MANHATTAN BRIDGE LOOKING UP
NOVEMBER 11, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 173

MANHATTAN BRIDGE
NOVEMBER 11, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 185

Manhattan Bridge, variant image 1

Although the Brooklyn Bridge was New York's first and most famous, Abbott favored the all-steel Manhattan Bridge. Completed in 1909, it was one of four new bridges that followed the 1898 consolidation of New York's five boroughs. Although the bridge carried vehicular traffic, subways, and pedestrians, Abbott was not interested in its function. Nor was she interested in Carriere & Hastings' Beaux-Arts entrance, a grandiose colonnade based on Paris's Porte St. Denis. Standing on the southern pedestrian walkway, Abbott focused instead on the patterns created by the bridge's steel girders, rivets, and railings.

Manhattan Bridge, variant image 2

Looking straight up one of the bridge's supporting piers, Abbott found a striking abstraction (Abbott file 173). The truncated arch in the lower left is not a structural element but a decorative hood at the intersection of the pier and the walkway (visible in profile in Abbott file 185). Abbott also photographed the length of the walkway, from the Brooklyn end looking west and from the Manhattan end looking east; she chose the latter view for the project (Abbott file 185). Although these modernist abstractions extoll the beauties of functional engineering, it is the bridge's Victorian ornamental detailing, rendered in sharp relief by the strong afternoon sun, that provides their visual interest.

Manhattan Bridge, variant image 3

Abbott exposed three negatives looking south from the bridge's walkway. One view taken from mid-river shows the span of the Brooklyn Bridge and features two men watching the river traffic below (variant 1). A second, taken from the Brooklyn end, shows the Brooklyn Bridge and a fast-moving tug skirting the docks (variant 2). In a third view (variant 3), Abbott moved to the Manhattan side and looked down Water Street. She discarded all three views but returned in the spring to try again (Abbott file 227).

The bridge still stands, although the sculptural entrance on the Brooklyn side was demolished in 1963 as part of the construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Years of neglect have necessitated a major restoration, estimated to cost $314 million, almost three times the bridge's initial cost of $126 million.

Return to the Lower East Side