Williamsburg Bridge
Coordinates: 40 ° 42 ′ 49 ″ N , 73 ° 58 ′ 20 ″ W.
| Williamsburg Bridge | ||
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| use | Railway and road bridge | |
| Crossing of | East River | |
| place | New York City | |
| Entertained by | New York City Department of Transportation | |
| construction | Suspension bridge | |
| overall length | 2227 m | |
| Longest span | 488 m | |
| opening | December 19, 1903 | |
| planner | Leffert L. Buck | |
| location | ||
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The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge over the East River in New York City , the Lower East Side of Manhattan with the district Williamsburg in Brooklyn on Long Iceland joins. Today it has two tracks on the New York City Subway and eight lanes for motor vehicle traffic, as well as two pedestrian and bicycle paths on the level above.
The Williamsburg Bridge, opened in 1903, was the second suspension bridge over the East River after the Brooklyn Bridge and before the Manhattan Bridge . It had the largest span of all suspension bridges until it was replaced by the Bear Mountain Bridge in 1924 .
description
The Williamsburg Bridge is the first suspension bridge whose pylons and deck girders were built from steel . Its two pairs of towers, consisting of half-timbered structures, end in wide enclosures for the saddles of the suspension cables. Four suspension cables run over the pairs of towers, to which the high deck girder, also consisting of a steel framework, is attached with vertical hangers. There are no hangers in the spans outside the pylons, the unloaded suspension cables lead almost in a straight line to the anchors housed in large structures. The outer carriageway girders are conventional truss bridges supported on steel structures. The access ramps lead far into the urban areas, as they had to be kept relatively flat for the railroad.
Two subway tracks, which are arranged in the middle of the girder, lead over the bridge. These connect the BMT Nassau Street Line in Manhattan with the BMT Jamaica Line in Brooklyn. They are currently (2018) used by lines 
, 
and 
. There are two-lane lanes for road traffic on both sides of the subway tracks and also within the girder. Outside the framework and the suspension cables, there is another two-lane carriageway on both sides. There are sidewalks and bike paths above the inner lanes, which start together on the Manhattan side in the central axis of the bridge and are separated on the actual bridge.
The Williamsburg Bridge, along with the Manhattan Bridge and the Broadway Bridge, is the only bridge in New York City that still carries rail and road traffic.
The bridge is used by 140,000 motor vehicles, 92,000 subway passengers, 600 cyclists and 500 pedestrians every day.
Technical details
The bridge is 2,227.5 m (7308 ft) long and 36 m (118 ft) wide, including the access ramps. Their pylons are 95 m (310 ft) high, according to other sources 101.50 m (333 ft). The wingspan is 488 m (1600 ft). The four suspension cables with a diameter of around 46 cm are parallel wire ropes , each consisting of 7696 steel wires, which were combined in 37 bundles with 208 wires. The outer carriageway girders are 91 m long, independent supporting structures that are supported on steel structures between the anchor structures and the pylons.
The noticeably high half-timbered construction of the track girders was necessary because of the railway tracks. At the same time, it provides the necessary rigidity to protect the bridge from twisting and vibrations in a storm.
The clear height of 41 m (135 ft) in the middle of the bridge corresponds to that of the Brooklyn Bridge .
history
The bridge, endorsed by Brooklyn entrepreneurs, has long been opposed by Manhattan entrepreneurs. It was not until 1895 that the final bridge building company was established and Leffert L. Buck was appointed chief engineer , who presented his bridge planning in 1896. From the start, planning was dominated by cost considerations. Steel structures were cheaper and quicker to build than masonry structures, and the limitation of the suspension bridge function to the middle bridge field allowed lighter and therefore cheaper suspension cables. The cost was estimated at $ 7 million.
Construction began on October 28, 1896. The air-jet spinning process for the suspension cables lasted from November 27, 1901 to June 27, 1902. Gustav Lindenthal , who was appointed Commissioner of Bridges of New York City in 1902, had reservations about the planning and the appearance of the bridge, since construction was too far advanced for fundamental changes, he only commissioned the architect Henry Hornbostel to make some aesthetic changes.
The bridge was inaugurated on December 19, 1903. Its cost had risen to $ 24.2 million.
Inside its box-shaped bridge girder, the bridge had two tracks for suburban trains and four for trams, as well as two two-lane lanes on both sides outside the bridge girder and two pedestrian paths on the upper level.
Almost ten years after it was opened, it was found that the bridge gave way under the increased loads of the heavier and longer trains, which is why various reinforcements were installed. In 1935 two of the tram tracks were converted into lanes, and the other two tracks followed in 1947. In 1988 it became clear that maintenance, neglected for years, had led to fundamental corrosion damage. The bridge was then completely closed and only gradually released again in the following months after makeshift repairs. This was followed by extensive discussions as to whether the bridge should be replaced by a new building. Schlaich Bergermann und Partner won a competition announced by the City of New York for the new building. For cost reasons, it was finally decided to fundamentally renovate the bridge in a 15-year program and to renew a large number of essential elements.
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , the bridge was closed to all traffic except emergency services for a week . Subsequently, to reduce traffic congestion in Manhattan, HOV restrictions were introduced; This means that only cars with at least two occupants were permitted.
The 100th anniversary celebration took place in December 2003.
In 2009 the Williamsburg Bridge was added to the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) .
In art and media
The bridge is featured in the 1919 film Over The East River , produced by the Ford Motor Company .
In the US film City Without a Mask (OT: The Naked City) from 1948, the bridge played an important role at the end of the film.
The jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins chose the Williamsburg Bridge between 1959 and 1962, during his voluntary career break, as a practice site. His 1962 album The Bridge was named after it.
The bridge was also mentioned in 1994 in the book " The Alienist " by Caleb Carr .
Seanna Sharpe did a 20-minute aerial acrobatics performance from the top of the bridge in 2012 and was arrested as a result.
In Percy Jackson - The Last Goddess , the bridge as one of the entrances to Manhattan is defended by the Apollo hut.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Williamsburg Bridge on the New York City Department of Transportation - DOT website
- ↑ a b c d e Williamsburg Bridge on the website of the ASCE - American Society of Civil Engineers
- ↑ a b c d e f Williamsburg Bridge - Historic Overview
- ↑ Website Schlaich Bergermann Partner
- ↑ Over the East River on youtube
- ↑ Aerialist Seanna Sharpe Arrested For Scaling Williamsburg Bridge (English)