Cold Days Ahead

Did you catch yesterday's Extra, Extra mention of the ice bridge that existed between Brooklyn and Manhattan 140 years ago? We were quite taken by the story —Henry Ward Beecher and his wife were a couple of the intrepid ice crossers— that we looked up the Times version of the story. There's a great story from one of the crossers which we've excerpted here. Of the ice breakup the gentleman said "… an immense opening in the ice was noticed… There were… several hundred pedestrians on the ice… a shout of alarm rose… This was the signal for a general stampede for the New-York side…"

Later on, under a paragraph heading of "Shall the East River be Bridged" the Times reported, "Bearing in mind the experience of yesterday, an impatient desire is manifested on the part of the community who daily cross East River, to see the initiatory steps taken for the construction of a bridge across that stream." A petition was drawn up in the offices of the Brooklyn Union and the list of signers was said to have "become so long as to be hung in festoons from the ceiling and around the chandeliers".

The coldest weather of the year is set to arrive tomorrow, but there's no chance of an ice bridge forming. Today is turning out to be rather pleasant. Tomorrow not so much. Another arctic front will drop our temperatures from near 30 tomorrow morning, when there's also a slight chance of snow, to the upper teens by evening. You'll want to be wearing full-body scratchy woolen underwear Thursday night. The temperature is going to plummet to around ten degrees. It's also going to be windy, making it feel much colder. Little or no warming is expected on Friday. The Weather Channel says our weekend is looking warmer, but we aren't yet overly convinced.

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By Joe Schumacher in News on January 24, 2007 12:00 PM

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Lexiphane

I've heard that as well Toby, but I think the freezing may have been more coincidental at a time when popular support for building a bridge was extremely high. The 1867 ice bridge was only the third time that had happend in 15 years, with no reported memory of an occurence befor then. The 1867 blockage also only lasted a few hours and was over by 12pm as the tides and the sun took their toll. Additionally, the river was completely clear north of Fulton St. and no appreciable ferry delays resulted, as ferries simply diverted to the Catharine slip a few blocks north. The ice bridge was probably symbolic of a need for an actual bridge, but I doubt it was a significant contributing factor leading to the Brooklyn Bridge's construction.