The Brooklyn Bridge is a bridge in New York City and is one
of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it
connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With
a main span of 1,595.5 feet, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world
from its opening until 1903, and the first steel wire suspension bridge. Originally
referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge,
it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name from an earlier January 25, 1867,
letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the
city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an icon of New York
City, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National
Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.
