20th Century Blog

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. It is 5,989 feet long over the East River connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan. Completed in 1883, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, the first steel-wire suspension bridge and the first bridge to connect to Manhattan. The Brooklyn was referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge but then later on it was changed to simply the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge finally opened to people in May 1883 and people immediately stated riding through it. The person who helped all of this happen was John Roebling. The Brooklyn Bridge was located between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The bridge was really long. The Brooklyn Bridge took 13 years to build with many hard working men a part of the process. I still find it hard to believe that it took that long.

The Manhattan Bridge was also built later on in the years. It also connected Brooklyn and Manhattan. The reason I think that they built the Manhattan Bridge was because the Brooklyn Bridge was getting a lot of traffic. I think it was pretty hard to cross the bridge at a normal speed because a lot of people were trying to get to work, school and other things.