It’s hard to make a suspension bridge ugly, but Leffert Lefferts Buck and Henry Hornbostel gave it a good try here. The combination of a very deep stiffening truss, towers that slope above the roadway but not below, and side spans that are supported on piers rather than being suspended make it look ungainly. At best, it’s awkward cute, like a baby giraffe. It also took the longest main span title from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1903 with a main span all of 4-1/2 feet longer.
The picture above (which I have used once before on an unrelated topic) shows the bridge just before the main span construction began. The forest of cranes below the near (Manhattan) tower is for delivery of materials by barge; the deep lattice truss of the side span on the left will be continued across the river as the stiffening truss. A few details that jump out at me:
- The cables over the side spans, from the tower tops to the anchorage, are not taut in this picture, but are today. Back then, there was no load on the center span of the cables except self-weight, so they were not yet pulling down in the middle.
- The side span is really complete. Even the handrail on the walkway is in place. I wonder if the main span was delayed, or if the plan was to have the steel work done on the sides first to free up those laborers for the center.
- There’s a three-masted schooner on the river, not as part of some historic celebration, but because such ships were still working vessels circa 1902.
Here’s the final result, in 1983, with a skyline rather lower than it is today:
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