JF Ptak Science Books: "I've Got a Bridge to Sell You!" First (?) Notice of the Sale of the Brooklyn Bridge? (1867)

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

The butt of an old tag-line for a gullible person convinced of something that could be easily disproved was something along the lines of "...and if you believe THAT I have a bridge to sell you", that bridge being of course the Brooklyn Bridge. Well, the snippet below from an article in The Brooklyn Eagle (January 25, 1867, page 2) in which the agreements were made to start construction of the bridge (commencing in 1869) also included a section about the sale of the bridge from the corporation building it to NYC or Brooklyn or both. Now this is not what the comedy tag referred to of course as this was real, but it is a little amusing to see such a thing in black-and-white.

Also its amusing to see below it a notice on "punishment for injuring the bridge".

Lastly in this short post I include an interesting view of the future, found at the end of an appreciation of John Roebling in a volume of the Journal of the Franklin Institute for 1867. It is a statement on the plans for building the Brooklyn Bridge--at teh time it was still the "New York and Brooklyn Bridge", and then the "East River Bridge", though "Brooklyn Bridge" was also used, the official designation of that final name coming in 1915.