New York City's Bridges: Williamsburg Bridge

Continuing north, the next suspension bridge to cross the East River is the Williamsburg Bridge. When it was built in 1903 it had the longest main span in the world of 490 m (and 106 m tall towers). Although big, it's currently dwarfed by the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge with its 1991 m main span and 300 m towers.

Cities like London, Paris, and Tokyo are lucky to have narrow rivers that can be crossed by arch bridges while cities like Shanghai or New York have wide rivers that are more difficult to cross.

Like the nearby Mahattan Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge carries bikes, pedestrians, trains, and vehicle lanes on two decks. However, it is much more attractive and presents a more unified appearance. The two-legged towers are built up of laced members that match the appearance of the truss superstructure.

New York City's Bridges: Williamsburg Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.