John David Jackson, or Fabolous, was born in the City and raised in Brooklyn. He is a rapper who first gained recognition as a senior in high school during the 90s. His original stage name was actually Fabolous Sport, before he decided to just go with Fabolous.
Going with Cold Summer because has anybody checked the weather? High of 80 for the next week and storms nearly every day at the end of June, wow. I mean I don’t mind it, great for my pale and pasty self, but this is a tough time for all you tanners out there.
(Also, after Taylor Swift spooked me out on her Vigilante Sh!t of course subconsciously I probably felt the need to go with hip/hop the next day.)
Dammit, I really thought this Stumblin’ Along was going to lead to a Pint&Pen&Paper interview with Loso, I should’ve already known so.
Since we know Fab ain’t reading this, how are Dalmatians in real life? I’ve heard mixed reviews like they might be a bit aggressive but at the end of the day, dogs are more so reflect their owner. Apparently, both the 1960s cartoon movie and the one that came out in 1996 made the breed very popular. Breeders tried keeping up with the demand combined with many people wanting to own the breed just because of the movies not knowing they were high energy type of dogs - boom they get a bad rep. (Source: Daily Mail UK)
Yessir!
Ouch!
Alright, on to some Stumblin’ Along on the…
Manhattan Bridge
A bit of backstory, this was taken on January 14 earlier this year. Only 2 weeks into the #GuinnessChallengeSeason, it was freezing outside so that also can play into Cold Summer. The bridge arch looked cool so I had to capture a moment for Stumblin’ Along…
The Manhattan Bridge connects Chinatown in Lower Manhattan with Downtown Brooklyn, crossing the East River. It’s got 7 lanes for cars, buses, and trucks; plus 4 train lines, and a pedestrian walkway with a separate bikeway. An estimated 76k vehicles, 2,700 pedestrians, and 6,200 cyclists travel over the Manhattan Bridge each day, so it’s pretty popular.
Leon Moisseiff was the chief engineer who designed the Manhattan Bridge. He was born in Riga, Latvia on November 10, 1872. Latvia at the time was actually at the time a part of the Russian Empire. Moisseiff moved to the US in 1891 with his family. 5 years later and after receiving a civil engineering degree from Columbia, he became an American citizen. He was so happy about living in America that he named one of his daughters Liberty. Moisseiff would soon join the New York City Bridge Department where he would implement his deflection theory of suspension bridges. He successfully laid the framework for the Manhattan Bridge, was part of the designing of the Golden Gate Bridge, and unfortunately was head of the building of the Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge. As the leading engineer, Moisseif called the Tacoma Narrows “the most beautiful bridge in the world” which would go on to collapse just 4 months after being constructed due to a windstorm. This would ultimately lead to Moisseiff’s career reputation being ruined and he passed away in Belmar, New Jersey just 3 years after his Tacoma failure. Not going to lie, the beginning of his bio was very promising, an absolute bummer towards the end but even so, his deflection theory was studied and improved upon. (Source: PBS)
The deflection theory for suspension bridges is essentially the idea that the longer spans (the top arches the cables connect) are from one another combined with heavier suspended structures factors into why the stiffness of the bridge itself needs to decrease. I’m sorry if that doesn't make total sense, I’ve tried asking Siri to explain this to me like I’m a 4-year-old, and she told me to kick rocks. The less stiffness required in the bridge is the reason sometimes if you’re on a bridge driving or walking it feels like it’s moving - it’s designed that way. Back to the Manhattan Bridge…
Construction on the Manhattan Bridge started in 1901. Deflection theory was a radical new concept for how to build a bridge at the time. Its design helped save on cost, material, and construction time. $10 million in 1904 ($341,715,730.34 today) was granted for the construction of the bridge. When it was first built, it was going to just simply named “Bridge Number 3” because the Brooklyn & Williamsburg Bridges were already around. The Board of Members figured that would be kind of dull and so they decided on Manhattan. The New York Times at the time hated the new name, holding the opinion that all bridges across the East River could be called Manhattan Bridge and therefore it should have been named something more significant. (Source: NY Rent Own Sell) Let it be known, the name is fine, Week to Week Notes has no take on the name. Name neutral.
It took 9 years for the Manhattan Bridge to be completed as it opened on December 31, 1909. Stringing the cable across the East River took only about 4 months in 1908 while laying the foundation took up the majority of the work. There is very little information on the internet about the workers that built the bridge, but I’d have to assume it was Irish immigrants because we all already know they built The City. Subway cars were added to the bridge in 1917 and this only added to the sway of the bridge which needed to be reconstructed in 1956 to fix the tilt. To this day, there are still repairs and renovations that need to be done to maintain the bridge, but the sway will always be there due to its design, remember that.
Today Dumbo, Brooklyn is the neighborhood Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Previously it was named Irishtown and was a very popular spot for The Famine Irish to settle on the Brooklyn waterfront after the Great Hunger. Most of the people who lived in Irishtown were shipbuilders, longshoremen, firemen, or factory workers. The residents of Irishtown became known for their spirits as they were famous for their homemade, illegal whiskey distilleries. Brooklyn’s Irishtown was very similar to Manhattan’s Five Points, except much more secretive. As the famous bank robber Willie Sutton (born on Nassau and Gold streets in Irishtown) once quipped, “a code of silence was observed in Irishtown more faithfully than omertà is observed by the Mafia... Nobody ever talked in Irishtown.” (Source: Irish Central)
The Manhattan Bridge Arch and Colonnade were finished in 1916. The classical Beaux-Arts style of the early 20th century was designed by John M. Carrere and Thomas Hastings. (Source: HDC.org) These two were also responsible for how the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and West 42nd Street was made. Both have the same style, I never knew I was a fan of classical Beaux-Arts architecture. The art depicted on the arches depicts the Spirit of Commerce on the north side and the Spirit of Industry on the south side. They were sculpted by Carl Augustus Heber, who also sculpted statues on the Brooklyn end of the bridge, which ended up being moved to the Brooklyn Museum.
For the Manhattan Bridge’s 100th anniversary, it was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Manhattan Bridge is considered the first modern suspension bridge and the earliest to use slender “two-dimensional” steel towers. One last factoid, from 1909 to 1924 the Manhattan Bridge was the world’s third-longest bridge in the world. (Source: American Society of Civil Engineers)
@YouTheReader Honestly, I just thought the arch looked cool as I was freezing my arse searching for my next pub in January…