The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting Manhattan at Delancey St. with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn on Long Island at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (Interstate 278). It once carried New York State Route 27A and later Interstate 78.

Construction on the bridge began in 1896, with Leffert L. Buck as chief engineer, Henry Hornbostel as architect and Holton D. Robinson as assistant engineer, and the bridge opened on December 19, 1903 at a cost of $12,000,000. At the time it was constructed, the Williamsburg Bridge was the largest suspension bridge on Earth, and remained so until the Bear Mountain Bridge was completed in 1924. It is an unconventional structure, as suspension bridges go; though the main span hangs from cables in the usual manner, the side spans leading to the approaches are cantilevered, drawing no support from the cables above. The main span of the bridge is 1600 feet (488 m) long. The entire bridge is 7308 feet (2227 m) long between cable anchor terminals, and the deck is 118 feet (36 m) wide. The height at the center of the bridge is 135 feet (41 m) and each tower is 335 feet (102 m); these measurements taken from the river's surface at high water mark. According to the film Over The East River published in 1919 by the Ford Motor Company, the bridge had 4 trolleys, 2 cable tracks, 2 roadways, and 2 foot walks.

The bridge is one of only two suspension bridges in New York City to currently carry both vehicle and rail traffic. (The Manhattan Bridge is the other.)

For a while the Long Island Rail Road used the tracks in the center of the bridge in tandem with the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company elevated railroad; today the New York City Subway J, M and Z trains use these tracks.

The Williamsburg Bridge plays a role in the 1994 novel The Alienist by Caleb Carr.

The bridge has been under reconstruction since the 1980s, largely to repair damage caused by decades of deferred maintenance, and celebrated its 100th anniversary in December 2003.

Gallery

External links

• Bridges at New York City DOT
• structurae.deWilliamsburg Bridge entry
• HAER Williamsburg Bridge entry at the Library of Congress
• nycroads.com Williamsburg page. Has excellent construction photos (taken from Parsons Transportation Group (parsons.com site), the successor company to the design firm that executed the original desing) as well as replacement bridge proposal details

Suspension bridges | Bridges in New York | Bridges in New York City | Bridges completed in 1903 | East River

Williamsburg Bridge | Pont de Williamsburg | גשר ויליאמסבורג | Williamsburg Bridge