A few years after the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, city officials realized the need to build a second bridge over the East River to alleviate the overburdened Brooklyn Bridge. The support for the construction of the Williamsburg Bridge was unanimous in New York, more for its practical implications than for its aesthetics. Even before the construction had begun, critics pointed out the lackluster design of the structure. Construction for the Williamsburg Bridge began in 1896. It was designed by Leffert L. Buck who envisioned the structure to be made entirely of steel. This made the Williamsburg Bridge one of the heaviest structures of its time. However, steel was the only reliable material that could support the weight of the railway and roads that were eventually constructed on the Williamsburg Bridge. In December of 1903, the Williamsburg Bridge was complete. It was considered to be the longest suspension bridge of its time, surpassing the Brooklyn Bridge by only 4 1/2 feet. The Williamsburg Bridge cost $24.2 million, (a little over half a billion dollars today) and was built in seven years, half the time it took to build the Brooklyn Bridge. Williamsburg Bridge connects Delancey Street on the East Side of Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This new connection between neighborhoods had a significant impact on the development of the city. In the early twentieth century, shortly after the opening of the bridge, the neighborhood of Williamsburg became a major attraction to many Jewish immigrants, wanting an alternative to the slums of the Lower East Side. As the number of Jewish residents in Williamsburg increased, the former residents, of largely Irish and German descent, slowly began migrating to Queens. Traffic over the Williamsburg Bridge first consisted of subway, trolleys, carriages and pedestrian walkways. In 1920's, the automobile industry began to boom, and the bridge was subjected to more stress due to increased weight from automobile traffic. The trolley tracks were quickly replaced with roadways; however additional support was still needed to be installed into the bridge to support the increased traffic. Later in the twentieth century, the Williamsburg Bridge was slowly deteriorating due to neglect and lack of repairs. It wasn't until the 1980's that the city finally deemed the Williamsburg Bridge to be in terrible shape. The city had to either completely replace the bridge or repair it. Since the costs of replacing the bridge far surpassed the costs of repairing it, the city settled for the latter. Presently, the Williamsburg Bridge carries a huge volume of vehicular traffic and several subway lines.