Williamsburg Bridge

40.713563888889 - 73.972355555556Koordinaten: 40 ° 42 ' 48.8 "N, 73 ° 58' 20.5 " W

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River East

The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge over the East River in New York City, connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan with the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn on Long Iceland. Today she has two tracks of the New York City Subway and eight lanes for vehicle traffic and two pedestrian and bicycle paths in the level above.

The Williamsburg Bridge was opened in 1903 by the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge before the second suspension bridge over the East River. She had the longest span of all suspension bridges until it was replaced in 1924 by the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Description

The Williamsburg Bridge is the first suspension bridge, the pylons and floor beams were built of steel. Her two consisting of truss structures, stocky -looking tower couples end in wide enclosures for the saddles of the support cable. About the Tower pairs are running four supporting cables, where the likewise consists of a steel truss structure, high road carrier is attached with vertical hangers. In the tension fields outside of the pylons there are no hangers, the unloaded suspension cable lead almost straight to the housed in large buildings down anchors. The outer roadway carriers are conventional, mounted on steel structures truss bridges. The ramps lead far into the urban areas, as they had to be kept relatively flat for the railroad.

The bridge has two tracks for the subway lines, and which are arranged in the middle of the road carrier. On both sides next to the subway tracks and also within the roadway carrier are two-lane roadways for road transport. Outside the truss structure and the supporting cables are available on each side to another dual carriageway. About the internal roadways are walking and biking trails that start on the Manhattan side together in the central axis of the bridge and are separated on the actual bridge.

The Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge are the only two bridges in New York City, on which still takes place rail as well as road traffic.

The bridge is used daily by 140,000 vehicles, 92,000 subway passengers, 600 cyclists and 500 pedestrians.

Technical details

The bridge is including ramps total of 2227.5 m ( 7308 ft) long and 36 m (118 ft) wide. Your pylons are 95 meters (310 ft) high, according to other sources 101.50 m ( 333 ft). The span is 488 m (1600 ft). The four support cables with a diameter of about 46 cm are parallel ropes, each consisting of 7696 steel wires that were grouped in 37 clusters with 208 wires. The outer floor beams are 91 m long, stand-alone structures, which are supported on steel structures between the anchor buildings and pylons.

The strikingly high truss construction of the roadway support was necessary because of the railroad tracks. At the same time it causes the required stiffness to protect the bridge in a storm off torsions and vibrations.

The clear height of 41 m (135 ft) in the middle of the bridge corresponds to the the Brooklyn Bridge.

History

The approach advocated by entrepreneurs from Brooklyn Bridge was long rejected by entrepreneurs from Manhattan. It was not until 1895, the final bridge company was established and Leffert L. Buck appointed chief engineer, who in 1896 presented his bridge planning. The planning was dominated from the start by cost considerations. For steel structures were cheaper and faster to build than brick buildings and the restriction of the suspension bridge function to the middle bridge field allowed lighter and thus cheaper suspension cable. The costs were estimated at 7 million U.S. dollars.

Construction began on 28 October 1896. Preparation of the suspension cable in the air spinning process lasted 27 November 1901 to 27 June 1902. Gustav Lindenthal, who in 1902 was appointed Commissioner of Bridges of New York City, though had reservations over the planning and the appearance of the bridge because the construction for a radical change was already too far advanced, he commissioned architect Henry Hornbostel only to make some aesthetic changes.

On 19 December 1903, the bridge was inaugurated. Your cost had risen to 24.2 million U.S. $.

The bridge had. Within their box-shaped bridge girder two tracks for suburban trains and trams for four and two -lane roads on both sides outside of the bridge girder and two pedestrian lanes on the upper level

Almost ten years after its opening, it was discovered that the bridge gave way under the increased expense of heavier and longer trains have become, which is why different reinforcements were installed. 1935 were converted into two carriageways of the tram tracks, followed in 1947, the other two tracks. 1988 showed that year- long neglected maintenance had led to basic corrosion damage. The bridge was then completely closed and released in the following months after makeshift repairs only step by step. This is followed by detailed discussions included whether the bridge should be replaced by a new building. Finally, it was decided to renovate the bridge in a 15 -year program fundamentally and renew thereby a large number of essential elements.

After the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the bridge was closed for a week for each traffic except emergency services. To reduce the traffic congestion in Manhattan, HOV restrictions were introduced then, which means that only cars with at least two inmates were admitted.

In December 2003, the 100 - year celebration was held.

2009, the Williamsburg Bridge from the American Society of Civil Engineers ( ASCE ) was added to the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks.

In art and media

The bridge is shown in the 1919 produced by the Ford Motor Company film Over The East River.

The jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins chose the Williamsburg Bridge between 1959 and 1962, during his voluntary hiatus as practice site. His album The Bridge of 1962 was named after it.

Mention was the bridge in 1994 in the book "The Alienist " by Caleb Carr.

Seanna Sharpe 2012 showed a 20-minute aerial acrobatics performance from the top of the bridge and was subsequently arrested.