Brooklyn Bridge Noir

I always have my ears perked up to learn something new, it's a habit I leaned into as I explored New York neighborhoods in college. Every corner offered something new. I learned not to underestimate the potential of learning something from wherever or whomever. The City has a way of teaching you things you never knew you wanted to know, but are good to know.

I recently stumbled across a bit of New York architecture and women's history noir while watching the HBO hit series, The Gilded Age that was not on my radar. In Season 2, episode 5, the young Larry Russell learns and lets the viewers in on the secret that the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge is actually the wife of the commissioned Chief Engineer and not who the bridge's board thought was the person in charge.

Knowing that the series is a mixture of historical facts and fictional twists I was not sure if what I heard about the Brooklyn Bridge was actually true, or if it was just the writers retelling oral histories with partial truths that couldn't actually be verified with a few Google searches. So of course I went to Google to see if what they mentioned about the Brooklyn Bridge indeed happened or not. While I didn't want to get my hopes up, I was hoping it was true even though I was a little surprised it was new information about New York architecture and women's history that I didn't know already. It turns out it was TRUE.

Both the New-York Historical Society and Wikipedia acknowledge Emily Roebling as one of the Chief Engineers of the Brooklyn Bridge. Regrettably, New York City's Department of Transportation only mentions the designer of the bridge, her father-in-law. They make no mention of the chief engineer even though when it comes to bridges engineers are kinda of a big deal. I'm not sure what to make of it, NYC is usually good about giving credit where credit is due, perhaps the updates are backlogged in some bureaucratic purgatory stalemate.

In my opinion what makes the +1.1 mile long bridge so special is it's ability to handle various transportation forms. More than 4,000 pedestrians, 3,100 bicyclists and 120,000 vehicles cross the Brooklyn Bridge every day.

The other thing that makes it extra special is that pedestrian access is a focal point of the design. After all its popularity among pedestrians has contributed to the Brooklyn Bridge's notoriety and put it in a class of its own. No other bridge in NYC has as many people visit it to simply walk across it and take pictures commemorating their visit to one of New York's crown jewels. And if you've ever walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's grandeur is exhilarating and breathtaking, it has always one of my favorite places to visit.

Interestingly, according to the show, when the bridge was completed they didn't want to give credit to Emily because they feared people would think the bridge would not be safe to cross, yet 140 years later the bridge's engineering has stood the test of time and then some. In the show Larry calls it the 8th wonder of the world and today it has become a UNESCO World Heritage site. Historian David McCullough has even famously called it the "Eiffel Tower of America," and earlier this montg, on January 11th, the City of New York unveiled a new LED light system to light up the bridge's iconic towers, and so it's story continues.

If you've never walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, think about it, you'll see what what the hype is all about.