In Ads and Film, a Bridge Escapes the Background The Manhattan Bridge, above left, has long been in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, right, but of late it has been winning wider attention in popular culture. Madison Avenue is trying to sell you a bridge. No, not that one. In the iconography of New York, no bridge is more famous than the Brooklyn Bridge, but a largely overlooked stepsister structure over the East River has quietly been accumulating prestige. It may be hard to believe, but the Manhattan Bridge has become hip. "The bridge clearly has a new agent," the longtime advertising executive Jerry Della Femina said. The century-old, 6,855-foot-long, Federal Blue bridge appears in advertisements for Honda, Fiat and Kia automobiles, is emblazoned on a women's scarf designed by Izak Zenou for Henri Bendel, is featured in shoots for the clothier Massimo Dutti, dominates the main theatrical poster for the Tom Cruise film "Oblivion" and recently made the covers of several New York City guidebooks. Its new cachet may have less to do with the borough after which it is named than with Brooklyn and the emergence of the fashionable Dumbo neighborhood (the acronym for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass), which has emerged from derelict warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront. The bridge itself was celebrated as a gateway to Brooklyn - a tribute affirmed by the giant colonnade and arch at the Manhattan entrance (incongruously topped by a frieze of a buffalo hunt, designed by an artist from Buffalo). The colonnade and arch are official New York City landmarks. The bridge itself, which connects Canal Street in Lower Manhattan with Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn, is not. The Brooklyn Bridge was built first, followed by the Williamsburg. The cantilever Queensboro opened about nine months before the Manhattan in 1909, which evolved from various designs. From the start, it swayed precipitously, because subway tracks were installed on the outer lanes. It was originally known blandly as Bridge No. 3 and was soon named for Manhattan, over the objections of the city's bridge commissioner, who complained that Manhattan would not "signify anything" since "all of the bridges have their terminal in Manhattan." For much of its history, the structure has been eclipsed by the Brooklyn Bridge. While the Manhattan figured in a number of films, many featured its destruction as a result of earthquakes and attacks involving aliens, superheroes, monsters and large apes. Now the appeal of the Manhattan Bridge is growing, perhaps because the Brooklyn Bridge is partly shrouded by a cover as it undergoes some work. "The Manhattan Bridge, an ugly duckling and probably the most poorly engineered large span in the city, has been replacing the lovely and venerable Brooklyn Bridge as New York City's most iconic bridge in popular culture," Michael Miscione, the Manhattan borough historian, said. "The hippest car, fashion and liquor ads and movie posters all feature the Manhattan Bridge - something unthinkable 10 or 15 years ago, before the trendsetters settled in Dumbo in force," Mr. Miscione said. I began to take notice of this trend about five or six years ago, and the phenomenon has only picked up steam since then. The bridge has reaped the rewards from Dumbo's transformation from a "no man's land" to "the chicest spot in Brooklyn," said Mr. Zenou, the fashion designer, who lives in Lower Manhattan. He said the bridge was emblematic of Dumbo and other neighborhoods "where all young hipster New Yorkers move." "It brings a very industrial feel," he added, "a kind of strength and oversized dimension." The silk scarf inspired by the bridge, which sells for $129, was designed, Mr. Zenou said, "to bring that feeling of a downtown kind of girl, as opposed to the Upper East or Upper West Side princess." A spokeswoman for the Massimo Dutti team that photographed an ad from the Brooklyn side of the bridge said: "We were aiming to create a New York City universe through one of its most iconic landmarks."