Brooklyn Bridge

American

noun

a suspension bridge over the East River, in New York City, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn: built 1867–84. 5,989 feet (1,825 meters) long.

Brooklyn Bridge Cultural

A suspension bridge built between Manhattan and Brooklyn in the late nineteenth century; Manhattan and Brooklyn are today two boroughs of New York City. At the time of its completion, the Brooklyn Bridge was the world's longest suspension bridge.

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The Brooklyn Bridge is mentioned in several common expressions about the sale of the bridge by one person to another (the bridge is actually public property). A person who “could sell someone the Brooklyn Bridge” is persuasive; a person who “tries to sell the Brooklyn Bridge” is extremely dishonest; a person who “would buy the Brooklyn Bridge” is gullible.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Brooklyn Bridge

He said builders shouldn’t think about a data center any differently than Washington Roebling thought about the Brooklyn Bridge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge, strolling in Central Park or visiting The Whitney Museum on a Friday night are all free.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 29, 2026

How were so many otherwise reasonable people pranked into venturing to an empty Brooklyn Bridge Park in the bleak midwinter as 2025 ebbed to nothing, for nothing?

From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2026

The Mexican naval training ship that crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge in May, leaving two crew members dead, returned home on Sunday to official fanfare in the port of Veracruz.

From Barron's ● Nov. 24, 2025

I took a long walk from here to the Brooklyn Bridge, because that's how I deal with stuff.

From "Pride" by Ibi Zoboi

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023