A Sip Of History: The Hidden Wine Cellars Under The Brooklyn Bridge
Roebling saw an opportunity to offset some of the bridge’s massive $15 million construction costs. It was an ingeniously perfect fit. The design of the bridge would allow for two wine cellars, one on each shore, along with several other vaulted chambers, to be incorporated into construction. The chambers would be rented out to local businesses, which used them mostly for storage, to help pay off the city’s debt.
Steen and Ken … I was blown away by this disclosure … I have seen documentaries and unless I was sleeping this was never disclosed … the Bk Bridge joke het want buy the Brooklyn Bridge takes on a whole new meaning now …lol…
Those of us from Brooklyn knew about those cellars. After 9/11 they became important for keeping emergency items close by. They’ll never be wine cellars again.
But some of the warehouses nearby were also able to store wine, either in the cellars or on the ground floor as the thick stone walls kept the temps pretty constant. A problem is that the water table is pretty high on the Brooklyn side. In fact, it’s not uncommon to dig down a few feet and find an underground spring. Happened to a friend who was renovating the basement in his brownstone.