We have been studying about the Age of the City. I picked to write about urban transportation and how it affected people’s leisure time. I had a hard time finding out why the bridge was built until I research about the leisure time of the people that lived in Brooklyn. I found out that people were getting very angry because they were having to travel and hour each way to work everyday in Manhattan. This was a big problem for people because they had better things to do in their time besides riding a ferry for 2 hours out of the day. They would have much rather gone shopping, or played in the park, or just relaxed. Because of this, they decided to build a bridge that connected the cities and reduced the travel time spent traveling from work to their homes.
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After reading
The Bourbon News, I learned that there was a toll that people had to pay to go across the bridge. Pedestrian cost was the cheapest and people only had to pay two cents for walking across. The most expensive was two horse trucks or wagons which were thirty cents to cross. This cost was a small price to pay for workers getting to work and back home faster. It also gave them more leisure time, which made people a lot happier.
I wanted to find out how big of a deal the
Brooklyn Bridge was to the people of
New York so I looked up some of the New York Times newspapers from the year it began construction. I found out that 432 articles were written about the
Brooklyn Bridge in just one year! That is over an article a day! The construction of this bridge was such a huge deal to everyone because it would give them more free time and allow for
faster transportation.
I found out that
John A. Roebling, chief engineer of the
Brooklyn Bridge, was an emigrant from
Prussia! He was one of the best suspension bridge builders in the world and that is why he got the job to build this major bridge. The construction of the bridge started in 1869, sadly though, John A. Roebling died shortly after the construction of the bridge began, so his business partner and son had to take his place as chief engineer.
When the bridge was finished in 1883, Emily, John Roebling’s wife, was given the honor to be the first person to travel across completed bridge by carriage. The bridge opened for use on May 24, 1883. This ceremony was also very special because the President of the United States, President Chester Arthur, attended it. I also found out that the previous president, President Garfield, was assassinated the year before, which adds on to the specialness of the ceremony.
Zac, i thoroughly enjoyed your post. It must have been such a relief to finally finish this bridge and not have to travel 2 hours every day on a ferry. Also, 432 articles after a year is a crazy amount! Keep up the great work.
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