NEW ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS FOR THE 
MANHATTAN BRIDGE 
I N abandoning the project to use eyebar 
chains and returning to wire cables in the 
construction of the new Manhattan Bridge 
over the East River the municipal authorities 
of Greater New York determined also upon 
a revision of the architectural part of the 
design. This work was assigned to the firm 
of Carrere & Hastings, whose sketch plans 
of the decorative features of the bridge are 
in the hands of the Municipal Art Com¬ 
mission. As the foundation of one of the 
main towers is already completed and that 
of the other is well under wav, the Commis- 
sion’s decision should not be long delayed. 
In this bridge 
the engineers 
have profited by 
the lessons learn¬ 
ed in the con¬ 
struction ol the 
Brooklyn and 
Williamsburg 
bridges. The re- 
duction in the 
size of the open- 
in gs for traffic 
through the mas¬ 
sive stone towers 
of the Brooklyn 
Bridge was neces¬ 
sarily so great 
that freedom of 
circulation is ma¬ 
terially restricted 
at these points. 
In the case of the 
Williamsburg 
Bridge there is 
none of the im¬ 
pressive solidity 
of the older 
bridge, and at the 
same time the 
lighter steel tow¬ 
ers above the 
roadbed are con¬ 
spicuously angu¬ 
lar and common¬ 
place in all their parts. By contrast, the 
lines of the steel structures bearing the 
Manhattan Bridge, from pier to cable-sad¬ 
dle, are so simply and delicately drawn as 
to give the appearance of great beauty to the 
slim shafts of the towers. In fact, the archi¬ 
tects were so impressed at the first view by 
the beauty of the lines furnished by the en¬ 
gineers that they declared the towers needed 
but little decoration. 
Acting in this spirit of restraint, they have 
abstained from any mere decorative treat¬ 
ment on top of the towers and above the 
cables, and have contented themselves with 
' V 
Front Elevation Side Elevation 
ONE OF THE TOWERS 
