&w=3840&q=100)
Fatal Mexican collision not the first to hit Brooklyn Bridge, it has been going on for nearly 150 years
A Mexican navy tall ship's fatal collision with the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday highlighted a hazard that has worried seafarers for nearly 150 years.
Even before construction on the bridge was finished in the late 19th century, the topmast of a passing US Navy ship hit the span's wires — and vessels continued to clip the iconic New York City structure for many years.
But historians say Saturday's crash appears to be the first boat collision with the bridge to take the lives of crew members. Two Mexican naval cadets died and more were injured after the training ship Cuauhtemoc's masts crashed into the bridge as dozens of sailors stood harnessed high up in rigging as part of a public display.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
'That's the first and possibly only time where there's been a fatality onboard of a ship that struck the Brooklyn Bridge,' said Dominique Jean-Louis, chief historian at the Center for Brooklyn History, part of the Brooklyn Public Library.
Opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge spans the East River, connecting its eponymous borough's downtown to Manhattan. The highest point of the bridge's underside is listed at 135 feet (41.1 metres) on average above the water, but it fluctuates with the tides.
During construction, a warehouse owner sued state officials — first to stop the bridge and then for compensation — arguing that some ships still had topmasts that exceeded the height. The case made it all the way up to the US Supreme Court, which dismissed the lawsuit, determining that the bridge did not unduly restrict ship navigation.
Before that decision, however, at least one ship had already tangled with the still-under-construction crossing.
According to an 1878 report in the New York Daily Tribune, the US Navy wooden steam training ship USS Minnesota was headed toward the high point of the bridge after planning ahead and lowering its topmast. But at the last minute, it had to change course to avoid an oncoming ship, sending it to an area with lower clearance and striking the bridge's wires. Nobody was reported injured.
the bridge was complete, steam ships were transporting the lion's share of goods, and high-masted ships were waning in importance, said Richard Haw, professor of interdisciplinary studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the author of two books about the Brooklyn Bridge.
'They go from sail ships to steam ships,' Haw said. 'You don't need a huge clearance.' Yet mast strikes continued, including at least two reported in the 1920s — one of which was with the US Navy's flagship USS Seattle, which had 'a little wooden pole that was a little too high," Jean-Louis said.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
In 1941, the SS Nyassa was bringing hundreds of refugees to New York City when the captain miscalculated the tide and part of its mast was bent into a right angle by the bridge's underspan, according to a New York Times article at the time that described a 'crunching sound.' Among the refugees on board was Hedwig Ehrlich, widow of the Nobel Prize-winning Jewish German scientist Paul Ehrlich, as she headed to live with daughters in San Francisco.
As the 20th century went on, ships got taller and wider. And they still required mast-like appendages for observation and communication.
A shipyard just north of the bridge, now known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard, churned out larger and larger ships during and after World War II, including aircraft carriers that could barely fit beneath the bridge.
One photo from 1961 shows the USS Constellation aircraft carrier leaving the navy yard and passing underneath the Brooklyn Bridge with a mast that folded down onto the ship's deck, specially designed to get out into the harbour.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
In the past two decades, at least three minor strikes have been reported against the bridge's underside or base, including a crane being pulled via barge in 2012, which tore into temporary scaffolding mounted underneath the bridge. A similar crane accident damaged peripheral bridge maintenance equipment in July of 2023, according to a Coast Guard incident report.
None of the modern accident reports document serious injuries.
But off the water, the bridge has been a site of tragedy long before Saturday's crash. More than 20 people were killed and countless crippled while building it, including workers injured by decompression sickness, a little-understood affect of working in underwater in boxes sunk to the riverbed.
Twelve people died in a panic-driven stampede among crowds visiting the bridge shortly after it opened to the public in 1883.
(Except headline, this story has not been edted by Firstpost staff)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
What is an USS Fitzgerald? Meet the US Navy destroyer that Iran allegedly encountered in international waters
On Wednesday, Iran allegedly warned a U.S. destroyer to alter direction after it entered the waters that Iran was watching, causing the U.S. destroyer to retreat, the Iranian state media reported. (Reprsentational image) The USS Fitzgerald allegedly encountered an Iranian helicopter in international waters, with each side presenting differing accounts of the event. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP)(AFP) The incident occurred around 10:50 a.m. on Wednesday in international waters near the Gulf of Oman, according to U.S. officials. ALSO READ| Airman's death at FE Warren Air Force Base sparks ban on Sig Sauer guns: Here's what happened US Navy warship and an Iranian military helicopter cite conflicting accounts An Iranian SH-3 'Sea King' helicopter flew near the Fitzgerald in what Iranian state-controlled media described as a defensive manoeuvre. Reports out of Iran claimed the warship was approaching Iranian-controlled waters in a provocative move. 'This interaction had no impact to USS Fitzgerald's mission and any reports claiming otherwise are falsehoods and attempts by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to spread misinformation,' a U.S. defense official told Fox News, pushing back hard against Iran's narrative. 'U.S. Central Command will continue to operate safely and professionally in accordance with internationally recognized norms and customs,' the official added. Iranian media cited that the Sea King helicopter flew over the Fitzgerald and warned the ship to change course. The report claims the U.S. vessel responded with a threat, but the Iranian pilot stayed on mission and repeated the warning. At that point, Iranian military defense systems declared the chopper under full protection, and then only the ship allegedly altered its course and exited the area. What exactly is the USS Fitzgerald? The USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer designed to protect U.S. Navy fleets and allies from multiple threats. It's equipped with the Aegis Combat System, which can track and engage multiple airborne, surface, and subsurface threats simultaneously. ALSO READ| US approves $322 million in arms for Ukraine amid escalating tensions Named after Lieutenant William Charles Fitzgerald, a Vietnam War hero, the ship was commissioned in 1995 and is homeported at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, under the U.S. Seventh Fleet. The Fitzgerald can perform a range of missions, including ballistic missile defense, anti-air warfare, and escort operations. However, in 2017, it suffered a collision with a Philippine-flagged container ship off the coast of Japan, claiming seven U.S. sailors.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Time of India
Rainy season brings back plant swap in Jaipur
Plant swap in Jaipur Jaipur's conscious and aware citizens know the importance of a green world. So to promote sustainability and green space, and spread awareness, a unique plant swap was organised at Central Park. The event, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, witnessed plant lovers, fellow gardeners gathering in huge numbers to exchange plants, saplings and seeds and make their garden greener and richer. There was a huge variety of plants like portulaca, purslane, Mexican petunia, bottle palm, adenium, that were exchanged. Plant lovers from different parts of the city came with a lot of enthusiasm to participate in the event. Sunil Joshi, plant-enthusiast and an expert came all the way from Sikar to be a part of it. He not only distributed a variety of plants, saplings and cuttings but also shared valuable insight about plant care with fellow plant lovers. Shared Joshi, "Gone are the days when selection of plants was made only for landscaping purposes. Now they are being used to purify the environment. And I am glad that more and more people are becoming aware of it. I desperately wait for the event so that I can share plants with other plant enthusiasts and contribute to saving the environment." Neelam, one of the co-organiser of the event said, "We keep organising plant swap events and people love to attend them. For a sustainable lifestyle we need more green space. And there is no better way but to exchange and distribute plants."
Mint
05-07-2025
- Mint
Like most great love stories, the mango is all about pining
My friend N turned out to be a mango smuggler. His family owned a mango orchard in Tamil Nadu. The Imam Pasand mangoes from that orchard were the stuff of family legend. But N rarely got a taste of the mangoes in their prime. For an Indian immigrant in the US, fresh mangoes from home were forbidden fruit. Mangoes from India, like most agricultural products from abroad, were strictly banned in the US. One year while visiting home, N was unable to resist the temptation. He buried some not-quite-ripe mangoes deep inside his hand luggage. But over the course of the long transcontinental flight from India, they slowly ripened in the overhead compartment of the aircraft. When he landed in the US, his heart was thudding. He said he was convinced that every customs agent and their sniffer dogs would surely zero in on him and his contraband cargo. It wasn't quite a case of exploding mangoes but close enough. Also read: My mother, the family's memory-keeper The mango has always been the ultimate distillation of desi immigrant nostalgia in one fruit. Because Indian mangoes were long barred from the US, desi immigrants had to make do with Filipino and Mexican pretenders while dreaming of Alphonsos, Himsagars and Langdas ripening in orchards back home. It was the 2008 US-India nuclear deal that finally resulted in an Indian mango detente. President George W. Bush warmed many Indian hearts when he said, 'The United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes." The shrink-wrapped mango with stickers proclaiming 'Treated by Irradiation" (to eliminate pests and increase shelf life) is a far cry from the mango summers of India when pyramids of the golden, red and green fruit pile up in the markets, ripening slowly in the muggy heat. Only one or two varieties were cleared for import, like the Alphonso, from a country that boasted of some 1,500 kinds of mangoes. But the irradiated pricey mango, had finally been offered a pathway to legal immigration, was the symbol of a changing world. As well as India's growing soft power. I remember going down to my local Indian grocery store in Silicon Valley and seeing the first sealed boxes of 'legal" Alphonsos. I had to buy a whole box, at a hefty price; there was no picking and choosing, no pressing the flesh to test the ripeness. I worried if irradiated and healthy, the freshly naturalised mango might also have had their lifeblood zapped out them along with every potential bug. But at least it was better than trying to relive the taste of Indian mangoes through a dented tin of mango pulp from the local Indian supermarket. That mango mazaa American story hit a roadblock recently. In May, 15 shipments of Indian mangoes were rejected by US authorities at ports of entry like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta. After getting irradiated, mangoes need to procure a Form PPQ 203 to comply with agricultural requirements for entry into the US. The mangoes were irradiated, but USDA (US department of agriculture) claimed the PPQ 203 was 'incorrectly issued"—apparently a case of mangoes that did not mind their P's and Q's. The exporters argued otherwise, but $500,000 worth of mangoes were dumped at the border anyway. The spurned shipments of mango now begged the question—is there still room for Indian mangoes in MAGA America? A friend quipped that America barring the mango from India while the US President warns Apple not to go to India shows we are living in a time of strange fruit indeed. As Billie Holiday sang, 'Here is a strange and bitter crop." At one time, for generations of South Asian immigrants, the mango was a symbol of loss and somehow all the sweeter for it. It became the stuff of cliches. In her 2021 essay on the mango in Literary Hub, writer Urvi Kumbhat points out that in the 1999 novel by Atima Srivastava Looking for Maya, a character sneers at diasporic writing as being all about 'mangoes and coconuts and grandmothers." (I plead guilty. When I eventually published a novel myself, I had both mangoes and grandmothers in it, as well as some coconut oil.) Twitterverse even came up with the mocking term 'mango diaspora poetry" for all that bad poetry out there where mango serves as a stand-in for heritage, loss and erotic longing, sticky fingers, dripping juice and all. Kumbhat writes, 'In mango poetry, the accusation goes, the homeland is superficial and populated with tropes—it reinscribes an exoticizing gaze even while claiming belonging and authenticity." Bangladeshi-American poet Tarfia Faizullah asks in her poem Self-Portrait as a Mango, 'Doesn't a mango just win spelling bees and kiss white boys? Isn't a mango a placeholder in a poem filled with burkas?" As Kumbhat points out, the poem denounces desi stereotypes in the diaspora like spelling bees but it uses the mango, which is as much a cliche itself. The mango, clearly, is hard to escape or deny. That's probably because we just love it and cannot deny that love. Like all true love, it's messy. At a time when New York mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani is being attacked by some for being 'uncivilised" enough to eat with his hands, a mango remains the epitome of messy eating. I am waiting for a video of Mamdani eating a mango. And like most great love stories, the mango is all about pining. The very unavailability of the Indian mango in the US was part of its allure. The mango was the price of immigration, a reminder that we could not have it all—a cushy Silicon Valley lifestyle and perfectly ripened mangoes, a season both fleeting and sweet, perhaps all the more sweet because it is fleeting. When I moved back to India from California, as summer approached, friends and family wondered how I would weather my first full-fledged Kolkata summer in years. 'But at least I will have mangoes," I would reply. And I did. By then the Alphonso was already readily and legally available in the US, especially in South Asian grocery stores but it still didn't compare to the mango bonanza India had to offer, the many varieties that marked the progress of an Indian summer like some golden metronome. At my home in Kolkata, the Gulab Khas with its red blush was the harbinger of summer, followed by the silky smooth Himsagar and then the meaty Langda. I ate them all with relish and posted pictures on social media to gloat to my NRI friends. In fact when boxes of Alphonso first showed up in California, I wondered (even as I bought myself one) if it was not a mixed blessing. Would I still love the mango so dearly if the next time I walked into my regular supermarket I found them piled at the entrance like watermelon, 99 cents a pound? I took some reassurance in the fact that though the Alphonso was coming to the US, for the other 1,499 varieties one needed to go back home and brave an Indian summer. Or American customs. My friend could never figure out why the sniffer dogs and the customs agent didn't zero in on him and his richly aromatic contraband fruit. Perhaps if he had been an Indian aunty, they would have paid more attention. Indian mothers are well-known for trying to smuggle in the taste of home for their homesick offspring. N was so sick with relief at having escaped the eagle eyes of customs officials, he said, he gave the 'illegal" mangoes away to friends. Mangoes without papers, illegal aliens in America, they quickly vanished into the great American melting pot leaving no sticky trace behind. But now as America tightens the screws on immigration, ratchets up trade wars and rounds up those without papers, might it be time for the undocumented mango again? Cult Friction is a fortnightly column on issues we keep rubbing up against. Sandip Roy is a writer, journalist and radio host. He posts @sandipr. Also read: World Music Day: When mixtapes were a labour of love
