BROOKLYN BRIDGE

Cross the Brooklyn Bridge for fantastic views of Manhattan, especially when the buildings are illuminated.

An emblematic monument and a must-see in New York. The inhabitants of the Big Apple will even advise you to cross the bridge twice to take the best pictures, once during the day from Manhattan to Brooklyn, then a second time at night in the other direction to enjoy the incredible view of southern Manhattan. We are amazed when the buildings are illuminated...

Inaugurated in 1883 after 16 years of laborious efforts and 1,825 m long (for a time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world), did it not represent the American dream, the heroic gate to New York? Magical is this long footbridge stretched like a cathedral of ropes, an initiatory passage linking two islands. Crossing the 20 to 30 minutes at 83 m above the East River, with a breathtaking view of Manhattan's skyscrapers as a bonus, is a unique experience! If you are leaving Brooklyn in the evening - from Borough Hall (lines 2, 3, 4 and 5) and Clark Street (lines 2 and 3) - start with a walk in Brooklyn Heights along the water before crossing the bridge. The view is beautiful and the old buildings will almost make you forget that you are in New York. When walking on the bridge, be careful not to encroach on the bicycle lane, which is separate from the pedestrian lane. Accidents involving tourists stopping to take a picture are frequent. 600 workers worked on the site, which cost $15 million (the equivalent of $3.5 billion today). About ten workers died during construction, as did the architect John A. Roebling. On June 28, 1869, while working on the wharf construction site under Brooklyn Bridge, a boat docked and crushed one of his toes. The American engineer died of tetanus less than a month later, only a few months after the work began. This is his son, Washington A. Roebling, who takes over, and it is the latter's wife, Emily, who will finish the work when she had no engineering training. Washington, like many construction workers, had been paralyzed by a decompression sickness. This phenomenon of decompression, misunderstood at the time, had its origin in the foundations of the bridge piers. These foundations are 35 metres below sea level and therefore required the use of hyperbaric caissons. Workers were thus exposed for hours to pressure above atmospheric pressure and ascended to water level without any precaution and without going through decompression stops, causing nitrogen and helium bubbles to form in the blood. As this scientific phenomenon was still unexplained at the time, it is impossible to quantify the number of workers who died from this "caisson disease". Another surprising anecdote, in 2006, New York City announced that an air raid shelter had been discovered by workers on one of the bridge piers, without revealing its exact location. It was to be used in case the Cuban missile crisis escalated. Inside the shelter were newspapers from the late 1950s and early 1960s, hundreds of bottles of water, cookies and blankets, as well as a sign at the entrance where it read For use, after enemy attack.