part of the essential architecture network

PS...Did you know this is the strongest of the 4 east river crossings?

Should you wish to learn more about this bridge read the stats section below or you could visit:
-- nycroads.com (up to the minute info and more on our bridges and roads)
-- Transportation Alternatives

Built of steel, this two-level suspension bridge is often mistakenly attributed to Gustav Lindenthal, who submitted a plan for the bridge in 1903 that was rejected by city leaders for its structural innovations.

The entrance to the bridge on Canal Street is decorated by a grand arch and flanking colonnades designed by Carrerre and Hastings.

The bridge is 6855 feet (2091 meters) long, with a main span of 1470 feet (462 meters). The upper level has four vehicular lanes and a pedestrian walk; the lower level has three vehicular lanes and four subway tracks.

The Manhattan Bridge's steel towers are painted a pleasing dusty blue, which when combined with the delicate suspension cables make this massive bridge seem as light and airy as the Brooklyn Bridge seems heavy and substantial.

Situated between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge, a walk across the Manhattan Bridge is an excellent opportunity to view all three.

In 1901, Gustav Lindenthal, the commissioner of the newly created New York City Department of Bridges, presented plans for the proposed Manhattan Bridge (originally called "Suspension Bridge Number 3"), which was to connect the Bowery and Canal Street in Chinatown with Flatbush Avenue in downtown Brooklyn. He selected R.S. Buck as the chief engineer of the project. While he was no relation to Leffert L. Buck, the chief engineer on the Williamsburg Bridge project, R.S. Buck worked with him as an assistant on other projects. The project, which had the support of Mayor Seth Low, got underway on October 1, 1901.

Lindenthal's first proposal called for a hybrid design that featured design elements from the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges. Like the Williamsburg Bridge, the proposed bridge was to have massive steel towers and deep stiffening trusses (at 55 feet, they were to be even deeper than the 40-foot truss of the Williamsburg Bridge). The towers were to be crowned by minaret-like ornaments. Like the Brooklyn Bridge, the proposed bridge was to have both vertical suspender ropes and diagonal cable stays. The influential Municipal Art Commission rejected the proposal.

Two years later, Lindenthal proposed a second design that was radically different than any previously seen in American bridge design. Instead of employing a traditional wire-cable suspension design, he designed a suspension system where the suspenders were connected to steel eyebar chains by pin connections. Instead of being woven from steel wires, the cables would consist of four chains of nickel-steel eyebars, which would be stiffened and braced. Together with the suspenders, the eyebar chains that connected the towers with the anchorages would help support the deck. The deck was different also because there would be no deep stiffening trusses as there were in the deck of the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges. Instead, the stiffening system - the first application of Warren stiffening trusses on a suspension bridge - was incorporated into the cables.

The revised design also featured radically different towers. Unlike the rigid, three-dimensional tower profiles of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, the Manhattan Bridge, which features four columns in each tower, was to have a two-dimensional tower profile. The less rigid design allowed for greater flexibility, expansion and contraction of both the tower and the cables, which rest on ornamental saddles atop the towers. The flexible tower design was the first such application for a suspension bridge.

Serious questions were raised about Lindenthal's revised eyebar suspension design. George W. Calles, a Canadian engineer writing in Engineering News, opined that "a chain-bridge is a very ugly thing, excusable only on the grounds of engineering expediency." More seriously, Calles raised concerns that it would not be easy to inspect and maintain the tight connections between the eyebars and the suspenders. He said that potential cracks could grow to dangerous proportions, threatening the integrity of the structure.

The battle over Lindenthal's eyebar design and a more conventional design continued through 1904. However, it may have been politics - not engineering - that eventually killed the Lindenthal design. The new mayor, George McClellan, and the Roebling Wire Works (which had an interest in building a traditional wire-cable design) had political and financial links to Tammany Hall. With a new mayor in office, Lindenthal was ousted as bridge commissioner.