Greatest Bridges of America: The Brooklyn and The Golden Gate

January 17, 2016 by Wankun Leave a Comment

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.

Bridges

January 17, 2016 by Jake Sparhawk Leave a Comment

The Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate both have similar qualities in design. For example, they have cable suspension engineering with two towers acting as support for the cables. They also connect two points of major cities, Brooklyn being New York City, and Golden Gate being San Francisco and Marin County. These two bridges are pretty similar in structure, only their placement and coloring differ, with Brooklyn a grey brick color and Golden Gate a copper rusty color. As for how people take pictures of them, I can see Brooklyn pictures using a lot of the city as a background. This is mostly due to pretty much all around the bridge is city. As for Golden Gate, I see more beauty in the pictures. Each picture is from an angle that shows how magnificent just the bridge is, some are even taken during that night which shows off its luminous lights.
Since the Brooklyn Bridge was built during the late 1800’s and designed by a German immigrant and his son, John and Washington Roebling, it shows a little bit of a European style of architecture. The two towers have almost a Gothic look to them which is tall arches that show a power stature. Also as a added note, the bridge was built to be six times stronger than it needed to be.
As for the Golden Gate, this bridge was built towards the mid 1900’s and as such was bit different when building. They first of all had safety nets put out for the workers which minimized the death toll to 11 men, rather than the 20 lost building the Brooklyn Bridge. Those who survived the fall by being caught by the net join what was called the “half-way to hell” club. As for the coloring of the bridge, it was suggested to be a black and yellow striped color for ships to see it, but was changed to the orange we see today because the orange was used as a coating for air quality reasons.
Both these bridges are known worldwide and are a big part of cities they reside in. They show the American engineering and prowls to build amazing constructions. Because of this we admire it and use it our culture to be recognized.

1.2 Bridges

January 17, 2016 by jonathanshoemaker 2 Comments

If we were to start the comparison of the two bridges it would be rather unique comparison. First, let’s start the comparison with the build material of the two. The Brooklyn Bridge is made of Limestone, Granite, and Rosendale concret. The material used to make to The Golden Gate Bridge is steel along with some other concret at the very base of it. Any who the main material is steel.

Now looking at the design The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge while the Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid of a suspension and cable-stay. This is somewhat important to answer one of the later parts of this assignment. Along with the comparison both bridges were built in May, just a cool little point out. Most of all in the comparison, they are photographed in many ways all with very similar features of the bridge as the focus points.

Now to look at what is commonly seen in the photos of each bridge. When scouring the internet for photos I noticed a trend. That trend being the Brooklyn Bridge commonly is shot showing its towers and cable structure whereas the Golden Gate Bridge is shot as a whole. The reason I think this may be is the Brooklyn Bridge at the time was unique and had a very beautiful neo-gothic design resulting in the cables being laid out in an exponential fashion. In the case of the Golden Gate Bridge it has the suspension cables running perfectly vertical from the bridge.

Taking a look at the bridges architectural design I think there is a lot it reveals. For example the Neo-Gothic design of the Brooklyn Bridge was indicative of the more ornate and decorative style of the Romantic movement that America was transitioning out of during the time. The Brooklyn Bridge has more English influences. The Brooklyn Bridge came out of the industrial revolution were advancements in technology and engineering made it possible. On the other hand The Gold Gate Bridge is Art Deco style and has French influences. The Golden Gate Bridge was built after the 1906 earthquake and Fire in San Francisco. Suspension was considered the most logical at the time

Now to answer the last and final point, why the bridges have only been renovated rather than removed. Both bridges are icons for the cities in which they are located. The Brooklyn Bridge is on historic preservation lists which protects the design from being changed other than to restore or retrofit. I think The Golden Gate Bridge also follows suit.