#259 Crossing to Brooklyn: How the Williamsburg Bridge Changed New York

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2018

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sure, the Brooklyn Bridge gets all the praise, but New York City's second bridge over the East River has an exceptional story of its own. In this episode, we'll answer some interesting questions, including: -- Why is the bridge named for a 19th century industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn and why is it not, for instance, called the Manhattan Bridge (a name not in use yet in 1903) or the East River Bridge (which was its original name)? -- Why did everybody think the bridge looked so unusually ugly and how did the city belatedly try and solve the problem? -- Why did one population in the Lower East Side find the bridge more important than others? -- Why was the bridge is such terrible shape in the 20th century? Did it really almost collapse into the river? -- And where can you find the original name of the Brooklyn neighborhood -- Williamsburgh? PLUS: How the fate of the two neighborhoods linked by the Williamsburg Bridge would change radically in 115 years boweryboyshistory.com We'd like to thank WeWork for sponsoring the Bowery Boys as well as our additional sponsors Hulu (and the gripping new thriller The Looming Tower) and Audible. For a free 30-day trial (and a free audiobook) go to audible.com/bowery or text BOWERY to 500-500 Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of The Bowry Boys is brought to you by our book The Bowry Boys Adventures in Old New York.
0:06.6	This is a history book unlike any other, if we do say so ourselves,
0:11.6	telling the remarkable story of Old New York, the port town, the revolutionary stronghold,
0:17.2	the immigrant sanctuary, the Gilded Age city.
0:20.4	And we tell this story using places that exist within New York City right now.
0:26.2	And today's show is actually inspired by one item that was featured in the book,
0:30.3	not to say that we're recycling our own material, Greg, not at all,
0:33.6	but to take a deeper dive into subjects that we cover on the show and read about many, many others,
0:39.4	run out and get The Bowry Boys Adventures in Old New York, available at your local bookstore,
0:45.8	Amazon Barnes and Noble, and wherever books are sold.
0:49.5	The Bowry Boys episode 259, crossing to Brooklyn, the story of the Williamsburg Bridge.
0:55.6	Hey, it's The Bowry Boys.
0:57.2	Hey.
0:58.5	Support for The Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
1:01.9	Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
1:11.5	Hi there, welcome to The Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
1:13.8	And this is Tom Myers.
1:15.8	You know, Greg, we always said that we would cross this bridge when we got here.
1:21.4	And sure enough, here we are.
1:23.8	Today we're telling the story of The Williamsburg Bridge.
1:26.5	It's a mammoth steel suspension bridge that connects Manhattan's Lowery side
1:32.5	with The Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
	...

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