyn caisson went 44 feet below the riverbed, the Manhattan caisson 78 feet.

3. 

   Mission 3

   Walking the Bridge

   The Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway runs down the center of the bridge elevated above the traffic lanes — a deliberate design by Roebling who wanted the bridge to be a public promenade as much as a transportation route. The cables were spun in place wire by wire — each of the four main cables contains 5,434 individual steel wires, and the spinning process took over two years using a traveling wheel that ran back and forth across the river carrying a single wire at a time.

4. 

   Mission 4

   The View From the Tower

   Standing on the Brooklyn Bridge walkway between the two Gothic towers is one of the finest urban viewpoints in the world. The towers are built from Rosendale cement and Maine granite, their Gothic arches a deliberate design choice by Roebling who wanted the bridge to feel like a cathedral. When the bridge opened in 1883 the towers were the tallest structures in the Western Hemisphere — nothing in New York rose higher for another six years.

5. 

   Mission 5

   DUMBO Below the Bridge

   DUMBO — Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass — has undergone one of the most dramatic transformations of any urban neighborhood in America. In the 1970s it was an abandoned industrial zone that artists moved into because rents were cheap and spaces were enormous. By the 2000s those same artists had been replaced by technology companies and luxury apartments. The cobblestone streets and massive brick warehouse buildings are still there — they just cost considerably more to live near.

6. 

   Mission 6

   The Manhattan Bridge Next Door

   Standing in DUMBO you can see two of New York's great bridges simultaneously. The famous Washington Street viewpoint — where the Manhattan Bridge appears perfectly framed at the end of the street between two brick warehouses — is one of the most photographed urban compositions in New York and appears in dozens of films and television shows set in the city.

7. 

   Mission 7

   Brooklyn Bridge Park

   Brooklyn Bridge Park stretches 1.3 miles along the Brooklyn waterfront — built on the piers and warehouses of a defunct shipping terminal abandoned when containerized shipping moved the port of New York to New Jersey in the 1960s. The park was built on an unusual funding model — residential and commercial development within the park generates the revenue that pays for maintenance, making it financially self-sustaining without ongoing public subsidy.

8. 

   Mission 8

   The Bridge That Made Brooklyn

   Before the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883 Brooklyn was a separate city — the third largest in the United States — connected to Manhattan only by ferry. Within 20 years Brooklyn's population had doubled and in 1898 Brooklyn was incorporated into New York City partly because the bridge had made the two cities functionally inseparable. The bridge didn't just connect two shores — it merged two cities and made modern New York possible.

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