Page 7 - E-module for English for Civil Engineering

D. The Example of Descriptive Text

The Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City and is one of the
oldest bridges of either type in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of
Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River.

It has a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed.
It was originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, but it was
later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name coming from an earlier January 25, 1867, letter to the editor of
the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. It becomes an icon of
New York City. Although, the Brooklyn Bridge is technically a suspension bridge, it uses a hybrid cable-
stayed/suspension bridge design. The towers are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. The
granite blocks were quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine, under a contract with the Bodwell
Granite Company, and delivered from Maine to New York by schooner.

The two towers are designed to be high and bulk enough to serve fundamental purposes. They supported the
enormous weight of the roadway and cables. The deck and the towers are high enough so that the traffic
on the river would not be interfered. Suspension bridges can easily cross distances between 2,000 and 7,000
feet (610 and 2,134 meters), enabling them to span distances beyond the scope of other bridge designs. The
suspension cables, on the other hand, receive the bridge's tension forces. These cables run horizontally
between the two far-flung anchorages. At the end of the suspension cables, they are secured by anchorages,
which are solid cubical structures of stone masonry. They are 42.8 by 47.5 meters at the base and rising 32.4
meters above high-water mark. To resist the great tension from the suspension cables, their weight has to be
at least 60,000 tons each. These massive stone masonry structures are situated 334.8 meters back from the
towers on each side.

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