Brooklyn Bridge
Cables

The Brooklyn Bridge contains four main cables, which descend from the tops of the suspension towers and help support the deck. Two are located to the outside of the bridge's roadways, while two are in the median of the roadways. Each main cable measures 15.75 inches (40.0 cm) in diameter and contains 5,282 parallel, galvanized steel wires wrapped closely together in a cylindrical shape. These wires are bundled in 19 individual strands, with 278 wires to a strand. This was the first use of bundling in a suspension bridge and took several months for workers to tie together. Since the 2000s, the main cables have also supported a series of 24- watt LED lighting fixtures, referred to as "necklace lights" due to their shape.

In addition, either 1,088, 1,096, or 1,520 galvanized steel wire suspender cables hang downward from the main cables. Another 400 cable stays extend diagonally from the towers. The vertical suspender cables and diagonal cable stays hold up the truss structure around the bridge deck. The bridge's suspenders originally used wire rope, which was replaced in the 1980s with galvanized steel made by Bethlehem Steel. The vertical suspender cables measure 8 to 130 feet (2.4 to 39.6 m) long, and the diagonal stays measure 138 to 449 feet (42 to 137 m) long.
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