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The film is a series of powerful scenes, first depicting the murder of a pretty, man-hungry larcenous young model, and then detailing the efforts of the cops to sniff out her killers. Eventually, they unravel the case culminating with a thrilling chase sequence across the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan's Lower East Side into Brooklyn.

WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE

Photo by Dave Frieder

Click on most of the pictures on this page for larger versions.

Links

Dave Frieder's Williamsburg Bridge Photo's

Williamsburg Bridge -

Video of Bridge Opening

Video of Bridge Opening 2

PROJECT OVERVIEW

WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE
Compiled by Dave "The Bridge Man" Frieder

Construction Commenced -- Nov. 7th 1896
Construction of Main Cables Commenced-- Aug. 11th 1901
Opened To Traffic-- Dec. 19th 1903 6:00 a.m.
Bridge Commissioner at the Time-- Gustav Lindenthal *
* same person who built Hell Gate Bridge and Queensborough Bridge [originally known as Blackwells Island Bridge.]
Total length of Bridge-- 7308 feet
Length of Suspended Span-- 1600 feet . 4 feet 6 inches longer than the Brooklyn Bridge.
Side Spans length each-- 596' 6"
Height of Steel Towers above Mean Water Height-- 332' 9"
Towers sunk to Bedrock by Pneumatic Caisson Method, same as Brooklyn Bridge
Center of Roadway above Mean Water Height 135 feet
Stiffening Truss-- 40 feet high, Lattice "Town Type" Truss.
Main Cables-- 4. Wires per cable 8112. Strands per Cable 39. Wires per Strand 208.
All wires in Main Cables are of the Non-Galvanized Type.
Cable Diameter-- 18 6/10 inches including wrapping.
Length of each of the four cables--3224 feet.
Total length of wire in the four cables--23,132 Miles.
Total Weight of Steel in Bridge and Approaches 47,800 Tons.
Approximate cost of construction, in 1903-- $24,188,090.00

When first opened in 1903, Williamsburg Bridge had four surface or trolley tracks(Streetcars) and two elevated, or regular train tracks. Regular train service did not cross bridge until 1908. Now, the bridge, has two inner and two outer vehicular roadways and two subway tracks. Also two 17' wide foot walks.
The Williamsburg was the first all steel, large scale, suspension bridge. Leffert Lefferts Buck, chief engineer. Born in Canton, New York. Buck felt it was not necessary to galvanize main cable wires. Side spans not suspended, rather supported by steel viaducts. Originally one support per side span, in 1913 two extra supports per span were added due to increased traffic loads. Total of three supports per side span.

Williamsburg Brooklyn was named after Colonel Jonathan Williams a U.S. engineer and a a grand nephew to Ben Franklin. Area was incorporated as a village in 1827. In 1998 Brooklyn will 100 years as a borough of the City of New York. The original Dutch spelling of Brooklyn is BREUKELEN.

The Williamsburg Bridge is one of three bridges to use Non-flexible type of towers. The other two bridges are, the Brooklyn Bridge and the George Washington Bridge. The main cables of the Williamsburg bridge were spun by John A. Roebling Sons inc. Same company spun cables for the magnificent Manhattan Bridge and the great George Washington Bridge. Since the wires in the main cables in the Williamsburg Bridge are not galvanized the bridge engineers have had a problem in terms of protecting them from corrosion. Recent modern methods have been used to repair and protect the cables.

VIEW OF MAIN CABLES AND SADDLE HOUSING

Photo by Dave Frieder

Photos by Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection LC-USZ62-106878, LC-USZ62-101751, LC-D4-17414 and LC-D4-33447

The Williamsburg Bridge

Information From the Library of Congress

Williamsburg Bridge,
New York, New York,
circa 1903-1910.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

On December 19, 1903, New Yorkers celebrated the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge, the second of three steel-frame suspension bridges to span the East River. Designed by Leffert L. Buck and Henry Hornbostel, it had taken over seven years to complete. Built to alleviate traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and to provide a link between Manhattan and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, the 1,600 foot Williamsburg Bridge was the world's longest suspension bridge until the 1920s.

Originally open to horse-drawn carriages, bicycles, and pedestrians, the Williamsburg Bridge soon became a vital transportation route for trolleys and trains, spurring the growth of Brooklyn's working-class neighborhoods. In the 1920s, the bridge was reconfigured to accommodate eight lanes of traffic. Today, it carries over 140,000 vehicles per day and some 100,000 subway riders.

On hand to film the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge were cameramen James Blair Smith and G.W. "Billy" Bitzer. Their films, Opening of New East River Bridge, produced by the Thomas Edison Company, and Opening the Williamsburg Bridge, produced by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, contain footage of the bridge and close-ups of the dignitaries and press in attendance. Note the large wooden "box" cameras carried by the press photographers.

Opening of new East River bridge, New York

Opening of New East River Bridge,
Thomas A. Edison, Inc., December 19, 1903.
Life of a City: New York, 1898-1906

See more photographs of the Williamsburg Bridge. Search on Williamsburg Bridge in these collections: