The Brooklyn Bridge:
A historical tour of transportation and engineering
This curriculum and accompanying 12-page booklet was developed for elementary school students studying a wide range of topics, not just the history of the Brooklyn Bridge. The program covers the history of transportation in New York City, engineering and bridge building more generally, and the history of immigration.
The booklet program is focused around the two towers of the bridge, where groups of students can gather to do collaborative exercises. At the Manhattan tower, they are asked to identify landforms in New York harbor and the transportation infrastructure that connects them, and then contract that picture to the way the city looked prior to the construction of the bridge. At the Brooklyn tower, students must look at the bronze plaques around the walkway to answer questions about the methods of the bridge construction.
The program can be started from either the Brooklyn or the Manhattan side of the bridge, and we at Urban Oyster have developed content related to the bridge and New York City history for stops at a variety of different locations on both sides of the East River that can be combined to make this a full-day educational program.
If you would like to learn more about Urban Oyster's Brooklyn Bridge program, contact [email protected].
The booklet program is focused around the two towers of the bridge, where groups of students can gather to do collaborative exercises. At the Manhattan tower, they are asked to identify landforms in New York harbor and the transportation infrastructure that connects them, and then contract that picture to the way the city looked prior to the construction of the bridge. At the Brooklyn tower, students must look at the bronze plaques around the walkway to answer questions about the methods of the bridge construction.
The program can be started from either the Brooklyn or the Manhattan side of the bridge, and we at Urban Oyster have developed content related to the bridge and New York City history for stops at a variety of different locations on both sides of the East River that can be combined to make this a full-day educational program.
If you would like to learn more about Urban Oyster's Brooklyn Bridge program, contact [email protected].
New York City bridges
Transportation in New York harbor exercise
Study questions about the bridge cables
