June 1, 2000

Brooklyn Bridge Online (No, Not on eBay)

By MICHAEL POLLAK

	Suzanne DeChillo/ The New York Times
	THE BRIDGE Since it was opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge has become a national icon. Several sites on the Internet provide information about the myths and history of the famous span and its designer, John A. Roebling.

t can be seen as the beginning of modern New York -- of monumental scale, of structural steel -- or the end of old Brooklyn," David McCullough wrote at the conclusion of his epic history "The Great Bridge" (Simon & Schuster, 1972). "It is all these. And possibly its enduring appeal may rest on its physical solidity and permanence, the very reverse of rootlessness. It says, perhaps as does nothing else built by Americans before or since, that we had come to stay."

Even Mr. McCullough's classic work, and the Ken Burns documentary "Brooklyn Bridge," cannot fully capture the lore behind what has become a national icon since it opened in 1883. Several Web sites offer looks at the history and myths of the bridge, in both words and photographs.

Great Buildings Online has a collection of photographs, some new and in color, some more than a century old www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Brooklyn_Bridge.html. There is a 1905 panorama of the East River and the Manhattan skyline below and above the Brooklyn Bridge, and there is a modern Quick Time color panorama that allows a viewer to scan 360 degrees from one of the abutments.

There is also a color poster for sale, showing the bridge and a modern skyline in a purple dusk. Also on the site is an elevation of the bridge and the river drawn by John A. Roebling, the designer of the bridge, which was built by his son, Washington A. Roebling.

The site also enables downloading of a simple 3-D exterior architectural model of the bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge Web site www.endex.com/gf/buildings/bbridge/bbridge.html has a summary of facts about the bridge: engineering milestones, traffic flow and strength data, construction fatalities, even information about its opening ceremonies. There are directions for tourists, information about the cavernous land-based anchorages, timelines about the bridge, advertisements for walking tours and a 24-hour Web camera fixed on the bridge (romdog.com/bridge/brooklyn2.html). The site also has a collection of historical photographs.

Perhaps the best online resource on the bridge is the archive of the John A. Roebling's Sons Company (www.inventionfactory.com/history/main.html), which supplied the steel wire for the bridge and which revolutionized bridge design.

The Roebling family company was a major industry in Trenton for more than 100 years before closing in the 1970's (the factory site is being redeveloped, and its machine shop is being turned into a museum), and the company's archives were put online with the help of the New Jersey Council on the Humanities.

Besides supplying the suspension wire for the Brooklyn, George Washington and Golden Gate bridges, Roebling's was also the main supplier of wire for the Slinky toy in the 1950's, said Ray Dallavecchia, president of James Industries, the Slinky's manufacturer.

Mr. Dallavecchia passed that information along from Tom James, whose father, Richard James, invented the Slinky. "Richard and Betty James were personal friends of Mary Roebling, the granddaughter of John Roebling," he said.

Yet for all the information available online, there is little about the lore of "buying the Brooklyn Bridge."

Mr. McCullough's book notes the influence of Boss Tweed in the early years of the bridge (Tweed's ring was broken up before it could do too much financial or physical damage to the project) and the many bitter public debates connected with the shifting of the bridge from private to public ownership. It also reports the occasional charges of fraud in billing for materials.

Somehow, the bridge became the symbol of the ultimate con game. "Nobody really knows where it comes from," Mr. McCullough said in a telephone interview.

"But it's suspected that it comes from the confusion over who owned it, whether it was Brooklyn or New York who owned the bridge. And since the bridge is the most conspicuous symbol of New York and all its grandeur and accomplishment, the easiest way for tricking the rube would be selling the Brooklyn Bridge."

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Related Sites
These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability.

• www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Brooklyn_Bridge.html

• www.endex.com/gf/buildings/bbridge/bbridge.html

• romdog.com/bridge/brooklyn2.html

• www.inventionfactory.com/history/main.html