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Landmark Bridges

May 25, 2013

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Profile America -- Saturday, May 25th. Two famous landmarks at opposite ends of the country are having anniversaries around this time. Both are landmarks of the cities they serve, and both were considered engineering marvels when they were built. San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, hailed as a technological marvel then as now. And, the Brooklyn Bridge, spanning New York's East River, opened in 1883 to link Manhattan and Brooklyn. It now daily carries thousands of automobiles, instead of the 1880s horse-drawn vehicles. More than 604,000 other bridges form a vital part of the nation's highway system. Of these, nearly a quarter are considered deficient and obsolete to cope with modern traffic. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2012, p. 285, 290
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1090
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/transportation.html