MANHATTAN BRIDGE EXTENSION..into BROOKLYN
Thursday, June 18,1931 Brooklyn Standard Union News ''Bridges'' OLD BROOKLYN SPAN PLANNED BACK IN 1810 It is impossible to speak about bridges in Brooklyn without thinking of the first of the East River bridges and of the great men who built it. There had been talk of spanning the East River for many years, and as early as 1810 plans were made for a single-span bridge over the river. The picture that was drawn to illustrate the plan shows a vast arch of more than a mile length,something like that bridges that cross the park roadways to-day. At the Brooklyn end were to be two tall towers, some- thing like Gothic church steeples.In the sketch beneath are several ships, including one steamboat of the Clermont type built by Robert FULTON only three years previously. Needless to say, nothing came of it and in spite of considerable discussion of an East River bridge nothing was done until John Augustus ROEBLING devised the suspension bridge of the type we know so well. ROEBLING was a German, born in Prussia in 1806, who came to the United States to practice the profession of engineering he had learned at the Polytechnic school in Berlin.He is the real father of the suspension bridge idea, and in 1831, when he came to the United States, he established a manufactory of wire rope in Pittsburgh without which the suspension bridge would have been impossible. In 1845 he built his first suspension bridge, an aqueduct across the Allegheny River.Shortly afterwards he built the Monongahela suspension bridge at Pittsburgh, and several suspended aqueducts over the Delaware and Hudson canal. In 1867 he completed a great suspension bridge over the Ohio River at Cincinnati, with a span of 1,057 feet, and by that time the engineering world accepted him and his works for their great worth.The greatest result of that bridge was the fact that it led to the acceptance of his plans for the Brooklyn Bridge. While making plans and personally handling material for the Brooklyn Bridge,ROEBLING received an injury and in 1869 he died of tetanus. His son, Washington Augustus ROEBLING, scarcely less distinguished took the plans and modified them, and made the present bridge grow under his hands. The Brooklyn Bridge was finally completed and placed in operation May 24,1883, amid great rejoicing, but with considerable misgiving. In his autobigraphy, Alfred E.SMITH, who was born in the shadows of the masonry tower at the New York end, tells of the fears that the bridge would collapse and of the death of a number of people on the day it was dedicated. But outside the results of the panic fear on the day, there has been no mishap in the 48 years of the existence of the bridge.It remains a notable structure and a monument to two great men, the ROEBLINGS, father and son. EAST RIVER TO ACCOMMODATE 40,000 CARS A DAY The celebration of the opening of the new roadway over the Manhattan Bridge to-day is more than merely the dedication of a relatively minor public improvement.It is more than merely the opening of a new passageway for automobiles. As compared with the bridge itself, the subways already in operation and others about to be placed in operation, the new roadway does not bulk very large in the public mind. But in a very real sense to-day's celebration places at the disposal of the people of Brooklyn the equivalent of the new bridge.It marks the opening of a new highway that will draw the people of Manhattan and its great enterprises more closely than ever before to the people of the city's greatest and most populous borough, their greatest customers. To-day's celebration is the begining of an improvement that means ultimately the creation of one of the finest highways in the country, a direct and well-paved route from Manhattan and the country around about to the heart of Brooklyn, to Long Island and to the great shore resort. Beginning to-day streams of automobiles will begin to use the new roadway, using the magnificent, broad highway up the Extension, as their route into Brooklyn and Long Island. And that new movement cannot but start the movement for the beautification of the Extension, its conversion into one of the finest highways in the world, as it already is in its possibilities. The new automobile highway will accommodate close to 40,000 passenger automobiles each day, going eastward.They will leave the congested streets of New York; the shops, the businesses, the theatres, the stores and hotels, and they will bring their passengers to the broad highways, the tree-shaded streets, the homes and the educational institutions of Brooklyn. The new roadway will lead directly to the downtown business section at the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge, to the schools and colleges that cluster about the downtown section of Brooklyn, to New York's great Navy Yard, and straight to Prospect Park, to Coney Island, to the highways leading to the Rockaways and to Long Beach and other great seaside resorts. It will mean a great leap forward.All Brooklyn has been looking forward to the improvement, but it will benefit Manhattan no less than our own borough.And in appreciation of the city-wide importance of the improvement to-day's celebration is distinguished by the presence of the Mayor of the city, the Commissioner of Plant and Structures who built the highway, and other high public officials of the city and the borough. When the scissors, presented by Mayor Benjamin H.NAMM, cut the silken ribbons across the new roadway,Brooklyn will have moved a great step forward. The soldiers who aid in todays celebration, the men from the Navy Yard and the children from the schools in the neighborhood of the entrance to the bridge are here because they know that today marks an important step forward for Brooklyn. It is a great day for Brooklyn. Programme of Exercises; Address- Hon.Samuel LEVY, Borough President of Manhattan. Address-Major B.H.NAMM, president of the Namm store. Address-Hon.Henry HESTERBERG, Borough President of Brooklyn. Address-Rt.Rev.J.I.Blair LARNED, representing Bishop STIRES of Long Island. Address- Hon.James J.WALKER, Mayor City of New York. Benediction- Dr.Samuel J.LEVINSON, Rabbi Temple Beth Emeth, Flatbush, and president Jewish Ministers Association of Brooklyn. Band Selection- America, N.Y.Fire Department Band. 12:05 P.M.- Mayor WALKER and Borough President Henry HESTERBERG to cut tape at Brooklyn Plaza of Manhattan Bridge. Sanitation Band to give a concert at plaza, starting at 11:45 A.M. 12:06 P. M.-Assembly of School Children at Standard Union Square. 12:10 P.M.-Arrival of Mayor WALKER and committee at main reviewing stand at Standard Union Square, Johnson street and Flatbush avenue extensions. 12:22 P.M.-Review of U.S.Soldiers and Sailors and N.Y.Police Rifle Regiment by Mayor WALKER. 12:30 P.M.-Start of celebration exercises at grand stand with salute to the Flag by School Children. 1:30P.M.- Lunch at Tower Room, St.George Hotel, under auspices of Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Brooklyn Association. Transcribed for the BKLYN info pages by, Patty82856