On April 1, 1949, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was full of news of workers on strike. The headline for the day announced that a taxi strike was on and "90% tied up," meaning that all but 701 of the city's 11,510 taxicabs had refused to start their engines. Meanwhile, CIO radio operators at Pan-American Airways had launched a strike over deadlocked contract negotiations, and in a slim article further down the page, readers learned that 7,000 brewery workers from Brooklyn's 14 major breweries--still at the top of its game in '49--had also organized and begun picketing. On the brewery workers' list of demands were an increase in pay, a shorter workweek, a pension plan, and a new, mandatory two-person model for deliveries

The Williamsburg Bridge ca. 1905 The Williamsburg Bridge opened to the public on December 19, 1903, spanning the East River and connecting Manhattan’s Lower East Side with the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. It was designed by American Civil Engineer Leffert L. Buck and architect Henry Hornbostel who would later also collaborate on the design of the nearby Queensboro Bridge. This time period coincided with a massive population growth in New York City, prompting an ease of movement between boroughs and necessitating the need for more connections. The Williamsburg Bridge was the second permanent structure to connect Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn following the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883. Construction began in 1896 and cost the city $24.2 million in total. At the time of it’s opening, the Williamsburg Bridge was officially the longest running suspension bridge in the world, spanning a total of 7,308 feet. The structure would hold this title until 1924, when the Bear Mountain Bridge opened in upstate New York. The Williamsburg Bridge was one of the last bridges built in New York City designed for the purpose of trolley use. In the decades after it opened, railways and trolley lines accounted for most of the traffic on the bridge. To accommodate the growing frequency of automobile drivers, the trolley tracks were closed and converted into roadways in 1932.

Little boys standing on the south side of Broadway between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue, ca. 1975. The elevated subway trestle east of the Williamsburg Bridge is visible between buildings at right.

Williamsburg Power Station on Kent Avenue, ca. 1905. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company Power Station was completed in 1905, at the far northeastern corner of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It provided power to BRT lines until 1950, when it was converted for use by Consolidated Edison. The station ceased operations in 1999 and was demolished in 2008, over the objections of preservationists.

411-415 Bedford Avenue, ca. 1975. Cast iron architecture is most well known in New York City in the SoHo and a few excellent examples in Fulton Ferry and Downtown Brooklyn. Williamsburg also had a smattering of cast iron building, including most notably the Smith, Gray & Co. building on Broadway and Bedford Avenue. This pair of cast iron facades, seen here in a 1970s era photograph, are unfortunately, no longer extant. The buildings still stand but the facades are now brick, and the fenestration (the arrangement of windows) has been drastically altered.

Williamsburg was incorporated into Bushwick as the "Village of Williamsburgh" within the Town of Bushwick in 1827. After two years, it had a population of over 1,000, a fire department, and a post office. Its prime location on the East River encouraged industrialists to build shipyards around Williamsburg. As such, it became a hub of industry. In 1840, Williamsburg separated from the Town of Bushwick and became the Town of Williamsburg. Edmund Smith Driggs, a Williamsburg resident, was elected the first president of the Village in 1850. Driggs Avenue is named after him. It became the City of Williamsburg (then discarding the 'h' in 1855 and was organized into three wards. Finally, in 1898 Brooklyn became one of the high boroughs within NYC and so Williamsburg became part of the City of Greater New York. The Williamsburg Bridge was opened shortly after.

Smith Building, ca. 1977. Smith-Gray, was a popular manufacturer and retailer of boys and men’s clothing in New York City. In the mid 1870s they moved into a new building on the corner of South 8th Street and Bedford Avenue, after outgrowing a number of other spaces in the Williamsburg area. That four-story, iron-fronted structure, called the Lyceum Building, was destroyed in a fire in 1888. The building that replaced the destroyed one is seen here at right. Called the Smith Building, it was designed by Peter J. Lauritzen, who would go on to construct other stores for the Smith-Gray Company. The building was demolished in the late 20th century and today the lot (and those around it) are occupied by a large apartment house.

Smith, Gray & Company Building ARCHITECT: attributed to William H. Gaynor DATE: 1870 STYLE: Cast-iron The Smith, Gray & Co. Building is an early, significantly intact, 5-story and 25-foot-wide cast-iron-fronted store-and-loft building in Brooklyn. The firm was founded by tailor Edward Smith, who began his business in 1833. This structure, constructed in 1870, is attributed to William H. Gaylor, a prominent Brooklyn architect who designed three other cast-iron-fronted structures for Smith between 1873 and 1884. This iron front was fabricated by George R. Jackson & Sons, and the builders were probably Thomas and William Lamb who, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, built all of Smith, Gray’s stores. Typical of cast iron designs in the Second Empire style, the building’s main facade features tiered upper stories with segmental-arched fenestration framed by Corinthian columns and pilasters.

99 Broadway entrance detail, ca. 1975.

109 South 6th Street, ca. 1975. This Romanesque Revival/Queen Anne building was constructed in 1891 and designed by William H. Gaylor. originally built as the Bedford Avenue Theatre, it opened in October of 1891 with a production of a musical called Jolly Surprise. The theatre became the Empire Theatre in 1893 and by 1903 its life as a theatre was over. The construction of entrance roadways for the new Williamsburg Bridge caused the entire back half of building, including the stage, to be demolished. In the 1930s the building became a warehouse for the Fruitcrest Corporation (the painted sign is seen on the side facade in this photograph). Fruitcrest was a manufacturer of jams, jellies, and fruit juices. The company later developed the popular Juicy Juice and moved out of this building, first to Long Island, then to California. After Fruitcrest vacated the building it suffered from deterioration. In 2007 it was purchased by a fitness company that completely restored the exterior. Today, the red brick and terra cotta trim and medallions are in excellent condition.

Williamsburg Bridge from South 6th and Berry Streets, April 28, 1937. Whereas the Brooklyn Bridge served to unite two independent cities, the Williamsburg Bridge (also spelled "Williamsburgh"), completed after the consolidation of Greater New York, functioned as a highway within the single, larger city. The Williamsburg, the first all-steel suspension bridge, had been proposed as early as 1882, even before the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, but its realization was long opposed by powerful ferry interests. Residents of Brooklyn's Williamsburg section felt that the area was suffering economically and in status after the Brooklyn Bridge opened and focused attention on Manhattan and away from their neighborhood. In addition, construction of the Brooklyn Bridge had escalated the population and property values in the city of Brooklyn; simultaneously the growth rate of the village of Williamsburg (also known as the Eastern District) declined. After the Williamsburg Bridge opened, the few orthodox Jews who had earlier settled in Williamsburg, one of the many small towns that comprised Brooklyn, were soon joined by many other Jewish immigrants who fled the squalor of Manhattan's overcrowded Lower East Side tenements. Although not considered as aesthetically satisfying as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Williamsburg enjoyed its own renown. It was the first suspension bridge to feature towers made entirely of steel, and the 110-foot depths to which its caissons were sunk represented a new engineering accomplishment. When finally completed, the Williamsburg was the longest suspension bridge in the world, 4.5 feet longer than the Brooklyn Bridge. For five years after the Williamsburg opened, the City was unable to coordinate mass transportation activities for it; only walkers, cyclists, and privately-owned carriages used the span. In 1908, the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad Company (later the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co., now the BMT) became the first mass transportation line to cross the bridge.

View of the Williamsburg Bridge from South 6th and Berry Streets. Berenice Abbott, April 28, 1937.

Take a walk from the Williamsburg Bridge to admire the neighborhood as it was and still is.