Brooklyn Bridge

[Edward]

The view of the Brooklyn Bridge (http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/default.htm) from the corner of Pearl and Dover Streets.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/images/brooklyn_bridge_dover_28june03.jpg

[Kris]

Unusual view. Coincidentally, www.rion.nu has nice photos of the bridge taken recently:

http://www.rion.nu/v5/post/062703/IMG_4593lg.jpg
http://www.rion.nu/v5/post/062703/IMG_4649lg.jpg
http://www.rion.nu/v5/post/062803/IMG_4594lg.jpg
http://www.rion.nu/v5/archive/000346.php
http://www.rion.nu/v5/archive/000347.php

[Edward]

Brooklyn Bridge (http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/default.htm)

http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/images/brooklyn_bridge_manhattan_4july03.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/default.htm)

[NYatKNIGHT]

From Fulton Landing, 7/4/03

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/downtown_2.sized.jpg

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/BB_1.sized.jpg

[Jack Ryan]

Those are some beautiful shots, Edward. It really doesn't matter how many times I've seen photos of that bridge, I never tire of it.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Tourist Aid
http://www.pbase.com/image/21149814.jpg


Sun rises on the Manhattan Bridge
http://www.pbase.com/image/21149757.jpg

[NyC MaNiAc]

The view from the Bridge to the Harbor is still magnificent.

I want some renderings of the Freedom Tower from this angle. It's bugging me that there are none. This is a very important view.

[Kris]

For what it's worth, here's my 1994 photo of the Brooklyn Bridge, taken from the top of the World Trade Centre

Photo (http://www.ofoto.co.uk/PhotoView.jsp?Uc=q938l01.113mnk35&Uy=-4obip8&Upost_signin=BrowsePhotos.jsp%3fshowSlide%3 dtrue&Ux=1&collid=80760395633&photoid=70760395633)

[Edward]

Brooklyn Bridge (http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/default.htm) walkway. 12 June 2004.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/images/brooklyn_bridge_walk_12june04.jpg (http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/default.htm)

[NewYorkYankee]

MY GOSH! Is it always that crowded? When I was there in April there wernt half of these people on there!

[flat head]

...full on, photo albums on the net!...

[sqwrell]

Are we allowed to still walk over the Bridge?

[krulltime]

Yeah it is allowed. :wink:

[flat head]

can I buy the brooklyn bridge?... and if so, how many pence is it?...

...and can I take it back if it's no good?...

[Lauren Loves NY]

Tourist Aid
http://www.pbase.com/image/21149814.jpg

That's great. Ha.

She's a real beauty. Lovin all of these photos.

[pianoman11686]

Wow. I knew those guys took a lot of pictures from this forum but I wasn't aware they weren't posting some kind of bibliographical reference.

[lofter1]

Amid Mess Left by Floods, Cheers Upstate for Grande Dame of Bridges

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/03/nyregion/03flood.xlarge2.jpg
Erik Jacobs/The New York Times
The Delaware Aqueduct, completed in 1848,
is the country's oldest wire-cable suspension bridge.

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/03/nyregion/03flood.html)
By MANNY FERNANDEZ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/manny_fernandez/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
July 3, 2006

MINISINK FORD, N.Y., July 2 — It has survived the Great Pumpkin Flood of 1903, a fire in the early 1930's and, perhaps most significantly of all, almost 160 years. Last week, not even the floods that tore a wide, costly swath of destruction along the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers could tear down this one simple old thing.

A bridge.

The bridge that spans the Upper Delaware River, connecting Minisink Ford, N.Y., with Lackawaxen, Pa., is not just any bridge. It is the Sullivan County sister of the famed Brooklyn Bridge and was designed by John A. Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge's architect.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/02/nyregion/0703-met-subclrFLOODmap.jpg
The New York Times

Completed in 1848, the Delaware Aqueduct, known commonly as the Roebling Bridge, is the oldest wire-cable suspension bridge in America.

Last week's floods washed away homes, businesses, cars, cows, trees and, tragically, a wide span of Interstate 88 near Binghamton, N.Y., and the two truckers driving along it. A number of bridges in New York and Pennsylvania (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/pennsylvania/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) were destroyed.

But Sunday, John Conway, the Sullivan County historian, walked along the Roebling Bridge's wooden towpath. There had been a rumor on the first day of the floods that the bridge had collapsed, but Mr. Conway did not believe it, even though his own home, about four miles away, had seven feet of water in its basement.

"The bridge has been through a lot," said Mr. Conway, 53, as the muddy waters flowed underneath. During the flooding, the Upper Delaware River rose nearly to the bottom of the span. Sunday, though, instead of carrying debris, the river carried rafters, cheering, in a sign that life had started to return to some normalcy.

"I wouldn't say it's indestructible, but it survived for 160 years," Mr. Conway said.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gifhttp://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/03/nyregion/03glood.large3.jpg
Erik Jacobs/The New York Times
Rafters were back on the Upper Delaware River underneath it Sunday.

Here in the green hills of upstate New York, the land of the firefly, the deer crossing and the silent night, old bridges are as vital to transportation as the subways are to New York City. Tourist attractions for some, taken for granted by others, last week they served as a kind of test of man versus nature, of how bad a flood can get and how strong a bridge can be.

About 48 bridges under the jurisdiction of New York State's (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/newyork/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) Department of Transportation were damaged, a spokeswoman said. Four were completely washed away. As crews inspected the toll, there was no way to know precisely why some of the bridges failed but others did not, why the waters left this one unscathed and that one a memory.

In Delaware County, six bridges were seriously damaged or destroyed, said Phil Pierce, the county's deputy commissioner of public works. He said the number would increase as officials continued to assess the county's 270 bridges. "Most of the problems we've had relate to the debris that was washed onto the bridges and onto the roads that lead to the bridges, which has prevented us in some cases from getting to the bridge," Mr. Pierce said.

The county's two-lane Peakes Brook Bridge on Route 10 was swept away, cutting off the main artery into the Village of Walton. The village was a scene of soggy misery Sunday. "We're going to change the name to Mudville," said Keath Davis, owner of Breakey Motors, a Ford dealership left with no cars, but a large sinkhole and jagged asphalt in the lot. "A couple of my cars were washed all the way down to the fairgrounds."

With most floodwaters having receded, thousands of residents of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were cleaning mud from their basements and throwing away furniture Sunday. Some were still not permitted back home.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_emergency_management_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org) was still determining the damage, but the government did not add any counties to its list of disaster areas eligible for federal aid. So far, eight New York counties and four in Pennsylvania have been declared disaster areas.

On the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the bridges that span the Delaware River appeared to have weathered the storm. All but one of the 20 bridges were open Sunday.

"The water didn't top any of our bridges," said Kelley Heck, a spokeswoman for the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. "It came at about two or three feet of the deck of our lowest-lying bridges, so I guess we can breathe a sigh of relief."

Meanwhile, the Roebling Bridge has been closed to traffic indefinitely until it can be inspected. But pedestrians were allowed on the towpaths that sit above the one-lane road Sunday, and they walked casually onto the bridge, a country version of the Sunday-afternoon strolls people were taking 90 miles away on Mr. Roebling's other, more famous, bridge.

The Roebling Bridge, which was built as an aqueduct for the Delaware and Hudson Canal, was bought by the National Park Service (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_park_service/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in 1980. The price was $75,000, not that much more than its original cost, $41,750. The Park Service repaired the bridge, reconstructing the roadway and restoring the wrought-iron cables, each containing 2,150 wires.

"The Roebling Bridge is a grand old lady," said Carla Hahn, who works in the Park Service's Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River office. "She's taken a lot of abuse from a lot of floods for a lot of years. She made it through and she's still standing."

Samme Chittum and Fernanda Santos contributed reporting for this article.

Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html)The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[milleniumcab]

Is it true that New Yorkers were afraid to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, once it was built.. I heard the city had to ask a circus ( I think Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey) to do something about it. In return, the circus walked 26 elephants across the Brooklyn Bridge all at once.. Only after that, people started using the bridge, little by little.. Correct me if I'm mistaken..:)

[ManhattanKnight]

Is it true that New Yorkers were afraid to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, once it was built.. I heard the city had to ask a circus ( I think Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey) to do something about it. In return, the circus walked 26 elephants across the Brooklyn Bridge all at once.. Only after that, people started using the bridge, little by little.. Correct me if I'm mistaken..:)

You're largely mistaken. The bridge officially opened on May 24, 1883, but eager NYers had been sneaking onto it for some time before then. The crowds were overwhelming from the start: "In its initial days as a public thoroughfare it was commonly referred to as 'The Eighth Wonder of the World" and it was an even greater sensation than anyone had expected. On its first full day, May 25, 1883, a total of 150,300 people crossed on foot and 1,800 vehicles went over carrying an unknown number of others." David McCullough, The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1972, p. 543. A week later, congestion on the bridge was so extreme that a panic and near-riot ensued during which 12 people were trampled to death. Id. at 544.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/59/bbridgeriotsmall0ln.jpg


The worst tragedy to take place on the bridge occurred on May 31, Memorial Day, 1883, only a week after the bridge had
opened. Some twenty thousand people were on the bridge when a panic began. Reports differ as to how it started, but at a
narrow stairway twelve people were trampled to death. Others had their clothes torn off. In places, it was reported, people
were jammed so tight that blood oozed from their noses and ears. The newspapers blamed the Bridge Company for employ-
ing too few police. The Bridge Company blamed the newspapers for creating public doubts about the stability of the structure.
Id. At 430-31.

It was a full year later (May, 1884) that P.T. Barnum took a herd of 21 elephants across the bridge "in the interest of the dear public" and declared it safe. Id. at 546.

[milleniumcab]

^ Thanks for the clarification...

[Jake]

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/59/bbridgeriotsmall0ln.jpg



Does anyone else think this looks exactly like the 4 or 5 trains at 59th street?

:D

[BRT]

Does anyone else think this looks exactly like the 4 or 5 trains at 59th street?

:D

Haha -- stencil a few backwards baseball caps onto some of the figures and the resemblance would be eerie.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Brooklyn Bridge Rusts, Awaiting Its First Paint Job Since 1991

BY IRA STOLL - Staff Reporter of the Sun
August 29, 2006

The Brooklyn Bridge, the 123-year-old span between Brooklyn and Manhattan that to this day is a treasured tourist attraction, landmark, and transportation workhorse, is rusting under a coat of paint that hasn't been refreshed since 1991.

The city's most recent annual report on the condition of bridges and tunnels, just out, rates the Brooklyn Bridge's condition as a 3.15 on a scale of one to seven, with one as "potentially hazardous" and seven as "new." A three rating is used to indicate that a bridge has experienced "serious deterioration," according to the report.

A spokesman for the City Department of Transportation, which maintains the bridge, Craig Chin, said the bridge would be painted in 2009 as part of a $236 million project that also will include improvements to the bridge's decks, approaches, and ramps. He said the rust visible under the peeling paint on the bridge's structure has not adversely affected its safety.

"The Brooklyn Bridge is structurally safe," he said.

He said bridge users concerned about graffiti on the bridge can call the city's 311 telephone line and the Department of Transportation will dispatch maintenance crews to remove it.

Under the city's four-category system of rating bridges — poor, fair, good, and very good — the Brooklyn Bridge qualified as "fair" in the most recent annual report, which covers the year 2005.

The rust, peeling paint, and graffiti are visible from the bridge's pedestrian and bicycle walkway, which gets lots of press attention during protest marches and transit strikes, but also is used daily by tourists, by locals for exercise runs and walks, and by a small group of commuters.

The president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, said in a statement to The New York Sun: "The Brooklyn Bridge is truly a bridge to the world and far more than the sum of its 15,000 tons, it is a living monument to the great vision and ingenuity that define Brooklyn. It is vital that the bridge be maintained with the attention, care, and respect deserving of a world famous symbol of the world class city of Brooklyn."

The city's bridge and tunnel report for 2005 lists an estimated cost to paint the bridge of $85 million. That's an increase from an estimate of $74 million in the 2004 report. A paint job has been listed as "in design" for the bridge since the city's bridge and tunnel report for 2002.

Mr. Chin said the bridge's last paint job was between 1985 and 1991 under a state contract.

A spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge that links San Francisco and Marin County in Northern California, Mary Currie, said that bridge is painted "constantly," "all the time" by a staff of painters.

See photo slideshow. (http://www.nysun.com/slideshow/082806_bridge/)

Other bridges around the city are getting maintenance. Verrazano-Narrows span is done, now painting the cables.
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5270/verrazano61ef7.th.jpg (http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=verrazano61ef7.jpg)

[lofter1]

That's crazy ^

The Golden Gate Bridge is constantly being painted ...

BRIDGE WORK
Bay Bridge painters toil in relative obscurity way up above it all

SF_CHRONICLE (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/05/WB4675.DTL)

... the crew of 20 full-time painters who work year-round, in sunshine and rain, to cover the bridge with four layers of paint -- red and pink primers, then finally, the two silver coats that drivers in 280,000 cars see every day.

The work is hard, the pay is moderate and the risks are real, yet these structural steel painters approach their jobs and the bridge they're protecting with an abiding passion.

"It's like working in a postcard," said Karen Juzefaczyk, who has painted the transbay bridge for 12 years. "The bridge is like a second home."

Opened on Nov. 12, 1936, the 5 1/2-mile-long Bay Bridge boasts roughly 16 million surface square feet from end to end, most of it paintable. The first toll bridge in California, it is considered an engineering feat ahead of its time.

"This," said veteran painter Bill Almeida, "is the mother bridge."

Since the paint breaks down unevenly, the journeymen -- as the painters like to be called in the spirit of old-fashioned American union workers -- work in a piecemeal fashion. They're trained to find the most worn sections, places where rust pokes through silver paint like crocuses in the snow, and attack those first. If a crew of 20 painted its way across the bridge from east to west (which they would never do), Almeida estimates a complete paint job would take 18 or 20 years.

[BigMac]

New York Times
January 7, 2006

To Cross the Bridge, Job No. 1 Is to Get on It

By ALEX MINDLIN

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/07/nyregion/thecity/exit600.jpg
There, in the shadows, a stairway to the Brooklyn Bridge.

You can see them everywhere in the blocks near Cadman Plaza: lost tourists, brows furrowed over guidebooks, looking for that most elusive of landmarks, the Brooklyn Bridge.

“We had to ask four people,” said Kelli Parsons, 21, a Londoner who on Wednesday morning had just found the entrance to the bridge’s pedestrian footpath.

“We’re useless,” puffed her mother, Debra.

That morning, dozens of tourists were discovering one of Downtown Brooklyn’s navigational oddities. Though the Brooklyn Bridge is clearly visible from many of the neighborhood’s streets, its pedestrian entrances are almost unmarked, and nearly impossible to find without directions.

One entrance is a tiny concrete plaza hidden among five lanes of traffic on Adams Street, half a mile from the bridge itself, at the end of a long, snaking walkway. The second is a narrow stairway hidden beneath an overpass, marked by a single sign that faces toward a parking lot and the East River.

To make up for the lack of official signage, some unknown good citizen has wired neat hand-painted signs to the fences along the pathways around Cadman Plaza. And neighborhood people are accustomed to being pressed for directions. “I get close to 15 people a day,” said Steven Delgado, a security guard at a New York City Transit repair yard near the overpass. “They’re desperate, trying to get to the bridge. They’re confused.”

All that may be about to change. The Metrotech Business Improvement District is producing and putting up 120 orange-and-blue signs throughout Downtown Brooklyn, in a $1.5 million project subsidized by the City Council and the borough president, Marty Markowitz. Sixty of the signs will feature large-scale maps on one side showing major neighborhood features, like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Navy Yard, and five or six more will point directly toward the bridge.

“There are some issues with actually putting signage on the bridge, because it’s a landmark,” said Michael Weiss, the improvement district’s executive director, with a tinge of regret in his voice. “But we will have one at the foot.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[ablarc]

Hmm ... $1,500,000 for 120 signs.

Let's see ... that's $1250 per sign.

They could have emulated the "unknown good citizen" and probably done the project for the price of one or two signs. People just wanna know where the bridge entrance is, for gosh' sake; no need to give them a gold-plated history lesson at taxpayer expense.

10 or 12 well-placed signs would probably have sufficed.

[BrooklynRider]

That entrance is truly squalid. It is nearly always strewn with trash and rats abound in evening hours. You can always find tourists at te Brooklyn end of the Bridge wondering "what do we do now."

Cadman Plaza is in th midst of a renovation. However, the street along the whole eastern side of the park (which was just nicely repaved) remains closed to traffic with ugly cement and plastic barriers. I has become a parking lot for NYPD and Federal Court employees who park illegally, park on sidewalks and damange trees and signs by backing into them.

It is also very frustrating because the noiselevel and generally lousy design of the Manhattan Bridge makes it almost untenable as a real pedestrian option for crossing the East River.

My pet peeve.

[ablarc]

That entrance is truly squalid. It is nearly always strewn with trash and rats abound in evening hours. You can always find tourists at te Brooklyn end of the Bridge wondering "what do we do now."
You'd think maybe for 1.5 mil they could have cleaned this up and still found more than enough for the signs.

[antinimby]

That, plus if only they'd put more retail near the entrance to that walkway, we can get the tourists to drop more dollars into the city's economy. :)

Just dumb, and this in a city that's known for being enterprising.

[BrooklynRider]

Honestly, you are right. Just a direction map at the bottom of the stairs (a GOOD map - not the crappy one by Cadman Plaza. Also, at the end of the bikeway path, it just ends at a huge intersction.

I'm think that if prisoners can make license plates, then they can make these signs as well.

[imnicotine]

running on the bridge at night is the best. The view is amazing.

[lofter1]

WILL SMITH 'ATTACKS' NEW YORK

nypost.com (http://www.nypost.com/seven/01232007/news/regionalnews/will_smith_attacks_new_york_regionalnews_tom_liddy _and_jeremy_olshan.htm)
By TOM LIDDY and JEREMY OLSHAN
January 23, 2007

Don't be alarmed by the fleet of Black Hawk helicopters and military ships converging on the Brooklyn Bridge tonight - it's only the new Will Smith movie, police said yesterday.

For the next eight days, these mock military vehicles and more than a thousand extras will shoot an evacuation scene for the next Big Willie blockbuster, "I am Legend."

The post-apocalyptic sci-fi flick is due out this December.

Filming will start at 4 p.m. and is expected to wrap up weekdays at 10 p.m., police said.

Despite the rush-hour start time, city transportation officials promise the movie shoot will not turn evening commutes over the next week into a horror show.

All the action will happen at Dover Street under the bridge, officials said.
No shooting will take place on the Brooklyn Bridge itself and no approach lanes will be affected.

But even though the flow of traffic will not be impeded by the set, gawking and rubbernecking are certain to slow things down, officials said.

Copyright 2007 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[antinimby]

But even though the flow of traffic will not be impeded by the set, gawking and rubbernecking are certain to slow things down, officials said.New Yorkers are the worst when it come to rubbernecking.

Just a vehicle stopped on the side of a road is enough to slow traffic down because people want to see what's going on, so imagine what this film shoot will do.

[kidda]

Here's a picture taken from the bridge of the Manhattan Bridge. The Empire State Building is massive.

[! 007newyork !]

very nice shot

one shot on night
http://www.easynewyorkcity.com/brooklyn%20bridge.jpg

[NYatKNIGHT]

Brooklyn Bridge to get a little coffee color

APRIL 25 - MAY 1
Downtown Express (http://www.downtownexpress.com)


The Brooklyn Bridge is getting a $300 million facelift.

The 1883 landmarked suspension bridge needs a variety of cosmetic and safety fixes. The city Department of Transportation will do the work on nights and some weekends between 2009 and 2014, representatives told the Community Board 1 Landmarks Committee last month.

“We want to build the structure and not come back again,” said Walter Kulczycki, the project engineer. “We’ll do it one time and do it right.”
The pavement on the bridge’s ramps is old and cracked, with potholes, Kulzcycki said. Salt and rain have deteriorated the arches.

The D.O.T. will reconstruct the pavement on the ramps leading to the bridge and rehabilitate the bridge’s supports to strengthen them. The arch blocks need to be reinforced so they are earthquake resistant.

The D.O.T. will widen the ramp that leads from the southbound FDR Dr. onto the Brooklyn Bridge. The ramp is currently one lane, but there is enough room to create two lanes, which will ease the traffic flow, Kulczycki said.

On the Brooklyn side, the D.O.T. will also widen the ramp leading off the bridge onto Cadman Plaza West and Old Fulton St.

The D.O.T. plans to paint the entire bridge, restoring its original light coffee beige color. The painting will be done from two barges starting from the middle of the East River and movin
g toward opposite shores. The entire process will take two years.
Along the bridge’s roadway, the D.O.T. will add steel safety barriers to prevent cars from crashing through the bridge’s granite balustrades and landing in the East River. The steel tubes, which are only visible to people crossing the bridge, were the most controversial feature of the project at the C.B. 1 meeting.

“They’re ugly,” said Bruce Ehrmann, co-chairperson of the Landmarks Committee. “Part of the reason to keep landmarks is to enjoy them. There’s no reason to preserve it if you can’t enjoy it.”

Project architect Jaime Vasquez agreed that the barriers are not attractive, but said they were necessary.

Kulczycki added that the D.O.T.’s hands are tied — since the project receives federal funding, the D.O.T. is required to install the barriers.

The D.O.T. will return to C.B. 1 later this year to explain the construction project in more detail.

--Julie Shapiro

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_260/brooklynbridge.html
© 2008 Community Media, LLC

[brianac]

From The New York Daily News.

Slide show HERE (http://multimedia.nydailynews.com/slide/2008/05/15/Brooklyn_Bridge/index.html)



© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com.

[The Benniest]

Very nice Brian. Thanks for sharing that. :)

[brianac]

May 21, 2008, 5:36 pm

This Way to Brooklyn, This Way

By Ann Farmer (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/afarmer/)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/21/nyregion/brooklyn-533.jpg
Just in time for the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge, signs were unveiled on the pedestrian walkway welcoming people to Brooklyn and its neighborhoods. (Photo: Christian Hansen for The New York Times)

The Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, kicked off the Brooklyn Bridge’s 125th anniversary celebration (http://nycvisit.com/bb125/index.cfm) this afternoon by crooning “Happy Birthday” before joining other officials in unveiling the Brooklyn Bridge Pedestrian Walkway Project. This upgrade to its pedestrian walkway on the Brooklyn side includes new pedestrian signs and a permanent public-art lighting installation to welcome pedestrians exiting the bridge through the stairwell leading into Dumbo.

A new large sign on the pedestrian walkway says, “Welcome to Brooklyn,” and embedded into the walkway are the names of various Brooklyn neighborhoods, along with the walking distance to those neighborhoods (in both feet and meters).

“For many years, no one knew where Dumbo was,” said Mr. Markowitz, standing in front of the stairwell at Prospect and Washington Streets that leads up to the pedestrian walkway to the bridge, as tourists coming down the steps during the commemoration stopped to examine the new neighborhood map at the bottom. “It was a comedy of errors as tourists searched for the entrance to the most famous bridge on the planet.”

The project was instigated by the Dumbo Improvement District (http://www.dumbonyc.org/), whose executive director, Tucker Reed, pushed for it.

Pointing out how the new sidewalk lighting, by Tillett Lighting Design and KT3D, visually guides people to the stairwell, Mr. Markowitz added, “We’ve made it much easier for the world’s tourists.”

Adam Tanski of Emphasis Design, which designed the new signs, explained that the project was kicked off two years ago with a study that indicated only a small percentage of pedestrians crossing the bridge penetrated Brooklyn. “The normal pedestrian who came down the stairs was lost and confused and wanted to know where to find the closest subway to Manhattan,” he said.

In fact, the team that installed the project had to take time out each day to play tour guide. Mike Zysk, the director of field operations for Unicorn Construction, said that while his team installed the project, hundreds of people coming down the stairs stopped to ask where the E train was or where they could get a bite to eat. “They’d ask what we were doing,” Mr. Zysk said. “We’d say, ‘Funny you should ask, we’re working the This Way project.’ “

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/welcome-to-dumbo-its-right-under-you/

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[BrooklynRider]

I saw the fireworks and light show / illumination of the Bridge tonight for its 125th Anniversary.

Spectacular!

[brianac]

Lucky you. I wish I could have been there to see it.

If you hear of any video coverage or photographs, please let us know.

[brianac]

BR, I just found this.

May 22, 2008, 10:56 pm

Celebrating an Engineering Marvel, Born in Tragedy

By Jennifer 8. Lee (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/jlee/)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/05/22/nyregion/23bridge_533.jpg
The 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge is being marked with a series of celebrations, starting with a concert and lighting ceremony Thursday night. (Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) Slide Show (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/05/23/nyregion/0523-BRIDGE_index.html)

The Brooklyn Bridge: a marvel of engineering, or a death trap? Both, within the first week of its opening.

The opening of the Brooklyn Bridge (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B06E1DC1431E433A25756C2A9639C94 629FD7CF) [pdf] on May 24, 1883, was a joyous occasion with “two great cities united (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B06E1DC1431E433A25756C2A9639C94 629FD7CF).” That 125th anniversary is being marked with a series of celebrations (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Brooklyn-Bridge-Birthday.html?scp=1&sq=brooklyn+bridge+anniversary&st=nyt) over the holiday weekend. But few remember that the bridge’s public debut was marred days later by a stampede (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE3DA1431E433A25752C3A9639C94629FD7CF) [pdf] in which a dozen people were crushed to death, and 35 others injured. The May 30 mayhem was exacerbated by a false rumor that the bridge was going to collapse.

The traffic that surged onto the Brooklyn bridge as soon as it opened was overwhelming and dominated by pedestrians (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9904E3DA1431E433A25753C3A9639C94 629FD7CF) who were charged one cent to pass (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9501E2DF1431E433A25756C1A9639C94 629FD7CF). There was room for 15,000 people on the footpaths at any one time (though overcrowding sometimes drove it to as high as 20,000).

On the second day (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=950DEEDC1431E433A25755C2A9639C94629FD7CF), there was “a crush of foot passengers from 11 o’clock in the morning to 7 o’clock at night.” The pedestrians “collected at the entrance, compressed themselves into a funnel about 15 feet in width and then ran the gantlet, one by one, of the tolltakers.”

Until then, to cross the river, people had to take the ferry (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B1FF735551B7A93CBAB1789D85F44 8884F9).

With subways now, it is rare to see such vast crowds on foot on the bridge, except in emergencies like Sept. 11 and blackouts (http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2003/08/14/image568375x.jpg).

The dense flow of people over the bridge made it fertile ground for pickpockets (newspaper accounts talk about a lot of men discovering that they were missing watches) and other hazards. Six days after the opening, the deadly stampede occurred.

According to the most commonly accepted account, one cited by The New-York Times (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE3DA1431E433A25752C3A9639C94629FD7CF), the stampede started when a woman fell down the wooden steps on the Manhattan side, and another woman screamed (perhaps because she saw the woman being dragged by a police office officer who had sprung to her aid)

But another version of the events, cited by The New York Tribune, and considered more credible by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/scripting/articlewin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Collection&Skin=Be&BaseHref=BEG/1883/05/31&ViewMode=GIF&EntityId=Ar00400), starts with a German man descending the steps when a pickpocket tried to steal his watch. His wife screamed, and the thief’s accomplices started yelling that the bridge was going to collapse, leading to a rumor-induced panic.

“Agonizing! (http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/getimage.dll?path=BEG/1883/05/31/1/Img/Pg001.png)” read the lead headine from The Eagle, which devoted an extra to the panic. It also highlighted “The Stairway that Led to Death (http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/scripting/articlewin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Collection&Skin=Be&BaseHref=BEG/1883/05/31&ViewMode=GIF&EntityId=Ar00128).”
As The Times described at the time (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE3DA1431E433A25752C3A9639C94629FD7CF) [pdf]:
Those on the promenade above the stairway,knowing nothing of the fearful crush on the steps, surged ahead with irresistible force, and in a moment the whole stairway was packed with dead and dying men, women and children, piled upon another in a writhing, struggling mass. Cries, shrieks, yells, and groans filled the air at the stairway, while those on the promenade above yelled and shouted as they were pushed forward and rolled and tumbled over the poor unfortunates who were being crushed and trampled to death beneath them.
The situation was made worse by “a gang of New York toughs (http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/scripting/articlewin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Collection&Skin=Be&BaseHref=BEG/1883/05/31&ViewMode=GIF&EntityId=Ar00106)” who formed a dense line by putting their arms on each other’s shoulders and charged.

The police officers on duty didn’t have the ability to shut off the bridge (http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/scripting/articlewin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Collection&Skin=Be&BaseHref=BEG/1883/05/31&ViewMode=GIF&EntityId=Ar00105) on the other side. So for some time, the crowd kept pouring onto the bridge even as people were getting crushed on the other end. Officers were eventually stationed in the middle of the bridge to turn people back.

To relieve the strain of people, a bridge employee found a chisel and a hammer nearby and hammered at iron bolts and nuts until he broke away a section of the iron fence to relieve the crush. Also wood planks were laid so people could walk over the fence.

The Times reported (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE3DA1431E433A25752C3A9639C94629FD7CF) the injuries in graphic detail [pdf]:
The first rescuers to reach the spot found the dead and dying wedged together in the narrow space as if they had fastened in a vise. So tightly were they packed and squeezed that from dozens of persons blood was oozing from ears and noses. The bodies were piled four or five deep at the foot of the stairway and most of those at the bottom were women.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote (http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/scripting/articlewin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Collection&Skin=Be&BaseHref=BEG/1883/05/31&ViewMode=GIF&EntityId=Ar00106), “The sight was one that was never equaled for horror.” The dead were laid in a row, their faces covered with hats or another article of clothing.

After the bodies and the crowds were cleared, all that was left was bloodstains on the steps, mens and women’s hats, umbrellas and parasols, and a thousand steel pens lost by a peddler. But the clean-up was relatively speedy. As the Times described at the time (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE3DA1431E433A25752C3A9639C94629FD7CF) [pdf]:
An hour after the disaster the only evidence that anything unusual had occurred at the stairway was the opening in the iron railing where a section of the latter was torn away in order that bodies might be more quickly taken from the mass in the stairway.
Among the proposals to advert future disasters (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=940CEFD91431E433A25750C0A9609C94 629FD7CF): tripling the police force on the bridge, accelerating the plans for a telephone connection from one end of the bridge to another, and removing the stairs in favor of an inclined plane.

And of course, lawsuits were filed against the bridge trustees. (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9501EED9153DE533A25757C2A9609C94629FD7CF)

Anniversary Events

The Brooklyn Bridge lights will be turned on from 9 to 11 p.m. each night through Memorial Day. The celebrations and observances include lectures, dances, performances, a film series presented at the foot of the bridge, information tents, guided tours, and more. [Complete Schedule, NYCVisit.com.] (http://nycvisit.com/bb125/index.cfm)

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/an-engineering-marvel-born-in-tragedy/index.html?ref=nyregion

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[brianac]

City Throws Bash For Brooklyn Bridge's 125th Birthday

by Gillian Reagan (http://www.observer.com/node/36042) | May 22, 2008

http://www.observer.com/files/imagecache/article-teaser/files/brooklynbridge_1.jpg (http://www.observer.com/2008/city-throws-bash-brooklyn-bridges-125th-birthday)
Getty Images
Newspaper illustration of the celebration at the grand opening of the bridge, May 24, 1883.

Break out the bubbly! The Brooklyn Bridge is way way way over the hill at 125 this year and New York is celebrating with several birthday bashes this weekend including concerts, movie nights, fireworks, dancing and ... uh mini-golf.

The only requisite birthday event missing is karaoke but maybe the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Broadway master Marvin Hamlisch can get the crowd crooning with a hearty rendition of "One" from A Chorus Line.
Starting at 7:45 p.m. tonight, at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, the Philharmonic and Mr. Hamlisch will kick off the celebration tonight with a concert followed by fireworks.

The Bridge will light up the night tonight and every night from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. through Memorial Day after a ceremony.

You can also take a peek into artist Paul St. George's Telectroscope that allows you to see all the way to London! More information and events from NYCVisit.com follows here:
Friday, May 23
Brooklyn Bridge Film Series: Pack a picnic dinner and enjoy the sunset at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge as DJs spin tunes. Stick around for an open-air showing of Walt Disney Pictures’ Enchanted (2007; rated PG), a modern-day fairy tale set in Manhattan. It will be preceded by two short historic films—Panorama from the Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903) and Manhatta (1921). Music begins at 6pm; film starts at 8:30pm. This event is free—along with the popcorn. (Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park (http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/index.cfm?objectid=EE3D25E3-3048-7098-AF1CBBE617B36C22), enter at Main Street, Brooklyn)
To experience New York City film from inside the theater, head to Tribeca Cinemas (http://www.tribecacinemas.com/) to catch Mo’ Better Blues (1990; rated R) from Brooklyn’s own Spike Lee, starring Denzel Washington as a Brooklyn-born jazz trumpeter. Arrive early as seating is limited. Doors open at 6:30pm; film begins at 7pm. Free. (54 Varick Street at Laight Street, Manhattan)

Brooklyn Bridge Information Tents: The American Society of Civil Engineers and the Roebling Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology will offer guided tours of the Bridge through Sunday, 10am–5pm. Free. (Brooklyn Bridge by Manhattan and Brooklyn-side arches)


Saturday, May 24
Brooklyn Bridge Film Series: Did you know the Brooklyn Bridge was once called the East River Bridge? Learn all sorts of information about the landmark from Brooklyn Bridge (1981), a documentary directed by Ken Burns. Seating is limited at this event presented by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (http://www.bam.org/). The film begins at 4:30pm; tickets available starting at 1:30pm. Free. (30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn)
Enjoy the views from the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and sing along to the musical It Happened in Brooklyn (1947), starring Frank Sinatra as a Brooklynite returning home from the war. The feature will be preceded by two short historic films—Panorama from the Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903) and Manhatta (1921). DJs will begin spinning tunes at 6pm; film starts at 8:30pm. This event is free—along with the popcorn. (Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park (http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/index.cfm?objectid=EE3D25E3-3048-7098-AF1CBBE617B36C22), enter at Main Street, Brooklyn)

Lecture Series: In honor of the Bridge’s 125th birthday, the Brooklyn Historical Society (http://www.brooklynhistory.org/) will host of weekend of lectures and readings at their headquarters (128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street, Brooklyn, 718-222-4111) each hour from 1–4pm. Additional lectures will be held at Surrogates Court (31 Chambers Street, Room 209, Manhattan) from 1–3pm. Seating is limited at all readings. For a complete schedule, visit the Official Guide to the Brooklyn Bridge 125th Birthday Celebration (http://newspaperads.nydailynews.com/sections.aspx?sec=45992). Free.

Brooklyn Bridge Walking Tour: Ron Schweiger, the official historian for Brooklyn, will give a tour of the Brooklyn Bridge at 11am. Call 718-802-3846 for more information. Free. (Meet at Manhattan-side arch of the Brooklyn Bridge)

Brooklyn Icons Mini-Golf: This mini-golf course features some of Brooklyn’s most famous sites, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Cyclones’ baseball stadium, KeySpan Park. Golf clubs and balls are provided on-site. This event will be held Saturday and Sunday, 1–5pm. For more information, go to visitbrooklyn.org (http://visitbrooklyn.org/) or call 718-802-3846. Free. (Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park (http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/index.cfm?objectid=EE3D25E3-3048-7098-AF1CBBE617B36C22), enter on Main Street, Brooklyn)


Sunday, May 25
Tour de Brooklyn: For the fourth year in a row, 2,000 bicyclists will ride all around Brooklyn in this leisurely 18-mile bike tour. Participate or just cheer from the sidelines. For advance registration, go to tourdebrooklyn.org (http://tourdebrooklyn.org/). Family friendly. Free.

Brooklyn Bridge Walking Tours: At 11am, Ron Schweiger, the official historian for Brooklyn, will give a tour of the Brooklyn Bridge (meet at the Manhattan-side arch of Brooklyn Bridge). At 1pm and 4pm, Dave Fieder—aka “Dave the Bridge Man”—will also give tours of the landmark (meet at Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge). Call 718-802-3846 for more information. Free.

Lecture Series: In honor of the Bridge’s 125th birthday, the Brooklyn Historical Society (http://www.brooklynhistory.org/) will host of weekend of lectures and readings at their headquarters (128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street, Brooklyn, 718-222-4111) each hour from 1–3pm. Additional lectures will be held at Surrogate's Court (31 Chambers Street, Room 209, Manhattan) from 1–4pm. Seating is limited at all readings. For a complete schedule, visit the Official Guide to the Brooklyn Bridge 125th Birthday Celebration (http://newspaperads.nydailynews.com/sections.aspx?sec=45992). Free.

Dance and Musical Performances: Various dance and music groups will celebrate the spirit of the Brooklyn Bridge with performances from 1–5pm. For a complete schedule of events, go to visitbrooklyn.org (http://www.visitbrooklyn.org/) or visit the Official Guide to the Brooklyn Bridge 125th Birthday Celebration (http://newspaperads.nydailynews.com/sections.aspx?sec=45992). All performances are free. (Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park (http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/index.cfm?objectid=EE3D25E3-3048-7098-AF1CBBE617B36C22), enter at Main Street, Brooklyn)

Additional Information
For more cultural activities, visit our Calendar of Events (http://nycvisit.com/calendar/index.cfm?pagePkey=9&eventTypeFkey=1), or go to nyc.gov (http://www.nyc.gov/) or visitbrooklyn.org (http://www.visitbrooklyn.org/). For a complete schedule, check out the Official Guide to the Brooklyn Bridge 125th Birthday Celebration (http://newspaperads.nydailynews.com/sections.aspx?sec=45992).



http://www.observer.com/2008/city-throws-bash-brooklyn-bridges-125th-birthday

© 2008 Observer Media Group,

[NYatKNIGHT]

I saw it too, it really was spectacular. Always love when the big boats and ships in the vicinity blow their horns after a fireworks show, and many in the crowd spontaneously broke out into 'Happy Birthday' to the Brooklyn Bridge. would be nice if the towers could be illuminated more often, those gothic arches aglow are amazing.

[brianac]

NYaK

In two lines of text you have given a great idea of the atmosphere of the occasion and made me very envious of you all being there.

[The Benniest]

And another article from the NY Daily News. And I to am envious of you all getting to go to the birthday. :rolleyes:

B'klyn Bridge is spantastic! Fireworks and philharmonic honor crossing's 125th birthday
BY KERRY BURKE and BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, May 23rd 2008, 8:40 AM

FIREWORKS AND the philharmonic kicked off a five-day birthday bash for the Brooklyn Bridge (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn+Bridge) last night.

Revelers lined the banks of the East River to celebrate the iconic span's 125th year as a vital link between Brooklyn (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn) and Manhattan (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manhattan).

"In the city that never sleeps, it's still the bridge of our dreams," Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Marty+Markowitz) told a cheering crowd last night at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park beneath the granite and steel Gothic structure.

Mayor Bloomberg (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael+Bloomberg) was on hand to introduce Markowitz, who wore a turn-of-the-century bowler hat and ruffled shirt.

"She never looked as good," Bloomberg said of the bridge, lit up in special colorful lights that will shine from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. through Memorial Day.

As the sun set, the Brooklyn Philharmonic performed in the shadow of the engineering marvel. Composer Marvin Hamlisch (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Marvin+Hamlisch) serenaded the crowd with a special song he wrote for the bridge's birthday, but flubbed the lyrics, singing the span was built in 1893.

Designed by John Roebling (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/John+Roebling), the bridge cost $15 million, took 13 years to build and opened May 24, 1883.

Alizette Llanoc said the celebration was extra swell because she celebrated her 10th birthday Wednesday.

"It's me and the bridge," said the Public School 295 fourth-grader as fireworks shot from river barges filled the sky. "This is part of my birthday celebration, too. We rock!"

The five-day celebration will feature a string of activities, including walking tours of the bridge and an outdoor film series at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park.

For more information, log on to nycvisit.com.

Copyright 2008 New York Daily News

[The Benniest]

New York Times photos of the events last night. Some beautiful pictures.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/05/23/0523-BRIDGE/23360865.JPG
The 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge is being marked with a series of celebrations over the holiday weekend. On Thursday nights, there were fireworks.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/05/23/0523-BRIDGE/23360971.JPG
Building the bridge took 13 years and cost $15 million.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/05/23/0523-BRIDGE/23360903.JPG
The Brooklyn Bridge lights will be turned on from 9 to 11 p.m. each night through Memorial Day. The celebrations and observances include lectures, dances, performances, a film series presented at the foot of the bridge, information tents, guided tours, and more.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/05/23/0523-BRIDGE/23360927.JPG

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/05/23/0523-BRIDGE/23360461.JPG

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/05/23/0523-BRIDGE/23360899.JPG

[lofter1]

I can't believe I didn't know the celebration was last night :( .

[antinimby]

Not to worry, there'll be another one in 25 years. ;)

For some reason, there wasn't much publicity leading up to yesterday's celebration.

[BrooklynRider]

The fireboats were out before the sun went down spraying like two giant fountains. It was beautiful. I'm in that crowd in the shot with the green fireworks.:D

[The Benniest]

Brooklyn Bridge jumper survives without scratch

BY KHADIJAH RENTAS and TAMER EL-GHOBASHY
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Tuesday, June 3rd 2008, 4:00 AM

A despondent woman bent on suicide not only survived a 10-story leap from the Brooklyn Bridge (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn+Bridge) Monday - she was barely scratched.

The woman was quickly plucked from the chilly East River waters by an NYPD (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York+City+Police+Department) Harbor Unit about 11 a.m. after several witnesses called 911, police said.

"She's alive - no broken bones or anything," marveled a police source.
The 34-year-old woman was conscious as FDNY (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York+City+Fire+Department) paramedics took her to Bellevue Hospital (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bellevue+Hospital+Center), where she was admitted for having water in her lungs.

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/06/03/amd_bridge-jump.jpg
Medics rush woman who jumped off Brooklyn
Bridge to a waiting ambulance. She miraculously
survived 10-story leap.

Police sources said she was not carrying identification but was able to tell rescuers her name was Michelle.

New Yorkers in the area were amazed to hear her tale of survival.
"How about that? She jumped and survived," said Orlando Grandsoult (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Orlando+Grandsoult), 49, shaking his head at the thought.

Cops said the woman plummeted about 100 feet after leaping from the pedestrian walkway at one of the lower points of the bridge, landing close to the Manhattan (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manhattan) shoreline.

The 125-year-old bridge has been a popular takeoff point for distraught people hoping to end their lives. Very few have defied death.

In 1886, barkeeper Steve Brodie (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Steve+Brodie) said he jumped off the bridge to win a bet with a pal, inspiring the 1933 movie "The Bowery" as well as the phrase, "Take a Brodie."

But some skeptics believe Brodie actually tricked his buddy by throwing a weighted dummy off the bridge.

In March 2004, a 24-year-old man survived a 135-foot jump from the center of the bridge, and in August of the same year, a 16-year-old girl jumped and lived.

Miraculously, both were not seriously injured.

"That bridge?" asked an incredulous Luis Montalvo (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Luis+Montalvo), of the Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx), as he pointed to the historic span. "No way."

Copyright 2008 New York Daily News

[MidtownGuy]

I didn't know about this:(

I'm in that crowd in the shot with the green fireworks.

Where was the location?

[ZippyTheChimp]

You're not the only one.


Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, just south of the Manhattan Bridge.

[The Benniest]

Oh wow. This is definitely a good spot for a photo op of the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan in the background.

I'll have to check it out when I return. Thanks Zippy.

[brianac]

Brooklyn Bridge Journal

Taking Boot Camp to the Next Level

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/10/nyregion/10camp.span.jpg Joshua Lott for The New York Times
Ariane Hundt, right, a personal trainer, started the Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp. “It’s my favorite place in the city,” she said. “I wanted to combine it with something fitness-related.”

By TINA KELLEY (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/tina_kelley/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: August 9, 2008

The view was delightfully distracting. One could imagine being on that yacht heading up the East River rather than doing push-ups against the eastern tower of the Brooklyn Bridge, where, cheek against the granite, one could see a tiny sliver of water far below. The River Cafe, on the waterfront, looked particularly welcoming viewed through bent knees in deep squat. By the end, the roar of a motorcycle on the roadway below sounded like a personal invitation to head straight to a hot shower and a cold beer.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/10/nyregion/10camp2.large.jpgJoshua Lott for The New York Times
The workouts include push-ups against the bridge’s towers, squats and a 2.2-mile jog. The sessions cost about $20.

It was such scenery that inspired the Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp, said Ariane Hundt, a personal trainer who has been leading troops across the span in sprints and stretches all summer.

“It’s my favorite place in the city, and I love seeing it in the skyline,” she said. “I wanted to combine it with something fitness-related.”

A former pharmaceutical market researcher, Ms. Hundt, 32, lives in Long Island City, but said Queensboro Bridge Boot Camp did not sound quite as catchy.

Boot camps, group workouts with military flavor and fervor, are by no means new, but they have been growing in popularity, spreading from the city’s parks — Central, Battery, Washington Square and Prospect, among others — to the suburbs. Nationally, there are boot camps for men only, boot camps for brides, boot camps for new mothers, even boot camps that march across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Most of the seven weekly Brooklyn Bridge sessions are held early in the morning; all but one start on the Manhattan side. The participants of one session the other evening said that they had chosen the workout for its convenience, its potential group spirit and because once you pay for an athletic ordeal (about $20 a session), you’re more likely to actually do it.

Among the participants was Amanda Van Exel, 23, a dental student visiting from Amsterdam who had joined the class on the second day of her vacation and had come back for another round.

At the City Hall side of the bridge on Thursday at 6 p.m., Ms. Hundt warned her six female cadets (plus one reporter) against straying north of the walkway line into the cyclists’ lane.

“Do not ever go into their lane or you will hear the worst New York swears,” Ms. Hundt told the group. “It’s the New York experience for you, Amanda.”

Checking her watch, Ms. Hundt announced, “Whoever is late has to catch up,” and her charges were off and running, stopping at each tower to do some strength training on their way to Brooklyn and back. It was 2.2 miles round trip and took an hour (no water breaks).

Ms. Hundt, who wears pearl earrings and a sleeveless T-shirt that proclaims, “Butt-kicking Now Has a View,” was warm and welcoming at the beginning of the workout, offering encouragement — “I like to see you shaking” — as the women followed her through tricep dips, plié squats and lunges.

As tourists took pictures, she lined the women up along the rail of a bridge tower, telling them to stand on their toes, hold the railing like a barre and to squat back.

“Take a seat right here, enjoy the waterfalls, or anything else you can see,” she said.

Toward the end, she asked each woman how hard she had worked, on a scale of 1 to 10. The answers ranged from 7 to 9. (Reporters, blessed with the urgent need to write things down during curls and sprints, are exempt from such questions.) “By the time we’re down at the benches, you need to be at an 8, or 8.5. You know what that means,” she said.

“You look like an 8,” she said to a glistening Shantelle Guyton, 26, who had said 7.

On the way back to Manhattan, the shade of the Woolworth Building had never felt so good. Shana Glass, 28, a preschool teacher from Park Slope, had just completed her fifth bridge boot camp session.

“I feel stronger, with the squats and lunges,” Ms. Glass said. “It doesn’t hurt” as much as when she started, she said. “It still hurts, just not as early.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/nyregion/10camp.html?ref=nyregion

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[Derek2k3]

http://www.caryconover.com/colori9.jpg
Photo by Cary Conover

More great pics on his website: http://www.caryconover.com
Came across this site from one of the photos posted by AntiNimby.

[brianac]

Thanks for the link Derek, great photographs.

[Taz]

took this myself from the South Street Seaport, May '08. I'd like to try to get one at night, though. maybe when it's not 4 degrees outside.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u274/WiebanngPhatchix/IMG_0489.jpg

[Amberlicious7583]

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e206/amberfaye1/day2005.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e206/amberfaye1/day2006.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e206/amberfaye1/day2007.jpghttp://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e206/amberfaye1/day2010.jpg

[Bronxbombers]

How old is the Brooklyn Bridge? I need to know the age of the Brooklyn Bridge.

[Three Chord Monty]

Took this one from the M9 bus, with minor editing in Picasa & major editing in, of all things, Paint.


http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i185/mindgonehaywire/BrooklynBridgefromtheM9Bus2006.jpg

[brianac]

Brooklyn Bridge to get face-lift thanks to Feds, says Bloomberg

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, March 30th 2009, 1:26 PM

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/03/31/alg_brooklyn_bridge.jpg Antonelli/News Federal stiumlus money will fund a face-lift of the 125-year-old Brooklyn Bridge.


New paint for the Brooklyn Bridge (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn+Bridge) is on the list of projects that will get federal stimulus money.


Mayor Michael Bloomberg (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael+Bloomberg) and New York (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York)'s senators are announcing the six infrastructure projects that will get the $261 million.

The list includes a project to spruce up the Brooklyn Bridge with new paint and wider ramps leading off and on.

A Staten Island (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Staten+Island) ferry terminal will also get new traffic ramps.

Two Bruckner Expressway bridges over the Bronx River (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bronx+River) will get a new protective coating. And the Greenpoint (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Greenpoint) Avenue Bridge that connects Brooklyn (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn) and Queens (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Queens+County) will get a makeover.

The mayor says the federal stimulus money is helping create jobs and is going toward projects that might have otherwise been cut.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/30/2009-03-30_brooklyn_bridge_to_get_facelift_thanks_t.html

© 2009 Daily News

[Bronxbombers]

Thanks very very much for the last picture of the Brooklyn Bridge posted.

[brianac]

Four-year Rehab of Brooklyn Bridge to Begin in December

By Matt Dunning (http://wirednewyork.com/index.php?option=com_zine&view=author&id=1:)

UPDATED Sep. 10


A four-year rehabilitation of the Brooklyn Bridge could begin in as early as December, city transportation officials said earlier this week.

The landmark 126-year-old bridge is in dire need of repair, according to the city’s Department of Transportation. Its concrete roadway is cracked and worn. Its approaches and off-ramps are far too narrow to accommodate the 145,000 vehicles using the bridge each day, and much of the metalwork on the bridge—the anchorages, joints and railings—needs to be replaced and painted.

“If we don’t do something about it soon, it’s going to have some huge problems,” Rajendra Navalurkar, an engineer working on the project, told Community Board 1’s Seaport Committee during a Sept. 8 meeting. “It’s really a wide variety of work that needs to be done.”

When the work begins, on Dec. 1, Navalurkar said, the DOT will shut down the Manhattan-bound lanes of the bridge at night (from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.) and on some weekends (from 12 a.m. to 7 a.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Sundays), diverting traffic over the Manhattan Bridge or through the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel. Traffic heading east over the bridge into Brooklyn will not be interrupted, and the pedestrian walkway will remain open during construction.

The first phase of the project will see many of the approaches and off-ramps on both sides of the bridge widened to two lanes. Both concrete roadways will be sliced up and removed, then replaced with prefabricated slabs of concrete that will be lowered into place and joined together. Joannene Kidder, a staff manager in the DOT’s bridge division, said using pre-made slabs of roadway would mean less noise for nearby residents.

“All of this helps to eliminate the [more common] excavation and jack hammering,” Kidder said, “but there’s no such thing as silent construction.”

Another daunting task included in the project, awarded to Stanska Koch earlier this year, will be repainting bridge’s iconic arches and steel suspension cables, which haven’t seen a drop of fresh paint in more than two decades. Navalurkar said crews would clean the old, lead-based paint off of the bridge in enclosed negative-pressure cocoons to keep it from entering the air.

Planning for the bridge’s rehabilitation began in 2007, when a State Department of Transportation report revealed the bridge was structurally deficient by federal standards. Large cracks and missing mortar were found in one of the massive stone blocks that anchor the bridge to the bottom of the East River. Several steel support beams that hold up the bridge’s approach ramps were corroded. The state released its report one month after the August 2007 collapse of the 1-35W bridge outside Minneapolis, in which 13 people died.

Navalurkar said one of the trickiest parts of the project’s design was mapping out the complex series of detours needed to keep traffic flowing in both Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. When the Manhattan-bound lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge are closed, inbound traffic from the Manhattan Bridge will be diverted up Chrystie Street and down the Bowery, away from an already-congested Canal Street.

“The heart of this project is [getting] this work done and minimizing the impact for everybody concerned,” Navalurkar said. “Really, the key is maintenance and protection of traffic.”

For the most part, members of the Seaport Committee seemed satisfied with the DOT’s plan for mitigating traffic woes during the construction.

“I thought they covered all their bases,” committee chairman John Fratta said. “They covered a lot of the concerns that we had. We know its going to be a long project and there are going to be hardships, but its something that needs to get done.”

Committee members asked for toll-free passage on the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel during lane closures on the bridge, a move they said might prevent detoured traffic from tying up the toll-free Manhattan Bridge.

“The possibility of making the [tunnel] available for free during that time, and only during that time, would seem to make sense,” committee member Paul Hovitz said. “It would take a lot of the brunt off of the streets that the traffic exits onto.”

“It’s certainly something that’s getting serious consideration,” Kidder answered. “It’s by no means a dead issue.”

http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/2009/september/349_four-year-rehab-of-brooklyn-bridge-to-begin-in-december.html

Copyright © 2009 The Tribeca Trib

[Merry]

Its concrete roadway is cracked and worn. Its approaches and off-ramps are far too narrow to accommodate the 145,000 vehicles using the bridge each day, and much of the metalwork on the bridge—the anchorages, joints and railings—needs to be replaced and painted.

Another daunting task included in the project, awarded to Stanska Koch earlier this year, will be repainting bridge’s iconic arches and steel suspension cables, which haven’t seen a drop of fresh paint in more than two decades.

I'm really quite surprised and shocked that such a beloved landmark is not lovingly tended regularly. I know it wouldn't be cheap and there are many other priorities with limited funding available, but still...there's only one beautiful, unique, irreplaceable BB.

This is terrible:

http://www.tribecatrib.com/images/stories/2009/september/bridge-detail-w.jpg
(from the above article)