Stella saw the Brooklyn Bridge, which had been completed in 1883, as a powerful symbol of urban modernity and used the image in numerous works throughout his career. In his essay, "Brooklyn Bridge, a Page of My Life," Stella comments on the first time he stood on the bridge, in the middle of the night, alone: "I felt deeply moved, as if on the threshold of a new religion or in the presence of a new DIVINITY. It is a shrine containing all the efforts of the new civilization of AMERICA."