Must-see
Brooklyn Bridge
The world’s longest suspension bridge in 1883, finished with the help of the chief engineer’s wife
The story
Before you is the Brooklyn Bridge. It was designed by the engineer John A. Roebling, but he did not live to see the work begin: he died of tetanus in 1869. His son, Washington Roebling, became chief engineer. The towers stand on caissons, huge boxes in which workers dug out the riverbed under compressed air. In 1872 Washington was brought up from one unconscious: it was decompression sickness. He remained gravely ill and followed the work from the window of his sickroom. His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, carried it on. She studied the plans, copied out her husband’s specifications, and passed his instructions on to the site. Shortly before the opening, Emily drove across the bridge in a carriage holding a rooster, then a symbol of victory. The bridge opened on the twenty-fourth of May 1883, after fourteen years of construction. Its main span is nearly 1,600 feet. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The stone towers rise more than 276 feet, taller than any office building in New York at the time. Each of the four cables, nearly sixteen inches thick, is made of more than five thousand parallel wires. This was the first time galvanized steel wire was used in cables. The walkway runs above the traffic. From it you can see the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Statue of Liberty in the distance.
Visiting
The Manhattan pedestrian entrance is by City Hall Park, next to the Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall subway station. Free and open to all. The bridge with its approaches is about 6,000 feet long. Cyclists have their own path; do not step onto it.
Photos
Sources
- NYC Department of Transportation — Brooklyn Bridge
- ASCE — Historic Civil Engineering Landmark: Brooklyn Bridge
- ASCE — Washington Augustus Roebling
- ASCE — Emily Warren Roebling
- Brooklyn Bridge Park — Emily Warren Roebling Plaza
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