NYC celebrates Manhattan Bridge's 100th anniversary with fireworks display

Display location:Manhattan Bridge
City:New York
State:NY
Date:Dec 31

Details: The man who designed her deflection cables also designed the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapsed four months after being built.

And, certainly, she never fostered mystique or intrigue the way her rivermate did.

But though the youngest and far from the most-beautiful of the four bridges that span the East River, the Manhattan Bridge has stood the test of time and this year marks its 100th Anniversary.

Officials begin the centennial celebration Sunday with fireworks and a parade of vintage cars — the first in a series of events as the gray-blue bridge built of nickel steel moves toward its 100th birthday on Dec. 31.

The Brooklyn Bridge, considered one of the most-breathtaking bridges in the world, also is the oldest of the four spans, having opened on May 24, 1883. The Williamsburg Bridge opened Dec. 19, 1903, while the Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, opened on March 30, 1909 — a scant nine months before the Manhattan Bridge.

A suspension bridge, the Manhattan Bridge spans 1,470 feet and connects the Bowery and Canal Street in Chinatown with Flatbush Avenue in the downtown Brooklyn neighborhood now known as DUMBO — or, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

The cables were designed by Leon Moisseiff, who later designed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. That bridge came to be known as “Galloping Gertie” because it was highly unstable in winds that breezed through the narrows where it connected Tacoma to the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington. It opened in 1940 and collapsed within four months in one of the most-dramatic collapses ever captured on movie film.
The Manhattan Bridge has had its troubles, as well.

In 1978, cracking and corrosion forced the emergency closure of the Manhattan Bridge. It underwent extensive rehabilitation throughout the 1980s.

Though the bridge never captured the imagination of the public the way the Brooklyn Bridge did — how many people have ever tried to sell the Manhattan Bridge? — the bridge is noteworthy for a number of design elements. Most prominent among them is an arch modeled after the Porte St. Denis, a Parisian monument located in the 10th arrondissement, which stands at the Manhattan entrance to the steel bridge.

The Manhattan Bridge has been featured in a number of films, among them: I Am Legend, Independence Day and the 2005 remake of King Kong.