How to Build The Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

Cut out the roadway and the outer cable pieces. Gently fold the tabs of the side cables at a 90-degree angle. These will be glued to the underside of the roadway.

Glue the roadway inside the folded side piece. Make sure the piece dries straight without warping. You may want to prop the center of the arch on a thin ruler or strip of cardboard while weighting each end of the arch to keep the roadway straight.

Carefully fold the inner cable piece. Fold the small tabs in at a 90-degree angle just as you did on the wider outer cable piece. Glue the inner cable piece to the center of the roadway, making sure it is centered between the ends of the roadway as well.

		Cut out the long rectangular pieces that will form the inside of the arches. Score the valley folds on the back of the piece, and the mountain folds on the front. Curl the paper at the tops of the arches to create a pointed gothic arch. Glue the middle part of the piece to itself, to create a central column with the thickness of four layers of paper.
		Assemble the upper part of the tower. Place a small amount of glue on the paper edges of the arches assembled in the previous step and insert the piece carefully inside the upper part of the tower. Using a tweezers, move the piece up or down so that it is flush with the bottom of the tower piece, and the inside shape of the arches matches the outside.

Assemble the bases of the towers. Check the fit of the pieces first, and then glue the tabs at the ends of the roadway inside the bases of the towers.

Very carefully cut out the thin sidewalk piece and the square holes at each end. The center column of the gothic arches assembled in fig. 4 will fit through this square hole. Trim the openings so that each column can fit through this space before gluing the sidewalk in place.

Glue the sidewalk in the narrow space between the inner cables. The center of the sidewalk should rest below the edges of the center sides of the inner cables. Use a toothpick to push the sidewalk flat and into position carefully.

After the sidewalk is in place, glue the top triangular tip of the inner cable piece together with a small drop of glue. The points should meet directly above the center of the roadway.

Glue the upper parts of the tower in place at each end of the bridge. With a tweezers or toothpick, guide the central column of the archways to fit through the hole in the sidewalk piece.

Bend the sides of the outer cables slightly outwards. Look closely at the tops of the towers to see the points where the cables are gathered to pass over the tops of the towers. Place a tiny drop of glue here to attach the triangular tip of the inner and outer cables to the tower.

Lastly, add the cornice tops of the towers.

At last your model of the Brooklyn Bridge is finished! Place it next to the Empire State Building to compare the size of each of these record-breaking marvels.

Brooklyn Bridge model

Read more about the Brooklyn Bridge