# What's the most famous bridge in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 29, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609 "2017-09-29T20:51:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609/81 "2017-10-04T05:30:25Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > The Brooklyn Bridge was the first of its size and the depth of the Caissons. It is very distinctive looking with its Gothic Cathedral look. It made 2 large cities into 1 effectively on top of that. Brooklyn was a separate large city before The Bridge and a few years later became part of a now much greater NYC. The Brooklyn Bridge opened 1883 and the cities merged in January 1, 1898. An excellent book on the Brooklyn Bridge: [_The Great Bridge_, by David McCullough](https://www.amazon.com/Great-Bridge-Story-Building-Brooklyn/dp/B0083EFQ86) I once had the privilege of walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with a civil engineer who had studied it. He mentioned the caissons (and the problems resulting from workers suffering the bends), and pointed out a lot of “double-safety” features on the bridge; meaning that if Part X failed, Part Y would hold until Part X could be repaired. I’m no engineer, but it was a fascinating walk across the bridge spent with him; and McCullough’s book, which I read subsequently, confirmed what he said. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609/82 "2017-10-04T14:11:59Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > An excellent book on the Brooklyn Bridge: > > [_The Great Bridge_, by David McCullough](https://www.amazon.com/Great-Bridge-Story-Building-Brooklyn/dp/B0083EFQ86) > > I once had the privilege of walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with a civil engineer who had studied it. He mentioned the caissons (and the problems resulting from workers suffering the bends), and pointed out a lot of “double-safety” features on the bridge; meaning that if Part X failed, Part Y would hold until Part X could be repaired. I’m no engineer, but it was a fascinating walk across the bridge spent with him; and McCullough’s book, which I read subsequently, confirmed what he said. Its an amazingly good book. I own it and a good number of other by **McCullough**. He made a book about building a bridge fascinating. Not an easy task as it should be an extremely dry topic. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609/83 "2017-10-04T14:28:30Z")
Good question. I voted for Tower Bridge for vague reasons such as age and also trying to look at it from a non USA centric viewpoint. If “famous” means iconic, I vote Golden Gate.It’s also the first one that comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609/84 "2017-10-04T15:44:50Z")
Has anyone else here done the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb? That was an amazing experience and the view FROM the bridge was sensational. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609/85 "2017-10-04T15:53:56Z")
Absent any other context, the Tower Bridge is clearly the most visually unique of those four choices, even if people don’t know its correct name. Everyone knows “Big Ben,” but I doubt 1 in 10 random people know exactly what part of that tower is “Big Ben,” or the official name of the actual tower (it’s Elizabeth Tower, BTW). ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609/86 "2017-10-04T16:44:28Z")
As a Brit who regularly uses an iconic bridge (the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol), I went for Golden Gate. But I was answering based on what I thought was best-known globally. Sydney Harbour came a close second in my thinking. Oddly, I didn’t think of Tower Bridge, possibly because to me it’s ‘part of the furniture’ rather than being an iconic tourist attraction. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609/87 "2017-10-04T17:47:27Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > London Bridge is easily the first one I thought of, not because of the bridge itself but because of the song about it falling down. Had this been an open-ended poll, I’d have said the same, but since there was a list I went with the bridge that’s actually been in London since the 19th century. I figured that the two USA contenders would split the votes, and since Australia is less visited/populated than the UK, the English span would be the winner. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-famous-bridge-in-the-world/797609.md?page=4)