The Brooklyn Bridge is one of my favorite architectural monuments in any city. I live near it and used to walk over it regularly as I commuted to work in Lower Manhattan. On days when it wasn't overly crowded with tourists, I would take my time and marvel at its beauty, its history, and the engineering genius it took to build.
To honor the bridge's birthday, I chose a quote published in Harper's Weekly on the day it opened to public, May 24, 1883. I decided on a traditional Italic hand for its elegance and timelessness, which matches the bridge itself. The simplicity of the hand is deceiving, however. This still took me almost an entire day to do. Why, you might ask? Well, for starters, I wrote out the text twice on draft paper to get a feel for the rhythm of the words and to make some decisions on flourishing, lay-out, and sizing. Then when it came time to make the final, I wrote very, very, very slowly. Italic needs some variation in line thicknesses and curviness or it becomes blocky and boring. Achieving that on the paper I chose was challenging. The paper, while lovely, is fibrous, meaning the nib can catch easily and drag ink where you don't want it. It also has some texture, which means the nib does not glide smoothly on any of the strokes.
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