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Manhattan Bridge

Manhattan Bridge
Manhattan Bridge
Manhattan Bridge
Manhattan Bridge

General Information

Structural Type: Suspension bridge
Function / usage: Tramway, light or metro rail bridge
Road bridge
Built: 1901 - 1912
Status: in use

Geographic Information & Related Structures

Location: Manhattan, New York, New York, USA, North America
Brooklyn, New York, New York, USA, North America
Crosses
  • East River
Next to Brooklyn Bridge (1883)
Coordinates: 40° 42' 28.00" N    73° 59' 28.00" W

Technical Information

Dimensions

main span 448.1 m
total length 2 089 m
height above valley floor or water 41.1 m
cables number of cables 4
strands per cable 37
wires per strand 256
cable diameter 53.975 cm
total number of wires per cable 9 472
deck deck depth 7.3 m
deck width 36.6 m
main bridge span lengths 221.0 m - 448.1 m - 221.0 m
pylons height 102.4 m

Cost

cost of construction United States dollar 31 084 705.00

Materials

cables steel
deck steel
foundations masonry
pylons steel
anchorages masonry

Chronology

1 October 1901

Construction begins.
1 August 1908

Construction of the main cable begins.
10 December 1908

Main cable construction completed.
31 December 1909

Using wooden planks placed on the stringers, the bridge is first opened, although it is not yet completed.
1912

Completion of the bridge.

Notes

Manhattan bridge was the first, bridge to have a 21 inch diameter main cable, largest at that time. It is still the strongest of the four east river bridges. The bridge originally was going to be a parallel wire cable suspension bridge, then an eyebar and chain type bridge, then finally reverted back to a parallel wire cabled suspension bridge. Both upper roadways of the bridge originally had [4] tracks for street cars [trolleys]. As time progressed, the tracks were removed to convert the roadways for vehicular traffic.

Manhattan bridge was the first suspension bridge to use flexible steel towers, unlike some other bridges such as the Williamsburg and the George Washington that used braced steel towers. The Manhattan bridge was the first modern steel suspension bridge to use a Warren type stiffening truss. It was the first modern steel suspension bridge to use two suspender ropes straddled over the main cables to attach to the floor beams.

Decorative spheres on top of the towers serve no function. Below them rest the saddles for the main cables. Leon Moisseiff was also advisory engineer of design of the Great George Washington Bridge. [Text contributed by Dave Frieder]

Participants

Architecture
Monitoring equipment

Rehabilitation

Relevant Web Sites

Relevant Publications

Internal Information

Structure-ID: s0000529
Created: 20/11/1999
Last Updated: 21/04/2013