ABSTRACT
Henry Hornbostel's and Gustav Lindenthal's work on New York's bridges, including the cast-iron details that figure prominently within their designs, suggests a reconsideration of apparent hegemony of America's great suspension bridges. These structures are too iconic in the literature of architectural modernism and, more generally, the American built environment to be easily displaced. But a closer examination of these earlier works shows that cast-iron elements were often seen as substantial advances in the proto-modern tradition of architecture. Such elements played a pivotal role in development of bridges of number of varieties, at precisely a time when such structures were especially influential in development and interpretation of the American built environment. The Queensboro Bridge began as a demonstration that a collaborating engineer and architect, working with both iron and steel, could improve the appearance of a cantilever bridge. The engineering in new Williamsburg Bridge may have been sound, but the artistic results were poorly received by both the press and professionals.
