Old stuff is cool

Here's a great essay from Rands in Repose on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Completely fascinating.

In the late 1800s, the Brooklyn Bridge was built with no power tools, no heavy machinery, and only a basic, evolving understanding of how to make steel. It’s not these facts, but the stories surrounding the facts that inspire me when I take a good, long stare at a suspension bridge.

When you're done reading that, head on over to Shorpy.com, to see some great images from NYC (among other places) from the late 19th/early 20th century.


(Queensboro Bridge, 1909, via shorpy.com)

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.

Striking.

Thanks to Becky, for pointing me in the direction of Rands in Repose, and kottke.org, for exposing me--heh heh heh--to Shorpy.