El Puente de Brooklyn by Jose Marti is a poetically written description of the construction of the Brooklyn bridge and it’s affect on the people of Brooklyn. Marti uses many metaphors and similes to describe the many aspects of the bridge and it’s towers, and cables, and it being suspended. Marti also goes into great accurate description of the bridge itself: how much it cost (“120.000,000 de libras” 424), how long (“90 pies de distancia”), how tall (“276 1/3 pies de alto”)… etc.

The more important aspect of this essay is the relation between the bridge and the people it affects. This bridge, 15 years in the making, connected the people of Brooklyn with the people of New York. “Palpita en estos dias mas generosamente la sangre en las venas de los asombrados y alegres neoyorquinos” (423). These people: the Hewbrews, Irish, German, Hungarian, Blacks, Japanese, Russians and Chinese, all of a sudden had something to connect them to “un mundo grandioso, que alegra el espiritu” (425). Their lives before the construction of this bridge was disconnected from the city, and cramped and crowded where “las cabezas eminented de los policias… que ordenan la turba” (424). The people see this bridge as a step into modernity, into a new cultural society; for these immigrants it’s a step closer to the “libertad” that they are seeking in this new country.

Marti strongly supports this bridge and lyrically discusses that there are no risks of the bridge failing. He also pays tribute to “[los] trabajadores desconocidos, oh martires hermosos, entrañas de la grandeza, cimiento de la fabrica eterna, gusanos de la gloria!” (430)

I enjoyed this reading, although the poetic language was difficult to get through, i thought it was a very illustrative essay with a detailed description of the people, as well as the bridge itself.