New York Architecture Images-Manhattan Bridge

New York Architecture Images-New York Bridges

Manhattan Bridge

Contemporary black and white images on this page copyright Dave Frieder ( www.davefrieder.com ). Special thanks to Dave Frieder for permission to use images.

architect

Gustav Lindenthal,Nichols, Modjeski and Leon Moisseiff. (designed by Leon Moisseiff and O.H. Nichols was Chief Engineer. This was a 3rd design and the towers were similar to the 2nd design by Gustav Lindenthal. The 1st design was to have parallel wire cables. That was dropped and the 2nd design by Lindenthal was to have Eyebars instead. Then the 3rd design reverted back to parallel wire cables. That is the type of structure we have today. -Dave Frieder)

location

East River between Canal Street, Manhattan and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn.

date

1901-9

style

Structural Expressionism

construction

steel

type

Suspension Bridge

data

Type	Suspension	Year Opened	1909
# of Decks	2	# of lanes/tracks	7 lanes, 4 tracks
Total Length	6855 ft	Main Span Length	1470 ft
Highway/RR	No Highway #, NYC Subway	Misc	Connects downtown Brooklyn with Chinatown Manhattan
Toll	None	Misc	Connects downtown Brooklyn with Chinatown Manhattan
Comments	This bridge has been undergoing a major rebuilding. It has 4 subway tracks, although only 2 have been open for any given time for the past decade and will remain so for at least a couple of more years.

As seen from Brooklyn

The Manhattan Bridge under construction in March of 1909

New York, Manhattan Bridge, black and white photography by Zbigniew Kosc © 1993

Dave Frieder Gallery. Copyright Dave Frieder ( www.davefrieder.com )

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The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, 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 to traffic on December 31, 1909 and was designed and built by Polish bridge engineer Ralph Modjeski with the deflection cables designed by Leon Moisseiff, who later designed the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. It has 4 vehicle lanes on the upper level (split between two roadways), and 3 vehicle lanes, 4 subway tracks, a walkway and a bikeway on the lower level. The upper level, originally used for streetcars, has 2 lanes in each direction, and the lower level can be one-way in peak direction or have 2 lanes in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. It once carried New York State Route 27 and later was planned to carry Interstate 478. No tolls are charged for motor vehicles to use Manhattan Bridge.

The original pedestrian walkway on the south side of the bridge was reopened after sixty years in June 2001. It was also used by bicycles until late summer 2004, when a dedicated bicycle path was opened on the north side of the bridge, and again in 2007 while the bike lane was used for truck access during repairs to the lower motor roadway.

The bridge and I-478

As part of the construction of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, there were plans to make the Manhattan Bridge Interstate 478 but since this interstate would have led to a crosstown expressway and the existing Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the FHWA said that the first digit should be even so I-478 was chosen.[1] However, with the cancellation of I-78 through New York City, the spur was dubbed useless.

Manhattan Bridge in film
The Bridge is featured prominently in director Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America. In The Cowboy Way, the two main cowboy characters chase a B train over the bridge to rescue a friend in grave danger.

The alien spacecraft that destroys New York in Independence Day makes its entrance over the Manhattan Bridge.
The bridge is featured prominently in director Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong. In the 1930s period a very steep, simple ramp is used by automobiles to access the Bridge in contrast to today's integrated gradual ramp system into the surrounding roadways.
The bridge is featured in an action traffic scene in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die along the East River Drive when James Bond's CIA driver is assassinated by the villain Whisper in a pimpmobile and Bond has to steer the car through dangerous New York traffic.
The bridge plays a large role in the 1984 Steve Martin romantic comedy film The Lonely Guy, in which it is a popular spot for Lonely Guys to commit suicide, and the meeting place for Steve Martin and Judith Ivey.
In Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, a WCBS-TV helicopter flies above the East River after an earthquake strikes New York City. Both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges are destroyed.
* 2007's I Am Legend shows the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges with their center spans destroyed. A flashback reveals they were hit by missiles to stop the exodus from a quarantined Manhattan.

Built between 1901 - 1909, this 6,855 foot long suspension bridge connects Manhattan with the Borough of Brooklyn. Like the other three East River Bridges, it provides access to pedestrians, bicyclists, automobiles and it's one of three Manhattan bridges to carry trains....In this case it's the B, D & Q lines. I've read about how this is considered to be one of the more attractive bridges in the city. There's an ongoing plan to expand on it's existing pedestiran and bike paths, and complete repair by 2008. It's estimated that more than 78,000 vehicles crossed the bridge on your average 1998 day....The bridge's ends are at: Chinatown's Canal Street in Manhattan and Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn.

PS...Did you know this is the strongest of the 4 east river crossings?

Should you wish to learn more about this bridge read the stats section below or you could visit:
-- nycroads.com (up to the minute info and more on our bridges and roads)
-- Transportation Alternatives

Built of steel, this two-level suspension bridge is often mistakenly attributed to Gustav Lindenthal, who submitted a plan for the bridge in 1903 that was rejected by city leaders for its structural innovations.

The entrance to the bridge on Canal Street is decorated by a grand arch and flanking colonnades designed by Carrerre and Hastings.

The bridge is 6855 feet (2091 meters) long, with a main span of 1470 feet (462 meters). The upper level has four vehicular lanes and a pedestrian walk; the lower level has three vehicular lanes and four subway tracks.

The Manhattan Bridge's steel towers are painted a pleasing dusty blue, which when combined with the delicate suspension cables make this massive bridge seem as light and airy as the Brooklyn Bridge seems heavy and substantial.

Situated between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge, a walk across the Manhattan Bridge is an excellent opportunity to view all three.

PLANNING "SUSPENSION BRIDGE NUMBER 3": The Manhattan Bridge was first planned as a traditional wire-cable suspension bridge to be used exclusively by trains. In 1892, elevated railway magnate Frederick Uhlmann proposed this span just north of the present site of the Manhattan Bridge. The bridge was planned in conjunction with another one of his proposals, the Williamsburg Bridge. While Uhlmann's railroad bridge was never constructed, the Williamsburg Bridge was approved in 1895 to handle mixed traffic.

In 1901, Gustav Lindenthal, the commissioner of the newly created New York City Department of Bridges, presented plans for the proposed Manhattan Bridge (originally called "Suspension Bridge Number 3"), which was to connect the Bowery and Canal Street in Chinatown with Flatbush Avenue in downtown Brooklyn. He selected R.S. Buck as the chief engineer of the project. While he was no relation to Leffert L. Buck, the chief engineer on the Williamsburg Bridge project, R.S. Buck worked with him as an assistant on other projects. The project, which had the support of Mayor Seth Low, got underway on October 1, 1901.

Lindenthal's first proposal called for a hybrid design that featured design elements from the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges. Like the Williamsburg Bridge, the proposed bridge was to have massive steel towers and deep stiffening trusses (at 55 feet, they were to be even deeper than the 40-foot truss of the Williamsburg Bridge). The towers were to be crowned by minaret-like ornaments. Like the Brooklyn Bridge, the proposed bridge was to have both vertical suspender ropes and diagonal cable stays. The influential Municipal Art Commission rejected the proposal.

Two years later, Lindenthal proposed a second design that was radically different than any previously seen in American bridge design. Instead of employing a traditional wire-cable suspension design, he designed a suspension system where the suspenders were connected to steel eyebar chains by pin connections. Instead of being woven from steel wires, the cables would consist of four chains of nickel-steel eyebars, which would be stiffened and braced. Together with the suspenders, the eyebar chains that connected the towers with the anchorages would help support the deck. The deck was different also because there would be no deep stiffening trusses as there were in the deck of the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges. Instead, the stiffening system - the first application of Warren stiffening trusses on a suspension bridge - was incorporated into the cables.

The revised design also featured radically different towers. Unlike the rigid, three-dimensional tower profiles of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, the Manhattan Bridge, which features four columns in each tower, was to have a two-dimensional tower profile. The less rigid design allowed for greater flexibility, expansion and contraction of both the tower and the cables, which rest on ornamental saddles atop the towers. The flexible tower design was the first such application for a suspension bridge.

Serious questions were raised about Lindenthal's revised eyebar suspension design. George W. Calles, a Canadian engineer writing in Engineering News, opined that "a chain-bridge is a very ugly thing, excusable only on the grounds of engineering expediency." More seriously, Calles raised concerns that it would not be easy to inspect and maintain the tight connections between the eyebars and the suspenders. He said that potential cracks could grow to dangerous proportions, threatening the integrity of the structure.

The battle over Lindenthal's eyebar design and a more conventional design continued through 1904. However, it may have been politics - not engineering - that eventually killed the Lindenthal design. The new mayor, George McClellan, and the Roebling Wire Works (which had an interest in building a traditional wire-cable design) had political and financial links to Tammany Hall. With a new mayor in office, Lindenthal was ousted as bridge commissioner.

NEW MANAGEMENT, NEW DESIGN: McClellan's new bridge commissioner, George E. Best, appointed a new chief engineer, Othniel Foster Nichols, to oversee construction of the Manhattan Bridge. Nichols selected a design based on a new theory - deflection theory - that was developed by Leon Moisseiff, a design engineer with the Bridge Department.

Deflection theory stated that the following three opposing forces act on the deck and suspension cables:

one downward force caused by the load of the roadway
one force in one part of the cable, pulling up and to the left
one force in the other part of the cable, pulling up and to the right

According to deflection theory, suspension bridges are stronger than they at first were considered, because the curve of in the cables makes them more efficient in carrying loads than stiffer types of bridges, allowing bridges to require less material.

Rudolph Modjeski, who worked as chief engineer on a wide variety of bridges across the country, cooperated with Nichols and Moisseiff to oversee construction of the Manhattan Bridge. This oversight came to the fore in wake of the 1907 collapse of the Quebec Bridge.

The two-dimensional towers were among the few surviving features from the Lindenthal's second design. However, the 322-foot-tall towers support four main wire-spun cables, each measuring 3,224 feet long, in a more traditional suspension design. The 21¼-inch-diameter main cables were the largest suspension cables employed in bridge design at the time. Together, the four cables support two decks: the lower deck originally carrying four vehicular lanes (two lanes in each direction), flanked by subway tracks on each side, and the upper deck originally carrying streetcar lines situated above the subway tracks. The upper and lower decks are carried within a 26-foot-deep stiffening truss, half the depth of the Lindenthal design.

Other Lindenthal design touches were maintained at the approaches to the bridge. Carrere and Hastings, the architect team who designed the New York Public Library lent their talents to Lindenthal for their design of the anchorages and Manhattan approach. The two granite-encased anchorages contain arches, buttresses and other architectural embellishments. A Baroque arch modeled after Porte St. Denis, a gateway to Paris, frames the Manhattan entrance to the bridge.

Even as construction progressed under Nichols, Modjeski and Moisseiff, Lindenthal maintained his grudge against McClellan and Tammany Hall. He criticized that bridges constructed under Tammany administrations were characterized by long delays, blown budgets and political corruption. Eager to portray himself as a reformer, and to prove Lindenthal's charges wrong, McClellan rushed work on the Manhattan Bridge. The four main cables were spun over the East River in a record four months time during 1908.

On December 31, 1909, in what he earlier promised to be his last act in office, McClellan formally opened the $31 million Manhattan Bridge. When the bridge opened, the four trolley tracks, four subway tracks and pedestrian walkway had not yet been completed because a new city administration had removed mass transit from the control of the bridge commissioner. In his final technical report, Modjeski gave the new span "a clean bill of health."

Type of bridge………………………………………………….... Suspension
Construction started……………………………………..…….... October 1, 1901
Opened to traffic………………………………….…………..….. December 31, 1909
Length of main span…………………………..……………..….. 1,470 feet
Length of side spans……………………..…………………….... 725 feet
Length, anchorage to anchorage…………......……………...… 2,920 feet
Total length of bridge and approaches…………..........…….... 6,855 feet
Number of decks……………………………………………….... 2 decks
Number of traffic lanes………………………..……………….... 7 lanes (4 upper, 3 lower)
Number of subway tracks………………….………………….... 2 tracks
Height of towers above mean high water…..........…………... 322 feet
Clearance at center above mean high water….............…….. 135 feet
Number of cables………………………………………………... 4 cables
Diameter of each of four cables…………..............…...……... 21¼ inches
Length of each of four cables…………………….....…….…… 3,224 feet
Structural material…………………………………..…………... Nickel steel
Tower material………………………….……………………….. Nickel steel
Deck material……………….………………………………….... Nickel steel
Cost of original structure……….....……………………….…… $31,000,000

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