Real Or Fake? A Pop Quiz On Brooklyn’s Weirdest, Most Contested Historical Monuments
Surprisingly Real!
Back in 2006, city workers discovered a super unsettling remnant of the Cold War, in the form of a hidden bunker within the masonry foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge, near the Manhattan side. The room, intended to serve as a shelter in case of nuclear attack, contained supplies dating back to 1957 (the year Sputnik was launched), including water drums, blankets, 352,000 highly caloric crackers, and a major supply of Dextran for treatment of shock.
According to historians this type of thing was a fairly common civic practice at the time, which is terrifying. Good thing we live in safer times now, right?