Williamsburg Bridge from South 6th and Berry Streets, April 28, 1937.

Whereas the Brooklyn Bridge served to unite two independent cities, the Williamsburg Bridge (also spelled "Williamsburgh"), completed after the consolidation of Greater New York, functioned as a highway within the single, larger city. The Williamsburg, the first all-steel suspension bridge, had been proposed as early as 1882, even before the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, but its realization was long opposed by powerful ferry interests. Residents of Brooklyn's Williamsburg section felt that the area was suffering economically and in status after the Brooklyn Bridge opened and focused attention on Manhattan and away from their neighborhood. In addition, construction of the Brooklyn Bridge had escalated the population and property values in the city of Brooklyn; simultaneously the growth rate of the village of Williamsburg (also known as the Eastern District) declined. After the Williamsburg Bridge opened, the few orthodox Jews who had earlier settled in Williamsburg, one of the many small towns that comprised Brooklyn, were soon joined by many other Jewish immigrants who fled the squalor of Manhattan's overcrowded Lower East Side tenements.

Although not considered as aesthetically satisfying as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Williamsburg enjoyed its own renown. It was the first suspension bridge to feature towers made entirely of steel, and the 110-foot depths to which its caissons were sunk represented a new engineering accomplishment. When finally completed, the Williamsburg was the longest suspension bridge in the world, 4.5 feet longer than the Brooklyn Bridge.

For five years after the Williamsburg opened, the City was unable to coordinate mass transportation activities for it; only walkers, cyclists, and privately-owned carriages used the span. In 1908, the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad Company (later the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co., now the BMT) became the first mass transportation line to cross the bridge.