This illustration of the Brooklyn anchorage of the bridge shows how the ends of the four massive suspension cables were held in place. Enormous cast-iron chains held the steel cables, and the entire anchorage was eventually encased in masonry structures there were, all by themselves, enormous buildings.
The anchorage structures and the approach roadways are generally overlooked, but if they had existed apart from the bridge they would have been noteworthy for their great size. Vast rooms under the approach roadways were rented out as warehouses by merchants in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The Manhattan approach was 1,562 feet, and the Brooklyn approach, which began from higher land, was 971 feet.
By comparison, the center span is 1,595 feet across. Counting the approaches, the "river span," and the "land spans," the entire length of the bridge is 5,989 feet, or more than a mile.