_____                 _____
                                         /     \               /     \
                                        |  ^ ^  |             |  ^ ^  |
                                        |  |||  |             |  |||  |
                                       /|  |||  |\           /|  |||  |\
                                      / |  |||  | \         / |  |||  | \
                              ___    /  |  |||  |  \       /  |  |||  |  \    ___
                             /   \  /   |  |||  |   \_____/   |  |||  |   \  /   \
                            /     \/    |  |||  |             |  |||  |    \/     \
             _             /      /\    |  |||  |             |  |||  |    /\      \             _
            / \           /      /  \   |  |||  |             |  |||  |   /  \      \           / \
           /   \   ______/      /    \  |  |||  |             |  |||  |  /    \      \______   /   \
          /     \ /            /      \ |  |||  |             |  |||  | /      \            \ /     \
    ~~~~~/__._.__\____________/__._.__\_|_~|||~_|_~~~~~~~~~~~~_|_~|||~_|/__._.__\____________/__._.__\~~~~~
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                              E A S T   R I V E R

THE BRIDGE

BY THE NUMBERS

143
Years Standing
1,595.5
Main Span (feet)
276.5
Tower Height (feet)
6,016
Total Length (feet)
127
Clearance Above Water (feet)
14,680
Miles of Wire
15.75
Cable Diameter (inches)
14
Years to Build

Construction Materials

Granite: The towers are built from limestone and granite, in Gothic Revival style

Steel: The first bridge to use steel wire for its cables - a technological leap

Wire: Each main cable contains 5,434 parallel wires bound together

Suspenders: 1,520 suspender cables hang from the main cables

Opening Day Statistics

Pedestrians on day one: 150,300

Vehicles on day one: 1,800

Total construction cost: $15.5 million (1883 dollars)

Workers killed: At least 27