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- smithg86, on 05/26/2009, -1/+4120 pages?!
Fact No. 1: The Brooklyn Bridge officially opened to the public on May 24, 1883, 126 years ago.
Fact No. 2: The bridge was originally called the New York and Brooklyn Bridge. It was officially given the name "Brooklyn Bridge" by the city in 1915.
Actors Jules Munshin, Frank Sinatra, and Gene Kelly stand on the Brooklyn Bridge in Stanley Donen film "On the Town" in 1949. Fact No. 3: Con man William McCloundy was sentenced to 2 1/2 years at Sing Sing Prison for "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge to a tourist in 1901.
Fact No. 4: When it opened, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world, the first steel-wire suspension bridge, and the first bridge to connect to Long Island.
Fact No. 5: On its first day open to the public, 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed the span.
Fact No. 6: On May 30, 1883, a rumor that the bridge was collapsing spread through the crowds on it, causing a stampede. At least 12 people were killed in the ensuing rush.
A boat passes the art piece "Waterfalls" in 2008. Fact No. 7: On May 17, 1884, showman P. T. Barnum led 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge to prove that it was stable.
Fact No. 8: For several years after its construction, the Brooklyn Bridge was the tallest structure in the Western hemisphere.
Fact No. 9: The first person to cross the bridge was Emily Roebling, the wife of Washington Roebling, the engineer who built the bridge and the son of its designer.
Fact No. 10: Each of the bridge's four supporting cables is 3,578 feet, 6 inches long and 15 1/2 inches thick, and contains 21,000 wires that, combined, would have a total length of 14,060 miles.
Fact No. 11: The bridge weighs 14,680 tons, 6,620 tons of it suspended.
Howard Hughes flies a twin-propeller Lockheed 14 Super Electra pass the bridge in his bid to circle the globe in four days. Fact No. 12: The bridge's cost when it was built was $15.1 million.
Fact No. 13: The bridge is 85 feet wide. and has six lanes of traffic. When it opened, it had a roadway for horses and carriages, its elevated pedestrian walkway, and a trolley line.
Fact. No. 14: About 78,000 vehicles cross the nearby Manhattan Bridge every weekday. By comparison, an average of 144,000 vehicles cross the Brooklyn Bridge each weekday.
Fact No. 15: The Brooklyn Bridge's span measures 1,595 feet, 6 inches. With its approaches, its full length is 6,016 feet.
Fact No. 16: There are 85,159 cubic yards of masonry in the bridge.
Fact No. 16: The original toll for crossing the bridge was one penny.
Fact No. 18: The bridge turned out to be a tragedy for the Roebling family. The designer, John Roebling, died from tetanus after a ferry crushed his foot as he was scouting locations for the bridge. His son, Washington Roebling, of Trenton, N.J., fell prey to the bends from his time in caissons laying the foundations for the towers, and became an invalid. Washington's wife, Emily, became the de facto head of construction in his stead.
Fact No. 19: The bedrock on the Manhattan side turned out to be much deeper than predicted, so the tower on that side of the bridge rests on sand.
Fact No. 20: The Brooklyn Bridge was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964, after physically joining the island Manhattan and Long Island for 81 years. - Rixar13, on 05/26/2009, -0/+113: Con man William McCloundy was sentenced to 2 1/2 years at Sing Sing Prison for "selling" the Brooklyn Bridge to a tourist in 1901.
Poor guy was just trying to make a living - Buyer Beware.... - plebeian, on 05/26/2009, -0/+6it was the tallest structure in the western hemisphere for a few years. that was the most interesting one.
- inactive, on 05/26/2009, -1/+7How many hobos live under the Brooklyn Bridge?
- DLit, on 05/26/2009, -0/+542
- MusicMagi, on 05/26/2009, -0/+4None, there are parks
- MusicMagi, on 05/26/2009, -0/+4LOL have you ever been to New York? Obesity is very low in the city because people walk so often. Southern states tend to be the more obese per population
- T8erT0T, on 05/26/2009, -1/+5You really think obese Americans are walking and exerting themselves on the bridge? Think about the claim you are trying to make for just a second. And way to pick an innocuous fun-facts article to drive your political message home. What do you do, soak your soapbox in airplane glue to perk you up when you're preaching these good words?
- MusicMagi, on 05/26/2009, -1/+5No, not 20 pages. 20 photos with captions
- MusicMagi, on 05/26/2009, -0/+3Right on I just biked back and forth across this today!! I love New York
- cyt698, on 05/26/2009, -0/+3The Brooklyn bridge is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Its worth checking out just for the images.
- otbeverly, on 05/26/2009, -0/+2First of all hawksenthor is an idiot.
But let's be fair. The obesity epidemic should be assessed in terms of gross income, not geography. That's the common denominator -- not north, south, east or west. - byebyeedison, on 05/26/2009, -0/+2neat.
- jun2san, on 05/26/2009, -0/+2Exactly! I watched a documentary on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge while I was in Construction Management School and there are way more exciting facts that exist for this bridge.
- danthek54, on 05/26/2009, -0/+2@magi
thats otbeverly's point obesity is much more prevalent in the lower income groups because they tend to have ***** diets consisting of high fat-low nutrient foods like mcds and microwave dinners...they often cant afford to eat healthy and properly leading to high obesity rates
that and genetics...poor people have a tremendously high prevalence for those devasting uncontrolable fat genes making them victims
/s - charlie55, on 05/26/2009, -1/+2the "i have a bridge to sell" joke has never been funny.
- Cannonballkid, on 05/26/2009, -1/+2Florida is filled with Floridians? A state that gets their own tag on Fark for their sheer stupidity. For the record things are better here in NYC do not be jealous becasue we are used to a higher standard of living. /Native New Yorker
- DLit, on 05/26/2009, -3/+4the title was right, it was just 20 boring facts about the brooklyn bridge
- MusicMagi, on 05/26/2009, -0/+1pretty much danthek54danthek54. healthy foods are expensive and harder to come by.
- verkon, on 05/26/2009, -0/+1Brooklyn is on long island
"Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island." - from wikipedia - asgardshill, on 05/26/2009, -1/+221. It's mine. I got it for a good price to boot. Bitches.
- CheesyPoofs, on 05/26/2009, -0/+1Yes each of those photo's were on their own page
- inactive, on 05/26/2009, -0/+1They load relatively fast, its ok, i don't mind the pages.
I still walk the bridge once in a few months, its amazes me every time. It's a beautiful bridge, I'd recommend everyone who visits NYC to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, just to see it first hand, the pictures don't even come close. - MusicMagi, on 05/26/2009, -0/+1I disagree. I'm always surprised to see people that seem to close to poverty but yet somehow become overweight. That's how much excess this country has.
- otbeverly, on 05/26/2009, -1/+1Yea, I was in it for the photos so I don't mind. However, it was weird that most of the photos had nothing to do with the facts being presented.
- marillion, on 05/26/2009, -1/+1First steel-wire suspension bridge? The one in Cincinnati pre-dates it by 15 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Roebling_Susp ... - savetheplanit, on 05/26/2009, -0/+0right-o. The Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati.
"Begun in 1856 and officially opened New Year’s day 1867, the bridge had the longest suspension span in the world - 1,057 feet - and was the forerunner of their Brooklyn Bridge." - http://www.daap.uc.edu/library/archcinci/2roebling ...
More Info on the bridge's history, including photos:
http://www.roeblingbridge.com/index.html - Cannonballkid, on 05/26/2009, -1/+1Fair enough Wyodiver
- inactive, on 05/26/2009, -1/+1I don't care what things are like in NYC. It might be the best place on the planet. I'll never know because I have zero desire to go there. So, you stay there, and I'll stay here. Unfortunately, New York's biggest export is New Yorkers.
- ariez84, on 05/26/2009, -3/+2"and the first bridge to connect to Long Island."
What?! - Ubenkant, on 05/26/2009, -3/+1I like how time can't count. Two 16s. They could have stopped at 8.
- themastersb, on 05/26/2009, -3/+1I'm tired of these Time articles, Life articles and other stuff that seems to have to display one thing per page and span on for 5 or more pages
- eramos, on 05/26/2009, -9/+2#21. My current tenant's lease is expiring on it and it's available to any takers. I'll give you a good price on it.
- inactive, on 05/26/2009, -7/+0I would not call these facts interesting, save for a few, let along "fun". That said, my goal was to initiate a discussion on how society can reduce its consumption.
- inactive, on 05/26/2009, -10/+2Meh. New York is full of New Yorkers. All they do is come down here to Florida and bitch about how everything is so much better back in New York City. I wish they'd just stay there.
- inactive, on 05/26/2009, -15/+2Elephants still walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. Now, we call them obese Americans. America should set its sights on rebuilding society by consuming less food and resources.
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