Technology
The Brooklyn Bridge is the central symbol of the poem as illustrated by its used as the title. Crane is never satisfied with focusing upon a single meaning for his symbols and so the bridge becomes a very fluid metaphor that will recur in various modes throughout the poem, but in the opening section the Brooklyn Bridge is the symbol of symbols for technological innovation arising to impose order upon the chaos of modern life. Like office elevators, movie theaters, planes, trains and riverboats, however, the very construction of these modes of simplifying reality also serves as a constant reminder of the chaotic disconnect and alienation that made their creation not just possible, but necessary.
Pocahontas
For some Americans, Pocahontas is a not a negative symbol to be casually used for the purpose of insult. Crane was one of those Americans and, what’s more, Pocahontas is utilized specifically for the purpose of highlighting the intermingling of blood of different races and nations and cultures. The marriage of the indigenous citizen with the white immigrant is celebrated as a metaphor for the American identity and how it is distinctly different from the identity of European nations.
The Subway Tunnel
In the section titled “The Tunnel” the underwater channel takes the form of a subway that becomes a modern version of Dante’s epic trek into the Underworld in his Inferno. As a unit, The Bridge is a counterpoint to the pessimistic outlook on life and society taken up by the Modernist school of poets (such as T.S. Eliot) but the tunnel does not exist in the more optimistic light above the surface. The subway ride here is a dark and difficult journey made all the more so by the lack of literal light. The darkness of the tunnel is made epic by its more experimental verse which—appropriately—is denser and harder to logically follow than the poems celebrating life in the light elsewhere.
The bridge
As indicated earlier, the bridge is a potent and powerful symbol throughout the work, taking on specific value as it relates to the topics and subjects covered within the individual sections and poems within those sections. At the same time, the bridge is also a unifying symbol as literary device. The Bridge is a collection of 15 different and distinct poems that often vary in tone, style, length and meaning. Some images and characters and themes recur and reference each other, but read individually without any prior knowledge of their origin, most readers would likely not be attentive enough to assume they are all part of a single work. Thus, the bridge becomes a symbolic imperative to the reader to use its power to link and progress through each individual work in order to make sense of the chaos within.
Atlantis
The final section of the poem is titled “Atlantis” yet is primarily notable for its almost rapturous verse appreciating that monument to American ingenuity and promise: the Brooklyn Bridge. As the odyssey through American history brings the poet back to where he began, Atlantis recedes into further into depths of myth, gaining symbolic power not for what was lost, but for the promise it holds out for America’s seemingly unlimited potential.
