New York Times
24 May 1983
By Paul Goldberger
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New York Times 24 May 1983 By Paul Goldberger |
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An Appreciation
Few things in New York last for 100 years, and fewer still mean as much at the end of a century in this city as they did at the beginning. But the Brooklyn Bridge seems only to grow in importance. It no longer seems as daring an act of engineering as it did in the 19th century , or as overwhelming a presence on the skyline, but on its 100th birthday today it remains as potent, and as beloved, an icon as New York City has. It has always been something apart from other bridges. It was, of course, the first great bridge, the first roadway anywhere in the world to leap across so much water. But now that bigger suspension bridges are commonplace, the Brooklyn Bridge still holds sway over our imaginations. It stands for many things - for movement, for thrust, for the triumph of man over nature and, ultimately, for a city that prized these qualities over all other things. It is important to remember that the Brooklyn Bridge was completed at the beginning of New York's great and heroic age. The 1880's were the beginning of the modern New York of skyscrapers and mass immigration, of explosive growth and intense creativity, and the bridge is the embodiment of that age's spirit. The bridge did not make modern New York happen, of course, but the fact that the bridge itself happened - that New York City could build a monument that was so brilliant a synthesis of art and technology - served as a convenient symbol of the city's new power as a world capital. At the end of the 19th century , New York was a city that felt itself rapidly becoming the center of the world, and the bridge seemed to epitomize its potential. It was not merely that the bridge crossed the East River and suddenly made ferries obsolete. A lesser structure might have done the same. The bridge was so much more than a roadway; it was, by itself, the tallest and grandest manmade thing in the city. The bridge's Gothic towers of granite were New York's first skyscrapers, for in 1883 they stood high above everything else on the skyline; its roadway provided a spectacular panorama of the city that could be obtained nowhere else. To see the city and the river from the Brooklyn Bridge was like flying. But the genius of John Roebling's design goes beyond even this. The bridge is an object of startling beauty. As suspension bridges go, it was not even approached until the George Washington Bridge half a century later and the Golden Gate Bridge a few years after that. It is not quite as graceful as these newer bridges; one could not say of the Brooklyn Bridge, as Le Corbusier said of the George Washington, "Here, finally, steel architecture begins to laugh." The Brooklyn Bridge is more somber, more blunt and hard; those towers of stone do not laugh, and neither do the steel cables in their exquisite, lyrical webbed pattern. Interplay of Key Elements What makes it magic is the way the towers, the cables and the roadway all playoff against one another. The towers stand like great, majestic gateways to Manhattan and Brooklyn, bringing civic grandeur as complete as anything the Beaux-Arts ever dreamed of. The cables offer a gentle counterpoint, so delicate that they look like harp strings, and though they are, in fact, made of heavy strands of steel bound together, they make us feel that if we plucked them they would respond with beautiful music. And the roadway lifts in a gentie curve, animating the entire composition. When the bridge was new, serious architecture critics took issue with the Gothic form of the towers. Montgomery Schuyler, the leading critic of the day, found the Gothic arches needlessly Romantic and wrote that the towers should have been in metal to reflect the modem technology of the bridge. It is easy to see how Schuyler found the stone towers retrogressive, but it is harder now to agree that this was a mistake. For if the Romanticism of the towers is unnecessary in terms of their role as supporters of the bridge's cables, it is perfectly suited to their function as symbolic gateways to the city. A great bridge is, after all, a romantic object as well as a technological one; it brings a kind of ceremony to the act of crossing a river that nothing else, surely not a tunnel, can ever have. And the stone arches remind us that the Brooklyn Bridge, for all the brilliant advances in engineering it represented, was still very much a structure of the 19th century , a structure built more by men than by machines, a structure erected piece by piece, by hand. The bridge does not seem to have whirred out of a computer, to have been made by some mysterious process that the average person can respect but not understand. In another sense, too, the bridge is different from the great technological achievements of our own day. When the bridge was being built, it was an effort that mobilized the entire city; watching and celebrating its construction concerned all of New York, in a way that almost suggests how the making of the cathedrals preoccupied whole villages in the Middle Ages. It is hard to imagine any effort, any kind of public work, having quite such an impact today. So the bridge also symbolizes a kind of common cause, a shared effort of a sort that we find it harder and harder to achieve. For a true monument - and there is nothing in New York more truly a monument than the Brooklyn Bridge - must represent a kind of shared ground that unites different elements of society. A monument is not simply a big structure, or a grandiose one. It is a structure that has, or acquires over time, a shared meaning, and a sense that it connects in some way to the daily lives of the people who see it. It is the special quality of the Brooklyn Bridge to be as great and noble as any monument, yet tied intimately to the normal, everyday life of New York. That the Brooklyn Bridge is how one goes to Brooklyn, or how one goes to Manhattan, is a crucial fact of its success as a monument, for its usefulness brings it into constant touch with thousands of lives each day. |
East River Flotilla to Sail In a Waterborne Tribute By PHILIP SHENON Mariners see bridges as the enemy, obstructing waterways and making navigation difficult and sometimes treacherous. And Grover Sanschagrin, who worked on tugboats on the East River for more than half his 62 years, is no exception - except when it comes to the Brooklyn Bridge. "I've gone under it at least two times a day since back in '42, when I started working," Mr. Sanschagrin said. "What can I say? It's the great bridge. You should see it at night, the stone towers with all the lights on. And there's nothing like the view in the morning, when the sun begins to rise over the bridge and the tall buildings of Manhattan. It's something to make you proud." Mr. Sanschagrin, one of the city's veteran tug captains, was preparing yesterday to join a hundred boats scheduled to parade beneath the bridge today as part of its centennial celebration. Twice Under the Bridge The parade, starting at 6 P .M. and set to end two hours later, will take the boats on a five-mile course from the Bay Ridge Anchorage in Brooklyn, under the bridge, up to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and then south along the Manhattan shoreline and under the bridge again. Registration will not be required; all boats that can finish the route by 8 P.M. are welcome. After the parade, the boats will gather in three viewing areas south of the bridge, where they may be joined by other craft carrying party-goers in search of the best spot to view the fireworks. The flotilla - the largest since the city celebrated the nation's Bicentennial with Op-Sall - has been designed to resemble the boat parade a century ago at the festivities that marked the bridge's opening. "We should have at least 100 boats, perhaps many more, and most of them will be harbor craft, the day-to-day work vessels," said James L. Fleishell, a retired Coast Guard captain and one of the parade's directors. The lead boat in the parade will be the Mahoning, a 110-foot Coast Cuard cutter. It will be trailed by a tug named the McA11ister Brothers, after the 119-year-old Manhattan shipping company. McA11ister Brothers Inc. vessels carried much of the suspension cable that was strung across the bridge a century ago. Passengers aboard the tug will include the parade committee and the Gruccis, the Bellport, L.I., family responsible for the fireworks display that is to begin at 9:25 P.M. Following the tub will be about a dozen vessels, mostly yachts, that have been chartered by corporate sponsors of the celebration. Staff members of Life magazine, for example, will be on the Presidents, a 9O-foot yacht on which five Presidents - Harry S. Truman through Richard M. Nixon - entertained. Also in the parade will be the John D. McLean, a steel hulled fireboat used by the New York City Fire Department; a three-masted Swedish schooner, the Lindo, and the Captree Spray, a 66-foot yacht that has been chartered by George Plimpton, the writer. Mr. Plimpton will have 150 guests on the boat. The Martha's Vineyard, a ferry built in 1929 that still operates every summer between Long Island and Bridgeport, Conn., will carry 700 people who have paid $125 each for a sit-down dinner and dancing. Organizers said they thought bottlenecks could be avoided on the river parade route. "We don't anticipate any trouble at all," Mr. Curll said. "It's a wide river, and the Coast Guard will be there to take care of any problems or foolishness." The Timetable For Festivities 7:30 A.M. Parade participants assemble, Brooklyn Borough Hall area. 9:30 A.M. Parade begins. 12:30 P.M. Last marchers arrive at Battery Place. 5:30 P.M. Boats assemble, Bay Ridge Anchorage. 6:15 P.M. Boats pass beneath Brooklyn Bridge, headed upriver on Brooklyn side. 6:35 P.M. Boats come about, Brooklyn Navy Yard, and head downriver on Manhattan side. 8 P.M. Flotilla ends. 6 to 8 P.M. Street fairs (ticket holders only). Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn, and Peck Slip/South Street Museum Pier, Manhattan. 8 P.M. Rededication ceremonies begin at Fulton Ferry Landing. Piano concerto, Brooklyn Philharmonic; remarks by Governor Cuomo, Mayor Koch and others. 9 P.M. Brooklyn Bridge Sound and Light Spectacle against south face of bridge. (Simulcast by WNEW-AM) 1:25 P.M. Fireworks display. 10 P.M. New permanent architectural lighting turned on. Front Page Ads: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKLYN BRIDGE from PIONEER, South Street Seaport Museum's 1886 Schooner. For sailing schedule and rates 669-9424. ADVT. Celebrate Brkln Bridge - WMCA Radio 12 tonight. Junior's Restaurant Coffee and Cheesecake 57 cents. ADVT. |
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'the Only Bridge of Power, Life and Joy,' Turns 100 Today By DEIRDRE CARMODY  Tens of thousands of New York City residents and out-of-town New York City buffs will flock into lower Manhattan and Brooklyn this morning and onto the banks of the East River tonight to pay joyful homage to the Brooklyn Bridge, which is 100 years old today. Tributes and visitors poured in all day yesterday in preparation for the ceremonies. The Lord Mayor of London sent a message. The Mayor of Cincinnati prepared to watch the ceremonies from the reviewing stand to commemorate the fact that John A. Roebling, the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, built a bridge - still used today - in Cincinnati 16 years before he built the Brooklyn Bridge. A 60- by 9O-foot American flag was being prepared to be hung today from the George Washington Bridge, the Hudson River arriviste that is a mere half-century old. To the rest of the world, the Brooklyn Bridge has been a symbol of New York for all of its 100 years. It has been written about, sung about and filmed. It has developed a lore of its own, including silly stories about people in bars who sold the Brooklyn Bridge to other people in bars. At no time, however, has the selling of the Brooklyn Bridge been raised to such an art as it has for its centennial. The bridge has appeared on T-shirts, posters, silver spoons from Tiffany's, paperweights and ashtrays. Sherry-Lehmann is now selling a popular "Great Bridge White Wine." The Postal Service has struck a commemorative stamp. Andy Warhol has done a poster. A million kits on the history of the bridge are being passed out to children in New York City's public, parochial and private schools. All year, preparations for the centennial have dominated the scene, and there cannot be many people in New York unaware of the importance that is being put on this day. 'A Span, a Cry, an Ecstasy' "What bridge?" wrote Thomas Wolfe. "Great God, the only bridge of power, life and joy, the bridge that was a span, a cry, an ecstasy - that was America." As New York prepared its celebration, the police warned of the possibility of enormous traffic jams and urged people coming into the area to leave their cars at home and use public transportation. "Don't even think of driving," said Samuel I. Schwartz, the deputy transportation commissioner, at a news conference called to announce a "gridlock prevention plan." The bridge itself, having served the public so valiantly for its hundred-year existence, is being given a rest and will be closed to vehicular traffic all day. Eighteen thousand marchers, many of them in period costume, are expected to parade across it in the morning. In the evening there will be street fairs and formal ceremonies; a harbor craft parade on the East River; a Sound and Light Spectacle on the bridge's south face, and a half-hour of fireworks that is being billed as one of the biggest pyrotechnics displays in American history. New Yorkers have a reputation for being cynical about many aspects of the daily life of their city. But when it comes to the celebration of their history and of their monuments, they are as softhearted and as corny as any small-town resident in the rest of the country. New Yorkers stunned out-of-towners with their old-fashioned good humor and outpourings of enthusiasm on the day of the Bicentennial, and all indications yesterday were that they were eager to do the same again for their beloved Brooklyn Bridge. President Arthur Led Parade The weather forecast was for partly sunny skies and temperatures in the 70's - a day reminiscent of that warm and glorious day exactly 100 years ago when the bridge was opened. That day every house in the area was draped with red, white and blue bunting. Flags flew in the breeze and enormous crowds packed the rooftops and jammed the waterfront. President Chester A. Arthur, in black frock coat, white tie and a flat-brimmed black beaver hat that he kept taking off in response to the cheers of the crowd, led the marchers across the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn. He was accompanied by Grover Cleveland, the portly new Governor and future President. Today, the parade will go the other way, starting from Cadman Plaza West in Brooklyn at 9:30 A.M., continuing over the bridge to Manhattan and proceeding behind City Hall and down Broadway to the Battery, where dispersal is expected around 12:30 P.M. Neither the President nor the Governor will be in attendance this time, although they were both invited. Governor Cuomo said that his wife, Matilda, would stand in for him at the formal ceremonies at Fulton Ferry Landing this evening. The Governor said that he had appointments today and tomorrow in Buffalo that had been scheduled for some time and that he intended no slight to Brooklyn. Mr. Cuomo spoke while wearing a Brooklyn Bridge Centennial tie. Mayor Koch will speak at the formal rededication ceremony, which begins at 8 P.M., as will the Manhattan and Brooklyn Borough Presidents, Andrew J. Stein and Howard Golden, and the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial, Richard G. Perry. The ceremony, the sound and light show and the fireworks will all be carried live on WPIX-TV, Channel 11, from 8 to 10 P.M. WNEW-AM radio will carry a simulcast of the ceremonies and the sound and light show. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive will be closed from Houston Street south from 5 P .M. on. At 7 P .M. the northbound lane will be opened to spectators from Jackson Street south to the Battery. The southbound lane win be kept free for emergency vehicles. Pedestrians can get on the drive from Jackson Street on the north end and from the South Ferry area on the south end. Those who wish to come by subway can take the F train to the East Broadway stop, which is at Canal Street, and walk to Jackson Street, or take any subway that goes to the South Ferry area. The Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission says that the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive is the best place to view the sound and light show, which begins at 9 P.M., and the fireworks, which are scheduled for 9:25 P.M. Some bridge and tunnel lanes will be reversed this afternoon to let cars leave Manhattan more easily and to make up for the closing of the Brooklyn Bridge. Large areas of lower Manhattan and some areas in Brooklyn will be closed to traffic in the morning and again in the evening. Ferry service is being suspended because many boats are expected to mass in the rivet to toot their horns and set off jets of spray. That, too, will be reminiscent of opening day 100 years ago, when at least 5O,000 people came into the city by train and probably an additional 5O,000 arrived by boat to see the world's longest suspension bridge. |
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