Although it is often overshadowed by its more famous neighbor, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge is equally noteworthy. Some interesting facts about the Williamsburg Bridge can be surprising. Below are five fun facts about the Williamsburg Bridge.
1. Innovative design
The Williamsburg Bridge was the first bridge to eschew masonry towers in favor of steel. This choice made the bridge faster to build and cheaper. It also meant that the towers needed smaller foundations and could be reinforced if necessary at a later time. The cables between the towers and the anchor points do not carry any weight. Instead, the ends of the Williamsburg Bridge are supported underneath by trusses. This reduced the cost of the bridge and makes it unique among suspension bridges.
2. Record settings
The main span of the Williamsburg Bridge, at 500 meters, was the longest in the world until the Bear Mountain Bridge was completed in 1924. When the bridge was built, only one bridge in the world was longer: the Forth Bridge designed in Cantilever of Scotland. When it opened, the Williamsburg Bridge supported the heaviest load of any bridge in the world. It provided two elevated rail tracks, four streetcar tracks, two road lanes in each direction, and pedestrian and bicycle paths above the streetcar tracks.
3. Heavy metal
The trend-setting metal towers of the Williamsburg Bridge are 333 feet tall and made of more than 3,000 tons of steel each. Approximately 17,500 miles of wire, weighing more than 8,000 tons, were used to make the eight 18-inch-thick cables that suspend the bridge. It’s enough wire to wrap around the Pentagon more than 20,000 times, or to put up a six-wire electric fence across the entire state of Texas. The massive bridge structure draws more than 140,000 vehicles, 100,000 subway passengers, 600 cyclists and 500 pedestrians across the East River every day.
4. Seen in popular culture
Interesting facts about the Williamsburg Bridge include its appearance in movies such as The Amazing Spider-Man, American Gangster, The French Connection, Johnny Suede, Live and Let Die, The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie, The Naked City, Once Upon a Time in America, Scent of a Woman, Serpico and The Siege. It is referenced in the novels The Alienist, City of Bones, The Last Olympian, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins practiced on the bridge and named an album, The Bridge, in his honor.
5. Celebrations
New York went wild for the formal opening of the bridge. There were parades in Brooklyn and Manhattan, a fireworks show, and a flotilla of 200 boats on the East River. To commemorate the centennial in 2003, Domino Sugar prepared a huge cake, consistently described as “the size of a truck,” as part of a celebration that included musicians, street vendors, exhibits, and a parade of dignitaries across the bridge. The Society of Civil Engineers of America designated the Williamsburg Bridge as a National Civil Engineering Landmark in 2009.
