Author: jbw2134 (Jeremy White)

By Jeremy B. White On Good Friday, churches across Brooklyn vibrated with activity as clergy prepared for what would be perhaps the busiest weekend of the year. But not all of them. The Church of St. Edward the Confessor had the closed-off, forbidding look of a medieval castle. Overcast skies hung low over the Fort...

Brooklyn’s biggest industry is growing. The state budget is shrinking. Something will have to give.

People don’t think much about infrastructure. They wax poetic and write books about the iconic stone of the Brooklyn Bridge, but its younger sibling in Williamsburg generally registers on the same level as a road or a subway line. We decided to dig a little deeper, and here’s what we found: a bridge that spans...

By Elisabeth Anderson Who knew?  People are talking about the Williamsburg Bridge online.  A lot.  The span boasts a big following on social networks where bridge-related tips, tweets, check-ins and likes abound. On Facebook: 163 people like Williamsburg Bridge – Landmark on Facebook.  That’s 163 folks bothering to like a static page that provides nothing...

By Joe Deaux Frankly, the Williamsburg Bridge is ugly. That’s what Scientific American thought when it reported in 1903 that the-then newly completed bridge was “destined to be popular more on account of its size and usefulness than its graceful lines.” John Roebling, designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, had said there was a need to have...

By Jeremy B. White It’s perfectly safe to traverse the Williamsburg bridge by car, bike or subway. This hasn’t always been the case. A video clip from the TLC show “Understanding: Bridge Infrastructure” illustrates the dire state of the Williamsburg bridge in the late 1980’s. Ominous music plays over shots of decaying supports under the...

By Melanie Brisbon The Brooklyn Bridge may have the acclaim, but the Williamsburg Bridge has the numbers.  The Williamsburg Bridge spans 7200 feet with 1600 feet between its towers, compared to the Brooklyn Bridge which is only 6,016 feet long. The Williamsburg Bridge also includes 17,500 miles of cable, which alone weigh 4,344 tons. Though...

By Lillian Rizzo The closure of a Pathmark in Sheepshead Bay raises a serious question beyond where to shop: what becomes of the businesses next door? The Atlantic and Pacific Company announced in mid-February that the Nostrand Avenue’s Pathmark would be one of the 31 stores nation-wide to close since the company filed for Chapter...

By Jeremy B. White When Erii Lowe goes shopping in East New York, he likes to have a lot of options. Money is tight and the small bodegas that dominate the neighborhood are too expensive, so he travels to four or five stores a day, seeking discounts he finds in the newspaper. On a recent...