Manhattan Bridge from Pike Street, NYC

The Manhattan Bridge and Pike Street seen from Madison Street, New York City, 1946. All buildings are gone. Photograph by Todd Webb. Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Manhattan Bridge opened to traffic on December 31, 1909. It connects Chinatown in Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. The Manhattan entrance to the bridge is distinguished by a stone portal and vast plaza, designed by the architectural team of Carrère and Hastings, which also designed the main branch of the New York Public Library, on Fifth Avenue.

In 2009, the bridge's centennial year, it was designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2022, an average of over 70,000 vehicles, 3,000 pedestrians and 6,000 cyclists travel over the Manhattan Bridge each day. The bridge supports seven lanes of vehicular traffic, four transit train lines, a pedestrian walkway and a separate bikeway.