Daily News from New York, New York • 31

m. got bridgew bite, you By DON FLYNN Brooklyn." AROUND THE corner from the paying partygoers, people crammed behind police barricades or attended cocktail parties on flag-draped fire, "escapes. "I'M FROM the Bronx, but everybody is a Brooklyn boy tonight" said Bob Bennett 58, another Port Authority executive. been hearing about the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge since I was a little girl," she said. "It was such a treat for us to go over it" "WE GREW UP with this bridge and there's no other bridge like it in the entire world," said Neil Montanus, 57, a Port Authority executive who paid $500 to attend a party at Fulton Ferry Landing.

"This is a great night for Bridge." MATILDA CUOMO, the governor's wife, led the parade from Borough. Hall. She was born and reared in Brooklyn, went to college in Brooklynshe met her husband in the cafeteria at St John's Teachers Col-, lege was married in Brooklyn and had her first child in Brooklyn. Like just about everyone else, she had her own Brooklyn Bridge story to tell. "I've You could buy the Brooklyn Bridge for $10 yesterday honest Nelson Ong," 32, was selling official certificates, issued by the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission.

They were authentic deeds to the bridge, signed by Sid E. Slicker. "I haven't been able to buy a house in New York," said Ong. "The only way I can buy one is to sell the 1M I If ft Vii "41 I If A v' GENE KAPPOCK OMLV MEWS" The Roebling clan gathers for family shot near the Fulton St. Ferry landing yesterday.

John Roebl.ng and his son, Washington, designed and built span. immigrants faced when they came here PARTY FROM PAGE THREE BRIDGE FROM PAGE THREE from Italy, from Ireland, from uer-many. And they survived. And now a new wave came over. These people from Haiti and the Caribbean area and Third World countries; these people, too, are trying to build a life and educate their families.

And that's what we're all about" There were other land parties last night The Roebling relatives 150 strong celebrated in the River Cafe, dining in private on a six-course meal that ranged from oysters to buffalo meat AND BY YACHT and ferry, they came to celebrate. Aboard Malcolm Forbes 120-foot yacht Highlander, guests Happy Rockefeller, Gloria Van-derbilt the Lew Lehrmans and Barbara Walters watched the fireworks while dining on caviar, cold lobster and Nova Scotia salmon. Said Golden at the end of the evening: "I'm on a high. No matter how many parties there are for other, bridges, there will never be anything like this." Borough President Andrew Stein, Brooke Astor, the Averell Harrimans, and more. Mayor Koch had been partying and speaking all day, but was still going strong.

Earlier, he had hosted members of the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission at Gracie Mansion, standing on a chair on the terrace to salute the Roebling family: John, son Washington and daughter-in-law Emily, who gave the bridge to New York. A BEAMING Koch said: "My best memory of the Brooklyn Bridge is a modern memory. And the modern memory goes back to 1980 when it saved us in the transit strike. Tens of thousands of people walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and made it possible for us to survive." Golden said: "The bridge is a sym- bol of the trials and tribulations that along the way was any brighter than the one on the face of Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, who was undisputed King for the Day. "IT'S A GREAT day to be here in this foreign country," Golden laughed as he strode past City Hall Park in lower Manhattan.

Everybody, it seemed, either had been born in Brooklyn or was descended from a Brooklynite, or used to live in Brooklyn. And that included Koch: "I lived in Brooklyn for 15 years, at Ocean Parkway and Avenue in Flatbush," Koch said. "Once you've lived in Brooklyn, you never can take Brooklyn out of the boy or the man." "The Brooklyn Bridge was always my own Yellow Brick Road," said another Brooklynite, comedian Alan King, who had found a great spot on Pier 1 in Brooklyn to watch the boat parade, a sound and light show and the fireworks. "When I was a kid in a poor neighborhood in Williamsburg, the bridge always symbolized whether or not you'd be able to get out of that poverty." "The City of New York is a modern-day miracle we should kiss the ground we walk on," Koch said at the rededication ceremony as the crowd, including former mayors Abe Beame and John Lindsay, cheered him "I have had the best day of my life as the 105th mayor of New York on the 100th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge, and I'm only sorry that there, will be another mayor at the bicentennial celebration." "Long before the bridge was built, it existed in the imaginatkm of the people of Brooklyn," said Golden. "Our humor, our neighborhoods, our sup1 port of the.

underdog are known the world over. And the bridge is a monument to the pride and success of the people of Brooklyn." East River Drive, which was closed to traffic. People perched in windows and on rooftops, and several thousand lucky folks had prime seats on boats. Police reported no serious problems throughout the day and night, and said traffic moved particularly well throughout lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn because many motorists left their cars at home and took mass transit The big party began where the idea for the bridge was born, in Brooklyn, where thousands of public officials and Brooklyn Bridge buffs began gathering early in the morning for a parade that started at 9:30 a.m. at Brooklyn Borough Hall, marched across the graceful span and continued through the lower Broadway financial district to Battery Park.

THE PARADE had a distinct 1883 air to it, with politicians in antique-style cutaway morning coats with striped trousers, ladies carrying parasols and wearing hoop skirts, and horse-drawn delivery wagons and work drays from the Brooklyn Union Gas Abraham Straus, Gage Tollner Restaurant and a couple of dozen other historic Brooklyn outfits clip-clopping down the street Men, women and children stood six deep along the curbs and hawkers did a brisk business in flags, popcorn, buttons and T-shirts and even a fair amount of ticker-tape. It had just enough of everything it wasn't one of the biggest parades ever seen in the Big Apple, but it certainly was one of the classiest Even the weather hadn't changed in a century, according to the old newspaper reports. Flags waved in the same New York Harbor breeze and the sun was shining just as bright as it shone on the bridge's grand opening parade. And none of the millions of smiles GALA FROM PAGE TWO from there was spectacular, affording, a clear picture of the bridge and the Manhattan skyline. THERE WAS A LOT of proud hrMst-beatins bv Brooklyn residents 5 who considered the entire event some- thins of their very own.

Washington Roebling builders of the bridge who came from around the world for the occasion. "Just look at the bridge," said Mrs. Ferdinand Roebling White. "It says everything." Everywhere, people strolled in period dress including a group on Water St from the Vintage Clothing Co. One woman, Vera Lesko, 26, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, wore a whalebone corset and a dress with a bustle and carried a parasol.

There were jugglers, clowns and a female barbershop quartet from the Brooklyn Chapter of the Sweet Adelines. On the promenade, spectators lined up six deep to watch it all. The view "It's so exciting it's history." said Liza Hampton, 18, of Fort Greene. "What's happening tonight is a celebra- tion of what Brooklyn is all about It's a great place." John and Carolyn Stoddard of Madi- son. were there, too, visiting -their daughter in Brooklyn and watch- ing the spectacle.

"It's a once-in-a-Iifetime event" said John. "It's great to be here." added Brooklynite Andrew Barbaccia. He was there with his friend Antoinette Jricco. "It's so nice to see all the people out" here happy," he said..