HIST 100: Engineering The Past

Greatest Bridges of America: The Brooklyn and The Golden Gate

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The Brooklyn Bridge and The Golden Gate Bridge are two of America’s most famous, most beautiful, and most recognized bridges. Both bridges provide important connections between major cities and have similar structural design. Many consider them as the wonders of the late 18th to early 19th centuries due to their advanced architectural and engineering features. Located on the opposite sides of the country, there are some key similarities and differences between the two bridges.

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

The Design

The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, making it one of the oldest bridges in America. It hybrids the cable-stayed design with the suspension design. At the time, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest bridge in the world, with the total length of 50% longer than any other bridge. This revealed to me that, at the time, America probably had a more advanced technological knowledge than others, as well as a more successful economy. The materials used for the towers consist of limestone, granite, and natural cement. There was no aerodynamics analysis performed on the Brooklyn Bridge. However, the chief designer, John Augustus Roebling, had made the bridge and its supporting mechanisms six times as strong as it needed to be. Having lasted for more than 130 years, this bridge shows the high level of workmanship during the design process.

From The Photographs

The first thing that come to mind when seeing a photograph of the Brooklyn Bridge is how antique it appears, especially when buildings of the city beyond look very modern. I believe that this carry a very strong message of how valuable this bridge is to New York City. No matter how much things have changed, the iconic bridge is still standing strong. It also is rare that a photograph of the bridge does not include the landscape of the city in the background. The most popular angles and compositions used when photographing the bridge are those that was taken from the Manhattan side, and those that focus primarily on the suspension cables of the bridge. From this, I can think of a few messages that these photographers are trying to tell us. One, they wanted to show what this bridge connects–Brooklyn and Manhattan–and how great the two places are. Two, they wanted to focus on the beauty of the engineering of this bridge. Constructing something this big is not an easy task today, and it was nearly an impossible task back in the late 1800’s. In the end, some groups of people somehow worked together and created this beautiful piece of architecture.

The Persistence

In 2010, a full renovation project of the Brooklyn Bridge was initiated by the New York City’s Transportation Department due to the poor safety rating from the inspection, although it was not in a critically dangerous state. From this event, I believe that the values and beliefs of the New York City consists of safety, honor, and dedication. The department spent $508 million on the renovation project. That is a significant amount of money, and it could have been spent on replacing or redesigning the bridge. Instead, they chose to preserve one of the most important icons of New York, to honor the tremendous amount of hard work and dedication that was put into the bridge, and to also maintain the high level of safety for its citizen.

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

The Design

Fifty four years younger than the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937. It is a cable-suspension bridge. The chief motivation that initiated the construction of this bridge was the lack of permanent link among the communities of the San Francisco Bay, and the lower-than-average growth rate of the city itself. Some of the challenges the design team faced include the length of the bridge, harsh weather conditions, and the depth of the water. It utilizes thin and flexible roadways that allow more deformation without causing failure. I believe that this is why the towers of the Golden Gate appear much slimmer than those of the Brooklyn Bridge.

From The Photographs

The Golden Gate Bridge is possibly the world’s most photographed bridge. Its color certainly contributes to the overall beauty of the architecture. The bridge is such an icon that when most people think of San Francisco, the first thing they think of is rather the Golden Gate, and not the city itself. As mentioned previously, compared to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge’s towers look significantly slimmer and much more modern than those of the Brooklyn Bridge. This quickly shows how rapidly technology can change in just 50 years. Another key observation from many photographs is the weather–cloudy and foggy–which describes the overall climate conditions of the area. Unlike the Brooklyn Bridge, there isn’t as much little cables to sustain the bridge. From this, it is possible that the overall design of the Golden Gate is more efficient.

The Persistence

The Golden Gate Bridge never went under an extensive renovation like the Brooklyn Bridge, as it was never needed. To me, this simply means that the bridge is very well designed and has been able to withstand almost 80 years of abuse so far. It also means that the material choice of the design was probably better than the Brooklyn Bridge–steel vs. concrete. However, some other smaller renovation projects such as repainting the main cables have been performed. Although it may sound like a simple task, the process include scraping off the old paint without dropping it all over the ocean below, apply corrosion prevention coatings, and finally apply the paint. The length of all the cables in this bridge adds up to about 80,000 miles. In my opinion, that is nowhere near a simple task. Just like New York City, San Francisco values this piece of architecture as highly and is willing to preserve it for years to come.

Wankun’s Lens

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Hello all!

My name is Wankun, but you can also call me Kun. I am a senior at BSU studying Mechanical Engineering. I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, quite a bit away from here. I came to the United States in 2010 with a goal of pursuing higher education. A little bit about myself: I like to spend my leisure time cooking, playing tennis, and doing anything car-related.

Being raised in a city from another country definitely has influenced me to have different perspective in a lot of things. For example, unlike most Idahoans, I was never really exposed to outdoor activities like rafting, hiking, or skiing, I didn’t know what it’s like to go watch the rodeo, and I never imagined that people could love football so much they built a bus dedicated for tailgating. Rather, I grew up where playing soccer on a sidewalk was considered outdoor activities, where teenagers spend their weekends at the tutoring center, and where viewing something differently from someone older (teachers, relatives, parents) was considered disrespectful.

I don’t spend a lot of time with books or other texts as I don’t enjoy reading much, even when I was still in Thailand. With English being my second language, it is rather rare that I would pick up a book, written in English, to read in my leisure time, although it seems like I will have to do just that in this course. To learn about what’s going on in the U.S. and around the world, I mostly watch the news from a few websites.

Back home, I was exposed to very limited amount of history education. Thai schools, if at all, barely provide their students with knowledge about history around the world. I look forward to learn more about it from both my instructor and my peers!