Aspire: to want to have or achieve something (such as a particular career or level of success)
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aspire
“Many writers aspire to be Ralph Ellison.” from Fort Greene by Nelson George
I understand the meaning of this word now, when Nelson George discusses how writers like Ralph Ellison, become role models for younger writers.
Starburst: something (such as a pattern) that looks like rays of light spreading out from a center
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/starburst
“Many writes aspire to be Ralph Ellison, to write a starburst of a book that would light the literary sky forever.” from Fort Greene” by Nelson George
Nelson George points out that the artist Ralph Ellison inspire people to write a book so good that would engrave a memory that the reader would never forget.
Revelation: a usually secret or surprising fact that is made known
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/revelation
“While living at 19 Willoughby I learned what kind of write, what kind of lover and even what kind of son I was. But the most surpriseing revelation that I was a mentor and, like my mother, a kind of teacher.”
Nelson George uses the revelation to show the reader that after moving to Fort Greene, he realizes what kind of person he was after performing.
Tangible: easily seen or recognized
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tangible
“It was a tactile, tangible feeling, and I adored it.” from Fort Greene Dreams By Nelson George
The word used in this quote explains how Fort Greene made Nelson George feel the familiar feeling of home which he recognized and adored immediately.
Skimp: deficient in supply or execution especially through
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skimpy
“There seems to be no better argument for city planners not to skimp on the urban green spaces than this. People love parks!” from “The Happiest and Saddest Places in New York City, According to Twitter
The author explains how city planners will try their best to include spaces that include nature because people seem to be attracted by it.
Upstaged: toward or at the rear of a theatrical stage
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/upstaged
“I think he might have felt upstaged, because I was amassing this huge photo collection and he wasn’t doing much.” “In The New Yorker”, “Who Knows Brooklyn?”
Merlis claims that since he was progessing at such a fast rate, Manbeck was starting to feel the anxiety and nervousness since he wasn’t doing much work on his collection.
Gentrified: to change (a place, such as an old neighborhood) by improving it and making it more appealing to people who have money.
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gentrified
“I Do neighborhoods that aren’t, like, all gentrified” from The New Yorker, “Who Knows Brooklyn?”
Brian Merlis is trying to explain how he collects photos from neighborhoods that retain the records from the type of ethnicity of residents.
Dear Incoming Students,
Everyone is nervous about their first semester of college, I know I was without a shadow of a doubt. You don’t know what to expect how you will be instructed by your professors because it’s a whole new environment. My first piece of advice is that the moment you step into your institution of education whether it be a university or a college, everything is completely different from the once familiarized high school procedure. When you enroll into Eng 1101 you better familiarize yourself with the word “location” because this course revolves around certain locations that your professor will announce and will require you to further expand your knowledge around this area especially if you are new to the neighborhood. This process can be overwhelming if underestimated because incoming students will find out shortly that they much do things that they’ve never done before in high school such as taking a 10-15 minute walk exploring the designated location, choosing a location that interests you and to take pictures of the location or landmark that interests you. Depending on the student the writing assignments can be very difficult if you plan to do it the night before, this course requires you to do things in a organized fashion IF you want a pleasing grade. This course also requires tons of preparation and discussions that will be done at home and in class with the professor and your fellow classmates. As long as you complete the assignments on time you will not be overwhelmed because as soon as you turn it that assignment, you are almost immediately handed a new one for the next couple of weeks. I have one last piece of advice, you must do your best work, and give it 100 percent it can be a bit boring nearing the end because you’ve been stuck on this one location/neighborhood for the last 3-4 months so pick a location that has a lot of historical value in which interests you. The professor I had, Professor Rosen did quite at good job explaining and discussing the projects and what we had to do which made our lives much easier. I hope you all have the best of luck!
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the greatest landmarks in Brooklyn and contains so much historical value.In Project 4 I, the author of my own discussed and analyzed two accounts based on the history and the physical attributes of the bridge. I decided to talk about the Stampede of 1883 and the deaths that occurred on the bridge. After I had analyzed and discussed the two accounts, I compared the two events to find out that both of these accounts do in fact are similar and have their own respective differences. A similarity is that the two stories resulted in death, the death of John A. Roebling the architect of the Brooklyn Bridge, while the Stampede of 1883 resulted in the death of many innocent lives and terrorized the population. However the difference between these two accounts is that after the Stampede of 1883 the “test” that P.T. Barnum executed prevented anymore false claims about the stability of the Brooklyn Bridge thus, prevented further deaths. In this essay I claimed that there were many tragic events that have happened in the bridge’s history but people are so blinded by the physical beauty of the bridge that most of them wont analyze any further and disregard these event.
Works Cited
Project 4 By Henry Li
The Brooklyn Bridge is a landmark and one of the greatest everlasting achievements in the history of New York. Its grand opening was on May 24th, 1883 which proudly marks the date this majestic landmark was added to Brooklyn’s line of great historic monuments. But as swell as the Brooklyn Bridge is there a negative portion that follows unfortunately. Its actually quite easily to overlook these events for the worse because in a city like New York what bad could go awfully wrong or unexpected. There are multiple accounts that support this claim such as the rumors that caused the stampede on May 30th, 1883 six days after the grand opening also known as the Stampede of 1883 and other events that include people committing suicide and the death of John A. Roebling the architect who designed the Brooklyn Bridge. These accounts share similarities and differences which will be discussed
On May 24th, 1883 the grand opening ceremony for the Brooklyn Bridge was celebrated, no one would have guessed that not even a week but six days later a great tragedy had occurred on the bridge. There were rumors that claimed the bridge wasn’t steady and it was going to collapse, when word got around people rushed to get off the bridge, trampling on those who unfortunately fell during their attempted escape. The stampede left 12 people trampled to death and 36 were left injured. After the stampede a circus owner who went by the name P.T. Barnum decided to publicize his circus by proving that the bridge was more than just safe and the rumors were just rumors. At first when the Bridge first opened his circus was denied access but after the stampede state officials reluctantly agreed to P.T.Barnum’s offer. P.T. Barnum’s circus: “Jumbo” which consisted of 21 elephants which is approximately 42 tons (84,000 pounds) crossed the bridge and rid the rumors for good. The stampede could have been prevented if the state officials decided to test the stability of the bridge before allowing the people of New York to cross.
During the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge a list of deaths followed one of the most important was the architect himself, John A. Roebling at the time who was taking observations to determine the exact location of the Brooklyn Tower his assistant Colonel William H. Paine was stationed in a transit to deliver the line across to Roebling who was standing on a pile of wood, A ferry was approaching and Colonel was too focused on giving directions to Roebling that the ferry including its passengers crashed heavily into the fender, the fender was forced against the cluster and Roebling’s foot was crushed between the timbers. John A. Roebling who had his toes on the right foot amputated but contracted Tetanus disease and died two weeks later after his death, Roebling’s son took over to complete what his father started, He made several important improvements on the bridge design and further developed bridge building techniques. Thus, he designed the two large pneumatic caissons that became the foundations for the two towers. In 1870, fire broke out in one of the caissons; from within the caisson, Roebling directed his attention extinguish the flames. Working in compressed air in these caissons under the river caused him to get decompression sickness which hindered his health enough to prevent him to visit the construction site. His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, who had taken it upon herself to learn bridge construction, became his nurse and confidant and took over much of the chief engineer’s duties including day-to-day supervision and project management. Another heartbreaking story involves the first man to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, Robert Odlum in May 1885. His motivations for doing so included the desire to demonstrate that people did not die simply from falling through the air, thus encouraging people to be willing to jump from a burning building into a net. Odlum also desired fame and the chance to help himself and his mother financially. All these accounts relating to death not only saddened New Yorkers but also forced us to rethink our guidelines of safety and how to prevent these events from ever happening again.
After explaining the two accounts to promote my claims, Should we start with the discussion of the similarities of the accounts. These accounts are surrounded by death and sorrow as the lives of innocent people were lost. All the events that were listed above are considered an unexpected twist of events, the stampede that occurred after 6 days due to rumors and the architect himself dying in the field of work, who would’ve guessed? Another similarity is that both these events happened because of human error, People should pay attention to their surroundings and to not get way TOO sucked into and getting “blinded” by this one goal that they are work so hard to achieve. As far as similarities go, there are also some differences between the two accounts that are worth mentioning such as how Roeblings successors, his son Washington Roebling also died due to a disease he contracted from working in the construction site likewise his father, while P.T. Barnum’s attempt to publicize his circus not only got the job done but prevented any more deaths and false claims about the stability of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Finally, the two accounts that I’ve explained have indeed have supported the fact that the Brooklyn Bridge is not all fun and games when we research more in depth about its history, Now these two accounts have ended in different, In P.T. Barnum’s situation he is considered as a hero because of his actions, he made a huge gamble in order to publicize his circus and doing his City a favor to eradicate the fear in the hearts of New Yorkers and to persuade them to trust the Brooklyn Bridge once more while on the other hand Washington Roebling died to the same reason his father did which was being blinded by his work in the site which resulted into getting extremely injured. Its history consists of events that bring out the bridges true colors which are still so easily disregarded by the thousands of people who crossed the bridge because everyone is so blinded by their daily routine, who has time for anything?
Works Cited
“John Augustus Roebling (American Engineer).” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Wikipedia. “Washington Roebling.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Nov. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
Stern, John, and Carrie Wilson. “THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE: A STUDY IN GREATNESS.” (n.d.): n. pag. Print.
CBS Team. “Brookiyn Bridge – Creating Grandeur.” CBSForum.com. CBS Team, 2 May 2003. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
“Today in History.” : June 12. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
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