Editing Queensboro Bridge (section)

=== Reception ===
When plans for the bridge were being finalized in 1901, there was commentary on its cantilevered design; all of the other bridges across the East River at the time were suspension bridges. The city's bridge commissioner at the time, John L. Shea, said that the Queensboro Bridge would not be as "picturesque" compared to a suspension bridge but that it could look as attractive as either the Williamsburg or Brooklyn bridges. Buck said that the U.S. had some "homely" cantilever bridges but hoped the Queensboro Bridge was not ugly.<ref>{{cite news |date=April 14, 1901 |title=Will the New Bridge Be Ugly?: Discussion as to the Architectural Beauty of the Blackwell's Island Structure |page=A1 |work=New-York Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |id={{ProQuest|571018973}}}}</ref> The chief engineer of the city's Bridge Department said in 1904 that he believed the cantilever design was "a mistake" and that a suspension bridge on the same site, supported by three towers, would have been a novelty.<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 18, 1904 |title=Eye-Bar Tests Seen by Bridge Engineers |pages=12 |work=Times Union |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/times-union-eye-bar-tests-seen-by-bridge/134968426/ |access-date=November 10, 2023}}</ref>

When the bridge was finished in 1908, ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'' wrote that the Queensboro was "one of the greatest bridges in the world, and one of the most beautiful of its type", despite having received relatively little media attention during construction.<ref name="p507939040" /> Two decades after the bridge opened, ''The New York Times'' said the "Brooklyn Bridge has the reputation but Queensboro Bridge has the traffic".<ref name="nyt-1959-03-28">{{Cite news |last=Feinberg |first=Alexander |date=March 28, 1959 |title=Queensboro Bridge Will Be 50 on Monday; Span That Opened Queens to Growth to Have Birthday |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/03/28/archives/queensboro-bridge-will-be-50-on-monday-span-that-opened-queens-to.html |access-date=January 18, 2024 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |language=en-US}}</ref> The ''New York Daily News'' wrote in 1981 that the Queensboro Bridge "reminds people of the bridges they built with erector sets as children".<ref name="n133321693" /> Nonetheless, the bridge was not as widely appreciated as the Brooklyn Bridge further south, especially in the late 20th century,<ref>{{Cite news |last=LaRosa |first=Paul |date=March 29, 1984 |title=Bridging the Gap: A Modest Gala |pages=204 |work=New York Daily News |issn=2692-1251 |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-bridging-the-gap-a-modest-ga/133325723/ |access-date=October 12, 2023}}</ref> and ''The Los Angeles Times'' wrote in 2010 that "the Queensboro appears far grittier than the romantic Brooklyn Bridge or the soaring [[Verrazano-Narrows Bridge]] to the south".<ref name="Susman 2011 u996" />