Main Span: 1600 ft (488 m)
Manhattan to Brooklyn

When it was opened in 1903, the Williamsburg Bridge was the longest, heaviest suspension bridge in the world. It was constructed in seven years, just half the time it took to build the Brooklyn Bridge. The Williamsburg Bridge was designed by Leffert Buck and was widely criticized for being “ugly,” although it is, in fact, a well–built bridge of marvelous strength, supporting two subway tracks in addition to traffic lanes. Unlike the Brooklyn Bridge, the designers made no attempt to disguise the metal structure under stone cladding.