THE “BRIDGE & TUNNEL” CROWD (1903)
Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes.
The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations.
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In 1896, the “Bridge & Tunnel” hipster crowd took a giant leap forward.
With the success of the Brooklyn Bridge – and its affect on the borough’s progress – long ago assured, construction on the Williamsburg Bridge had begun that year.
Shortly after the bridge’s opening in 1903, though, the seriousness of the occasion passed, and the inevitable cartoons lampooning the “simple folk” of the outer boroughs would begin to appear.
This cartoon was printed in The Evening World about a year after the opening – just long enough afterwards for the cartoonist – and everyone else who traveled the bridge on a regular basis – to have already become familiar with the “types” who crossed the bridge.
It lampooned the “country mouse comes to the city” aspect of those suburbanites (rural dwellers, to those living in the city) from the outer borough of Brooklyn who were beginning at the time to patronize the offerings of the city through its novel and accessible rapid transit system. The cartoon also depicted the out-of-date dress and forced style of the Williamsburg “set.”
Specifically, though, it represented the new access to the city that the commuters from the Eastern District of Brooklyn (read Williamsburg) then enjoyed due to the recent addition of the new suspension bridge spanning the East River.
Its caption read: “Henny and Gertie who live in Williamsburg, are on their way to New York to see a show.”
As 1903 dawned, in a foreordaining of the hipster movement, it was clear that the Bridge & Tunnel crowd had “arrived.”
(The video below shows the seriousness, the fanfare, and the ceremony involved in the opening day festivities, as outgoing progressive Mayor Seth Low and his administration lead the way across the bridge.)
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