8.  Percent for Art Returns The Ladies to The Manhattan Bridge

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The Ladies have a storied history of standing at the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge, on the Brooklyn side, for fifty years, until Robert Moses took them down in the 1960s. The original Miss Brooklyn and Miss Manhattan, created by sculpture artist Daniel Chester French, now stand outside the Brooklyn Museum. Miss Brooklyn and Miss Manhattan have been brought back to life on the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge thanks to the City’s Percent for Art Program, and underwritten by the Economic Development Corporation. At a project cost of $450,000, the project was initiated ten years ago, with a design competition. The winner of the competition, artist Brian Tolle, who created among other installations, The Irish Hunger Memorial, gave his interpretation of the ladies some delightful additions, such as LED lighting to illuminate the sculptures from within at night, and placing them on top of a twenty-four foot pillar, allowing them to rotate.