With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

David McCullough Opposes Tower Near Brooklyn Bridge

In the latest chapter of a hot dispute over the building of a proposed tower near the Brooklyn Bridge, the historian and Brooklyn Bridge expert David McCullough is voicing his opposition to the plan.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. McCullough spoke to a crowd of more than 50 local advocates and politicians about why he opposed plans by the developer Two Trees Management to construct a tower called Dock Street Dumbo so close to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Mr. McCullough lives in Maine now, but he used to live near the bridge, he wrote “The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge” and spent a lot of time near it when researching the Battle of Brooklyn for his book “1776″. He also worked with Ken Burns on a PBS documentary about the bridge.

“It’s one of the most important structures in our country,” he said. The construction of the proposed tower is “upstaging what should not be upstaged. The magic of the bridge’s image is diminished. It’s wrecked.”
Read entire article at NYT