The Brooklyn Bridge

Picture This! Brooklyn Bridge invites students and educators to engage with various aspects of the Brooklyn Bridge’s role in New York City from its conception and construction to its status as an international landmark.

Students will investigate chapters from the Bridge’s long history through archival primary sources, popular culture references, and contextualizing secondary sources. These resources will allow students to better understand how the Brooklyn Bridge both shaped and was shaped by the growth of New York City.

Downloadable PDFs

Why Study the Brooklyn Bridge?

As an iconic landmark, the Brooklyn Bridge has played a central role in the development of Brooklyn and New York City since its official opening in 1883. According to a 2016 report from the New York City Department of Transportation an average of 100,000 motor vehicles, 10,000 pedestrians, and 3,500 cyclists cross the Brooklyn Bridge every weekday. As a result, the Brooklyn Bridge continues to be an important part of day-to-day life in Brooklyn.

Picture This! Brooklyn Bridge is designed to help students develop visual analysis and critical thinking skills while gaining the valuable experience of doing non-text-based research.

Picture This!: Brooklyn Bridge includes:

Primary and secondary materials from the BHS collection and other archives, including photographs, newspapers, and magazine articles.
Critical thinking questions and document-analysis activities to help students observe, question, analyze and interpret the material.
A Teacher’s Guide, with lesson plans, historical background information, time lines, teaching ideas, guiding questions, extension activities, and reproducible activity sheets.

Thanks to Our Partners

Our Brooklyn Bridge Case Study program, including free walking tours, in-class sessions, and an educational video, have been made possible by generous funding from National Grid.