What do leaflets contain?

Answer 1

T.J. Singh

Kevan Prasad

10-22-09

2nd Period

Brooklyn Bridge Questions

1. Brooklyn contained 400,000 residents and New York had at least 800,000. So they needed a bridge to stop the overcrowding in New York and spur industrial development in Brooklyn which at the time was more rural than urban.

2. The bridge's construction was very complicated, but it was considered the beginning of modern bridge construction. They started off by laying down the two main towers, one on the Brooklyn side and one on the Manhattan side. This was the first suspension bridge to use steel wire instead of iron wire for the cables and supports. Not only did vertical wires extending from the main cables hold up the road, but also diagonal supports were implemented to strengthen the bridge. The bridge was to have two elevated railway tracks in middle of the platform, and four lanes on either side of the tracks. Two lanes on two outer roadways for carriages and horseback riders. There was also an elevated promenade for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Brooklyn Bridge was built to be six times stronger than it needed to be support and resist all of its loads and streses.

3. The bridge cost $15.1 million to build, $3.8 million of which was used to purchase land for approaches and the rest was used on construction. Unfortunately this was twice the original estimate of $7 million.

4. The Brooklyn bridge was dedicated on May 23, 1883 by President Chester Arthur and Governor Grover Cleveland.

5. The Bridge became a symbol of the greatness of New York and American ingenuity even before it opened.

6. A woman who was walking up the Manhattan side tripped and her female companion screamed. The scream prompted a rumor that the bridge was about to collapse. All of this chaos caused a panic in which 12 people were killed and 35 other were seriously enjured.

7. The effect of the bridge 10 years after if opened was that Brooklyn had annexed adjoining towns until it had encompassed all of King County. By 1898 the bridge had helped unite Manhattan with Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island to form Greater New York. In the same year the bridge was readied to allow automobiles and trolleys.

8. A. Bridges like the Brooklyn Bridge were needed because many towns and cities had become overcrowded with Immigration. So as a result, jobs were needed and they were only available in other cities, many of which could only be reached after much travel or struggle. But bridges made it so convenient and quick to just travel between towns and cities. And to switch from an agricultural nation to and industrial one, we needed to have transport systems for goods and for trading purposes. As the number of factories began to increase, so did the number of commuters and immigrants. As immigration and factories grew, the majority of the job market moved from rural to urban jobs. So as people began to rush to the cities, they needed transport systems to travel and live in the other cities.

B. The Brooklyn Bridge and others similar to it radically changed where lived. Before such significant bridges, you had to live relatively close to where you worked. You couldn't live in another city or a distant part of the same city. But once such bridges as the Brooklyn Bridge were built, you could live in other cities or in any part of town and still get to work relatively fast and easily. Trade was now quicker than ever due to such easy transport systems. On a nationwide scale, trade was very hard and complicated due to gigantic natural obstacles standing in the way, but bridges made trade much more agile and efficient.