Suddenly inspired to do something brash about a bitter mass transit strike that crippled the city in 1980, he strode down to the Brooklyn Bridge not far from his City Hall office to encourage commuters who were forced to walk to work instead of jumping aboard subway trains and buses.
"I began to yell, 'Walk over the bridge! Walk over the bridge! We're not going to let these bastards bring us to our knees!' And people began to applaud," the famously combative, acid-tongued politician recalled at a 2012 forum.
He took his own advice, too. Days later, he walked from Manhattan across the Queensboro Bridge — formally renamed in his honor in 2011 — and was greeted with cheers from commuters trudging alongside and by crowds on the Queens side.
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