Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Brooklyn Bridge

I love the Brooklyn Bridge.
So do most New Yorkers so this isn't any sort of wildly inventive post.
Did you know the following?
  • The original architect and engineer crushed his foot when a barge crashed into the jetty he was standing on whilst surveying the job before it started. He watched the construction through a telescope from a window in Brooklyn Heights and died of gangrene before it was finished.
  • His son (or brother I don't remember which) got the bends while finishing the construction. Sadly....he also expired.
  • When finished the towers were the tallest structures in NYC
  • PT Barnum led the first crossing of the bridge with Jumbo the elephant leading from the front .
  • There are 37,000 pieces of human bone buried in the bridge's foundations.
  • One of the points above isn't true (but could be).
  • Which one is the imposter?

All of the above is courtesy of the guide on the Circle line tour.

(Except the fake one and the bit at the end)

Some German(ish) accented guy named Olaf has a number waterfall sculptures along the Hudson.

They're "The Thing" of the moment so they figure in most of the following snaps.

I took a ton of the same thing but what follows is the best (ish) of the lot.

That's it for tonight.
I'm still crappy in the back department and head for Berlin tomorrow.
Canada on Sunday then Hong Kong then Dubai and back on September 3rd.
So much for the summer. Night all
T

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who is PT Barnum? And he had a Jumbo elephant?

Is that the imposter then?

Anonymous said...

Shame T you have'nt been here :( we have acctualy had a bit of a summer , and us Brit's still moan :) lol i love the warm weather :) go for the acupunter ,i am sure it will help but not cure penny xx

Anonymous said...

And now you can apparently buy the Brooklyn Bridge. Yes, it's for sale. I guess NYC has run into some financial troubles again.

Maybe we should try to scrape up the money!

David

Terry said...

PT Barnum was "the Greatest Showman of his time" and coined the immortal phrase "There's a sucker born every minute.
"Jumbo" was a famous elephant in his circus and was in his time more famous than Paris Hilton....imagine that!!!
http://www.newyorkpartyshuttle.com/new-york-attractions/brooklyn-bridge-new-york.php
The above link is one of many discussing the elephant crossing (in fack there were 22 elephants in the party) and were part of a stunt to prove the bridge was sturdy.

Anonymous said...

Ah... (I keep looking for the imposter --)

Dave said...

I think this was a weekend celebration at the Waldorf Astoria....to bad I fell asleep and snored out loud in Hairspray...LOL