As the second (and some say much less attractive) bridge spanning the East River, the Williamsburg Bridge didn’t score the same adulation as the Brooklyn Bridge did.
Opened in 1903 and until the 1920s the longest suspension bridge in the world, the humble Williamsburg sparked the migration of thousands of Jewish immigrants from the cramped Lower East Side to slightly more spacious Brooklyn.
The bridge scored such heavy traffic from Jewish New Yorkers in the early 1900s, the tabloid-ish New York Tribune called it the “Jews’ Highway.'”
“In its early years, the walkway, which was wide enough for pushcarts, was so crowded with peddlers transporting their wares to and from Manhattan that one newspaper dubbed it the ‘Jews’ Highway,'” writes Victor Lederer in the Brooklyn Historical Society’s Williamsburg.
Watch a fantastic news clip of opening day on the bridge and the top-hatted dignitaries who ceremoniously walked across it first.
[Photo: Jews praying on the Williamsburg Bridge, New Year’s Day, 1909, from the LOC]
Tags: East River bridges, Jewish migration Brooklyn, Jews Praying Williamsburg Bridge, Jews' Bridge Williamsburg, Jews' Highway, Opening Day, Williamsburg before hipsters, Williamsburg Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge Jews
Ephemeral New York 
July 10, 2014 at 6:09 am |
I live in California…….(third generation….an unusual thing!)
I love reading about this wonderful story. I did live in New York City for almost a year…..1969-1970!
The city was going bankrupt; there was an enormous financial collapse….(I still understand NOTHING about it!!)
I did understand one thing! I was 23 ; I saw houses on the east river (above Sutton Place; my in-laws had an apartment at 2 Sutton Place South); I saw those townhouses with gardens across the street….and I wished I liked New York better to live there!
Those divine townhouses were selling for nothing….(well..it sounded like nothing to me….the house I bought in Pasadena that year….$39,500.00!
Last time it sold, $1.500,000.00! Yikes!
I love New York to visit…..and I love your blog! The time I lived there I was sleuthing around!
and it is my very favorite place on earth to visit!
Thank you for the lovely connection!
Penelope
July 10, 2014 at 12:43 pm |
My grandparents lived in Brooklyn, where my parents, me and my siblings were born. My mother’s father worked a pushcart in Harlem. By the time I was born he was retired and sadly passed away when I was 2. My earliest memories were of him taking me to the beach. I always had so many questions for him and what he did.
July 10, 2014 at 2:03 pm |
The writer Henry Miller was a Williamsburg native. In his autobiographical novel “The Tropic of Capricorn” he mentioned the sudden influx of Jews from the LES into “his” neighborhood once the bridge had opened. He wasn’t happy about the change.
July 10, 2014 at 3:46 pm |
Miller had strong feelings about his Williamsburg childhood. He called the neighborhood “tender with violence,” his youth there a “sojourn in paradise.” And his old home still stands:
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/driggs-avenue-henry-millers-early-paradise/
July 11, 2014 at 11:58 am |
Love your blog. Always fascinating how we got to where we are now. Thanks
July 11, 2014 at 1:31 pm |
Thank you!
July 11, 2014 at 7:01 pm |
Your ‘ephemera’ lives again, reminding one of how difficult it can be for newcomers to America, eager to fit in, to survive. Thank you.
July 11, 2014 at 10:42 pm |
You are welcome, thanks for reading!
July 14, 2014 at 1:27 am |
[…] be vulgar on the street, you dick [Gothamist] · Looks like Lyft is illegal [WSJ] · “Jews’ Highway” on the Williamsburg Bridge [ENY] · Bushwick warehouse to become restaurant [BBH] · Private school chauffeurs steal […]
July 17, 2014 at 3:59 pm |
Great news clip! Love the hats and coats that the men wore.
September 23, 2020 at 8:37 pm |
Always wondered why they had a “Jewish Sign” on the rest room
in the tower on the Manhatten side which I use to walk across in the 30’s & 40’s