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Brooklyn Bridge , photo © Bojidar Yanev NYC D OT

amounted to $655.59 million on the Queensboro,$788.70 million on the Manhattan and $901.41million on the Williamsburg Bridge. Seeking newsources of funding in the aftermath of 9/11/2001,the mayor’s office is investigating means of rein-troducing tolls across the East River. The bridgesaverage from 120,000 to 200,000 vehicles in dailytraffic, hence they could be profitable. On theother hand, tolls might make them ineligible forthe kind of federal and state funding that paid forthe above rehabilitations. It is unclear what per-centage of the potential revenue would actually goto the bridges. The matter is under consideration.

The Triborough, Whitestone and Throg’sNeck bridges, designed by Othmar Ammann andbuilt under Robert Moses, are currently managedby the Metropolitan Transit Authority and bring in

were the responsibility of the State Department ofTransportation. City bridges came under the gen-eral responsibility of the Streets and HighwaysDivision of the City Department of Transporta-tion.

After advanced deterioration forced a closureof the Williamsburg Bridge in 1988, the CityDepartment of Transportation re-established aBureau of Bridges. It assumed charge of roughly800 city bridges including the four East Rivercrossings. In 2003 the Bridge Bureau reportedcumulative expenditures of $464 million, in fed-eral, state and local moneys, on the BrooklynBridge rehabilitation over a period of roughlytwenty years. All vertical suspenders and diagonalstays were replaced, as was the bridge deck. Reha-bilitation work over the same period has

The above definitions testify that:— The NBIS are (relatively) comprehensive regu-

lations.— Webster is a (relatively) concise dictionary.— Bridges are artifacts.

The NBIS further designate responsible bridgeowners, who are mandated to inspect their bridgesevery two years. The findings must be reported tothe Federal Highway Administration, accordingthe Coding Guide, issued in 1988 and soon to besuperceded by a new one. The NBIS maintain filesof structural and serviceability ratings on about600,000 vehicular bridges and 150,000 railroadones. Pedestrian bridges are a local concern.Bridges can be landmarks – local, national andinternational. The only United States bridge onthe international landmark register is the Cincin-nati-Covington, designed by John Roebling andopened to traffic in 1867. Thanks to substantialstrengthening, it carries two lanes of automobiletraffic and looks every inch an artifact.

The Brooklyn Bridge is a national landmark butnot an international one. Its construction started in1867, took sixteen years and cost $14 million. Theland had cost $25 million. The main span, 487 m

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Bridge: A structure including supports erected over a depression or an obstruction, such aswater, or railway, and having a track or passageway for carrying traffic or other moving loads, and having an opening measured along the center of the roadway of more than 20 feet (610 cm) between undercopings of abutments or spring lines of arches, or extreme ends of openings for multiple boxes; it may also include multiple pipes, where the clear distancebetween openings is less than half of the smaller contiguous opening.

National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS),Code of Federal Regulations (23 CFR 650.3)

Bridge: A structure spanning and providing a passage over an obstacle, as a waterway.Artifact:1. An object produced by human workmanship, esp. a tool, weapon or ornament of archeolog-ical or historical interest.2. A structure or substance not normally present but produced by an external agency or action.

Webster’s II College Dictionary

long, doubled the previous world record. Trafficopened on May 24, 1883, marking the incorpo-ration of Manhattan and Brooklyn into a largermulti-borough New York City. There was a 5-centtoll for crossing. A week later, panic on the bridgepromenade crushed 12 pedestrians to death. TheBrooklyn, Williamsburg, Manhattan and Queens-boro bridges over the East River headed the list of 45 bridges under the responsibility of a powerfulBridge Commission, headquartered at the Munici-pal Building. Tolls were suspended by order of themayor in August 1911. An apocryphal explanationis that he was trying to improve his public imageafter a failed attempt on his life. The consequencesfor the bridges remain subject to public debate.

To sell the Brooklyn Bridge is the ultimatesalesmanship test. The feat is presumed impossi-ble, because (a) no one could possibly own thebridge and (b) no one could possibly want to. Bothassumptions are perfect folklore – without theo-retical basis but deeply rooted in empirical evidence.

In 1981 a pedestrian was killed on the BrooklynBridge promenade by a stay cable that ruptureddue to corrosion. The Bridge Commission havingbeen long gone by then, the East River crossings

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George Washington Bridge , photo © Bojidar Yanev NYC D OT

Bridge in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, photo © Bojidar Yanev NYC D OT

considerable toll revenues, absorbed, however, bythe unprofitable subway system.

Built by the Port Authority of New York andNew Jersey, the George Washington Bridge linkedthe two states over the Hudson River in 1931. The1 km main span designed by Othmar Ammannnearly doubled the existing world record and cost$50 million. In five years the revenue from thethen-10-cent toll recovered the construction cost.A lower deck was anticipated for train or vehiculartraffic. Six vehicular lanes were added to the exist-ing eight in 1950, at a construction cost of $75 mil-lion. In 2004 the toll revenue from the bridge aver-aged $1 million daily. In other words, it still paysfor itself every five years. A number of New YorkCity mayors and New York State governors havechallenged the fiscal independence of the PortAuthority, with but limited success. By recentcount, the engineering staff has been reduced to300 from 1000, but the Port Authority is still as re-latively autonomous as when Moses conceived it.

Great designers, such as John Augustus Roe-bling, Othmar Ammann and Gustave Eiffelimpose themselves as natural forces, because theirbridges are indispensable as utilities. The aestheticvictory of the Eiffel Tower came after it providedthe most popular vertical bridge, if not to the sky,at least to the skyline. The engineering of theChannel Tunnel has not been questioned, but theburdens of debt make the popular structure finan-

cially unstable. Similar are the reputations of theConcorde supersonic airplane and the NASA spaceprogram.

Bridges are frequently discussed but not bytheir most frequent users. Le Corbusier expressedgeneral disappointment with New York’s architec-ture (too few skyscrapers and those not highenough) but praised the bold pure functionalismof the silvery George Washington Bridge.Recently intercepted terrorist messages appar-ently indicated intent to sabotage the New YorkCity bridge torn down by Godzilla in the latest dis-aster movie – the Brooklyn Bridge.

John Roebling gave the masonry towers of theBrooklyn Bridge a strong Gothic flavor, becausethat was the symbol of the city he intended for thecoming centuries. Othmar Ammann designed thetowers of “Big George” in steel, with a granitecladding for visual substance. That claddingproved too costly and was never installed. Inrecent years environmental concerns have driventhe cost of bridge repainting to $200 per squaremeter of steel from $20. The towers are currentlyrepainted and a cladding that might entirely elimi-nate such a need in the future is being reconsid-ered.

Taking bridges out of context is similar to tak-ing them out of the transportation network,although the symbolic transfer is easier. Pont duGard was built as an aqueduct for the eternal

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C incinnati-Covington Bridge , photo © BojidarYanev NYC D OT

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future of the Roman Empire; 2000 years later it isa monument to the Roman heritage of France.London Bridge acquired monumental status byimmigrating to Arizona after retiring as a trafficcarrier across the Thames.

Hence: — Bridges are built for traffic by builders who

expect some benefits from them.— When designers know their business, the func-

tion elevates the form to a symbol.— No design can save a bridge that is doing poor

business.— Depending on the viewpoint, a bridge can be a

main attraction or a principal environmentalhazard.

The Parks Department does not own the bridgesover the New York parkways, but opines on theirdesign. Parks sympathize with pedestrians:Bridges are not welcome, because they bring vehi-cles. If they are necessary, they must not dominatethe scene. Ideal are the bridges in Central andProspect parks. New York City DOT would like torebuild bridges such as the footbridge over the BeltParkway in Brooklyn at a higher elevation in orderto avoid truck collisions. Parks would rather havetruck obstructions. A pedestrian bridge is ill-suitedfor such a purpose and can suffer serious damage,as the one over the Belt Parkway nearly did. TheBrooklyn bridge, on the other hand, was ade-quately strengthened and so far the damage hasbeen mutual, as a recent incident has shown. Atruck was traveling on the Brooklyn-QueensExpressway and found the Brooklyn Bridge noth-ing but an obstacle.

Given their vast scope, the Moses projects canbe viewed from virtually every angle, almost as inthe model of New York City that he created forthe World’s Fair of 1964. The man personified cen-tralized power and was therefore the symbol to bedethroned. Since Moses was simultaneously Parksand Public Works Commissioner, he had to pre-serve as well as to build, keep vehicles out of theparks as well as bring them closer. It can be sur-mised that he liked automobiles, parks and bridgesbetter than he liked trains. For trucks he builtexpressways. His attitude towards busses mayremain debatable. Perhaps in today’s world hewould have preferred stretch limos, but thathypothesis cannot be verified. We are only toldthat he never drove a car.

WhoIsMindingtheBridges?

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Pedestrian Bridge over Be lt Parkway, Brooklyn, photo © BojidarYanev NYC D OT

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Mode l of New York C ity for the 1964 World’s Fair, Queens Museum of Art New York, photo © Bojidar Yanev NYC D OT

Overturned Oversize Truck on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway under the Brooklyn Bridge , photo © Bojidar Yanev NYC D OT