MOTOR-VEHICLES BARRED FROM CROSSING BROOKLYN BRIDGE
New York City (JFK+50) At 4 a.m. July 7, 1922, "all motor-driven vehicles were barred from the" Brooklyn Bridge* "by order of Grover A. Whalen** commissioner of plant and structures of the city of New York."
The reason, reports the Evening Star, is that "the volume of traffic...has grown until congestion threatened all the connecting surface links."
Slow horse-drawn wagons mixed with fast automobiles and trucks presented a major problem so the slower traffic now will have the Brooklyn Bridge to themselves while faster traffic will be diverted to the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges.
The Star writes...
"Today Brooklyn Bridge was back at the pace of its youth--the pace of the iron tired trucks and heavy Percheron draft horses***."
JFK+50 NOTE
4000 pedestrians & 3100 bicyclists cross the elevated boardwalk of the Brooklyn Bridge daily while more than 120,000 vehicles use the bridge's roadway.
*Brooklyn Bridge is a cable/suspension bridge spanning the East River between Manhattan & Brooklyn, NY. BB opened May 24, 1883 as the longest suspension bridge in the world. It officially became known as the BB in 1915.
**Grover Aloysius Whalen (1886-1962) was born in NYC, son of an Irish-American Democrat & served as Commissioner of Plant & Structures & Police Commissioner of NYC. GAW was known as a public relations guru in the 1930s & 40s.
***Percheron draft horses are a breed that originated in France. They are black or gray in color, well muscled & known for their intelligence & willingness to work.
SOURCES
"Do Cars go over the Brooklyn Bridge?," Crossing Today, New York City Department of Transportation
"Proud Brooklyn Bridge Turns Back to Horses' Pace of Youth," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 7, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
