Brooklyn Bridge a celebratory banquet at his house on the day of the bridge opening. Further festivity included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display. Since the New York and Brooklyn Bridge was the only one across the East River at that time, it was also called East River Bridge. On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed what was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge. The bridge's main span over the East River is 1,595 feet 6 inches
New Utrecht, Brooklyn New Utrecht, Brooklyn New Utrecht () was a town in western Long Island, New York, located in the present-day Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. New Utrecht was established in 1652 by Dutch settlers in the English colony of Province of New York, the last of the original six towns to be founded in Kings County. New Utrecht ceased to exist in 1894 when it was annexed by the City of Brooklyn, and became part of the City of Greater New York when Brooklyn joined as a borough in 1898. In 1643, Anthony Janszoon van Salee, a half-Dutch, half-Moroccan