A Poem of Granite and Steel.

Ever since its completion in 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge has fascinated the American public. Every feature of the built and natural landscape contributes to the spell: the intricate web of steel cables suggesting both delicacy and strength, the massive granite towers standing like twin Gothic gateways to Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the East River flowing dark and swift to the harbor below. A popular ballad of the 1880s, "The Highway in the Air," captured the romantic aura of the new bridge. Young New Yorkers of the late nineteenth century warbled: I firmly hope and trust, that the Highway in the air,
Will unite the two cities by the sea,
In interest and affection, and that the wedded pair,
Will give a loving Brooklyn Bride to me.
More than a century later New Yorkers' romance with its "highway in...