Hey y’all! The purpose of this post is to:

• briefly compares and contrasts the two bridges’ designs, environs, and how people choose to frame and depict the bridges in their photos;
• hypothesizes what the differences in the bridges reveal about the times in which they were built;
• hypothesizes what the persistence of these bridges (each has been renovated and reinforced, but not redesigned or replaced) suggests about the beliefs and/or values of New York City and San Francisco.

The Golden Gate Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge are both a form of suspension bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA is  a suspension, truss arch/causeway bridge that consists of the weight of the roadway being hung by two cables passing through the two main towers that are fixed in concrete at each end. There are 27,572 strands of wire in each cable and 80,000 miles of wire in the main cables. There is approximately 1.2 million rivets in the bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge in N.Y.C., NY uses a hybrid cable-stayed suspension bridge design. The materials used in the towers are Rosendale cement, limestone, and granite. There are numerous passageways and compartments built into the bridge’s anchorages.

The environs around the Golden Gate Bridge are the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, and Marin County. The strait is 6,700 feet long, has strong, swirling tides and currents, with a water depth of 372 feet in the middle of the channel, frequently strong winds, and terrible blinding fog. The environs around the Brooklyn Bridge are the East River, N.Y.C. (Civic Center, Manhattan – Dumbo/ Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn). The bridge was built 6 times stronger than designer Washington Roebling thought it should be due to the possibility of wind stressing the cables, towers, etc. (this was before the use of wind tunnels to test the impact and force wind can have on a bridge).

People choose to frame and depict the Golden Gate Bridge in their photos as a prominent American landmark, with its international orange that compliments the backdrop of the surrounding bay and beautiful display of lights. It has been used in books, movies, and video games. They also choose to depict the Brooklyn Bridge in photos such as wide shots of the NYC skyline for t.v. shows and movies, and also in books and articles.

The differences in the bridges most likely reveal the newer technology, design, and architectural/structural thinking of the times in which they were built. Neither of these bridges were tested for wind impact because they were made before the time of the test, but they were built to be better than what the designers thought they should be, so that they would withstand more impact than anyone had ever thought of before. These bridges pioneered the way for newer, bigger, and better bridges around the world, because they were the best at their time.

The persistence of these bridges suggests that the beliefs and values of San Francisco and New York City are to preserve these national iconic American landmarks with as much originality as possible. These two cities were the foundation of very strong, possibly ahead of their time, suspension bridges that were the biggest and best in the world at the time. The two cities want to preserve the original looks, structure, and materials as much as possible but also it is okay if they need to use different materials in order to achieve that goal, because with newer technology, we now have better means of keeping these bridges up to spec.

Pete Cook