Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens Bridge Facts

(1) The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge. Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in a 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. It has become an iconic part of the New York skyline. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.

(2) The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River, connecting Lower Manhattan (at Canal Street) with Brooklyn (at Flatbush Avenue Extension). It was the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River, following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges. The bridge was opened December 31, 1909. It has a span of 1,470 ft (448m) with four vehicle lanes on the upper level. The lower level has three lanes, four subway tracks, a walkway and a bikeway. The upper level has two lanes in each direction. The neighborhood near the bridge on the Brooklyn side once known as Fulton Landing has been gentrified and is called DUMBO, an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

(3) The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Construction on the bridge, began in 1896 and the bridge opened on December 19, 1903 at a cost of $24,200,000. At the time it was constructed, the Williamsburg Bridge set the record for the longest suspension bridge span on Earth. 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 entire bridge is 7,308 feet (2,227m) long. The height at the center of the bridge is 135 feet (41 m) and each tower is 335 feet (102 m). This bridge and the Manhattan Bridge are the only suspension bridges in New York City that still carry both automobile and rail traffic.

(4) The Pulaski Bridge connects Long Island City in Queens to Greenpoint in Brooklyn over Newtown Creek. It was named after Polish military commander and American Revolutionary War fighter Kazimierz Pułaskibascule bridge, a type of drawbridge. It carries six lanes of traffic and a pedestrian sidewalk. The pedestrian sidewalk is on the west side of the bridge, which has good views of the skyline of Manhattan, the Williamsburg Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge, and the Kosciuszko Bridge. The bridge was reconstructed between 1991 and 1994. (Casimir Pulaski) because of the large Polish-American population in Greenpoint. The Pulaski Bridge opened to traffic on September 10, 1954.

(5) The Queensboro (Ed Koch) Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River that was completed in 1909. It connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with Manhattan, passing over Roosevelt Island. The Queensboro Bridge is the westernmost of the four East River spans. The length of the span is 7449 ft (2270 m). Until the Quebec Bridge surpassed it in 1917, the span between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island was the longest cantilever span in North America. The bridge has two levels. Originally the top level contained two pedestrian walks and two elevated railway tracks and the lower deck four motor traffic lanes.  The railway was removed in the late 1930s and early 1940s as well as the 2nd Avenue Elevated Line. The trolley lanes and mid-bridge station, as well as the stairs, were removed in the 1950s, and for the next few decades the bridge carried 11 lanes of automobile traffic. The bridge was known as the 59th Street Bridge before WWII.

The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District. The Seaport is a designated historic district, distinct from the neighboring Financial District. It features some of the oldest architecture in downtown Manhattan, and includes the largest concentration of restored early 19th-century commercial buildings in the city. This includes renovated original mercantile buildings, renovated sailing ships, the former Fulton Fish Market, and modern tourist malls featuring food, shopping and nightlife, with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge. At the entrance to the Seaport is the Titanic Memorial lighthouse.