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What Happened During the Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge
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Aug 20, 2025
The Brooklyn Bridge is not only one of the top attractions of New York City, but it is also one of the oldest suspension bridges in the world. It connects Manhattan to Brooklyn and crosses the East River. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. But building the bridge was a huge undertaking and fraught with tragedy. It took 14 years to complete and nearly 30 people died from various incidents during its construction.
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The Brooklyn Bridge connects Manhattan to Brooklyn
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and crosses the East River. It's one of the top attractions in New York City
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one of the oldest suspension bridges in the world, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964
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But building the bridge was a huge undertaking that took 14 years to complete and was fraught with tragedy
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So today, we're going to take a look at how building the Brooklyn Bridge
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was an unimaginably complex and brutal undertaking. John Augustus Roebling was born in Germany in 1806
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He later went to Berlin to study industrial engineering, where he became known for designing suspension bridges
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When he was 25 years old, he immigrated to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania
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Around this time, suspension bridges didn't have the best reputations, and for good reason
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They often failed in strong winds or when heavy loads were placed on them
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To stabilize these types of bridges, Roebling developed a web truss, which
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is placed on each end of the bridge roadway. Later, when it came time to design the Brooklyn Bridge
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he would use this concept, among other innovations, to make sure the bridge was six times stronger
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than he thought it needed to be. He would also build bridges with similar technology
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at the Niagara Gorge at Niagara Falls, New York, and the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio
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New York legislatures were impressed with John Roebling's credentials, and in 1867, they approved his plan
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to build a suspension bridge over the East River that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn
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The plan was extremely ambitious for the time. This suspension bridge would be the first one ever made out of steel, and it would be
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the longest in the world. The proposal had the Brooklyn Bridge spanning 1,600 feet from tower to tower, which would
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make it a full 50% longer than any of its predecessors. Construction on the Brooklyn Bridge was slated to begin in 1869
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However, when Roebling was taking some compass readings across the East River, a boat smashed
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some of its toes. This doesn't sound like it would be more than a painful inconvenience, but sadly
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Roebling died of tetanus just three weeks later. His son, Washington Roebling, stayed on as the project's chief engineer
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When it came time to build the bridge, America relied heavily on immigrant labor
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They were called Sandhogs and they earned a day which is the equivalent of about in 2021 The Sandhogs job was not easy They would clear out the mud and boulders at the bottom of the river using shovels and dynamite in wooden boxes known as caissons To be clear the wooden boxes were underwater
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Workers were transported to these highly pressurized boxes and tasked with excavating the riverbed
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and laying a granite foundation on the bedrock. Construction on the bridge officially began on January 2, 1870
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The first step entailed creating two of the caissons upon which the suspension towers
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themselves would eventually be constructed. Built at a shipyard in Brooklyn, the first caisson
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which would stand on the Brooklyn side, was launched into the water in March
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The next caisson, for the Manhattan side, was built in a different shipyard across the river
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It would be completed in 1871 and then moved into place in September of that year
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Construction on the suspension towers would be underway by the middle of 1872
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It was just the beginning of a project that would take roughly 13 more years to complete
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If you're claustrophobic, this isn't going to be pleasant to hear about
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Because in order for the Sandhogs to reach the caissons where they were excavating the
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foundation, they were forced to travel in small iron containers called airlocks
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When the airlocks descended, they filled with compressed air to provide oxygen for workers
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However, the airlocks also released a gas into the Sandhog's bloodstreams. When the workers came up from under the water, they suffered from caisson disease
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commonly known as the bends, due to the gas in the bloodstreams being
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rapidly released upon their return to the surface. The condition is characterized by debilitating symptoms
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including joint pain, paralysis, convulsions, numbness, and speech impediments. More than 100 laborers suffered from caisson disease
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in the course of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Five of them even died from it
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Sadly, it wasn't until the early 20th century that scientists realized the bends could have been avoided
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had the workers resurfaced at a slower speed. Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge itself
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was an extremely deadly affair, and more than a few laborers died during the building process
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For starters, more than two dozen construction workers were killed in a fire and from falling
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Another handful of workers were killed by crashing derricks and by a host of other disasters
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One of the scariest cases of death was when a man named Cope accidentally got his foot wrapped around some rope
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that was being coiled by a hoisting engine. His leg quickly swiveled around the engine's drum
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and he perished almost instantly. During construction of the bridge it wasn just the immigrant laborers who experienced work mishaps and maladies No less than chief engineer Washington Roebling himself
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suffered from the bends and became partially paralyzed from the condition. The disability plagued him for the rest of his life
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However, paralyzed or not, he had no intention of giving up on his task of completing the bridge
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And he was still able to supervise the construction using a telescope to observe progress from afar
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His wife Emily ended up taking day-to-day charge of the project. Washington dictated his orders to Emily, who passed on his instructions to the
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workers. Emily was more than qualified for the job. She was well-versed in mathematics
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as well as engineering principles like bridge specifications, cable construction, catenary curves, and material strengths. She would remain in the position for 11 years
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and when the bridge finally opened for business, she'd be the very first person to cross it
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After chief engineer Washington Roebling was paralyzed from caisson disease, things didn't get any easier. In fact, the crew had to deal with numerous issues
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At one point, an unexpected blast destroyed one of the caissons. Then a fire damaged another
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In order to prevent it from happening again, construction was delayed for several months
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so the next caisson would be lined with fireproof plate iron. Not all difficulties were accidental
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One contractor scammed the project by providing inferior quality wire for the cables. It wasn't
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discovered until after the wire could no longer be replaced, and an additional 150 wires had to be added to each cable
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at the contractor's expense to make up for the lost strength. In addition, one of the cables snapped off its anchorage
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and landed in the river. Ironically, it would be the negative public perception
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of suspension bridges, rather than anything wrong with the Brooklyn Bridge itself, that
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caused some of the first non-construction-related deaths associated with it. It was just two days after the bridge opened
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when a woman tripped on the steps leading to the entrance. When she fell, another woman screamed because she assumed that something was wrong with the bridge and that it was on the verge of collapse
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Throngs of other pedestrians, including men, women, and children, took their cues from the screaming lady, and the crowd quickly caused a stampede
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Twelve people died, and another 35 sustained severe wounds following the incidents
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If all your friends jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you do it too
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is a rhetorical question that's often employed to make a point about peer pressure
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And indeed most people probably wouldn take the leap just because their friends decided to That a 200 dud He can make it and live But Robert Emmett Odlem the brother of famed women rights activist Charlotte Odlem Smith
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wasn't most people. On May 19, 1885, Robert jumped off the bridge
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You see, during that time period, daredevils and stuntmen were highly regarded
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and Odlem sought fame. It was windy when he jumped, and he hit the water at about 60 miles
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an hour, at an angle. He survived the fall, but died from internal injuries about 45 minutes later
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In a development that prefigured the now famous expression, Olam's mother and sister blamed
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one of his daredevil friends for encouraging him to jump. But the friend denied any involvement
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You'd think they would put the kibosh on anyone else trying that stunt, but hang on
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One Steve Brody allegedly tried the same thing in July of 1886, and a guy named Larry Donovan
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tried it a month later. James Duffy of Ireland gave it a crack on April 15, 1895
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and killed himself in the attempt, while renowned cartoonist Otto Epper survived a jump in 1910
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Everybody's got to have a hobby, I guess. Several passageways and compartments were built into the Brooklyn Bridge's anchorages
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and the city rented out these spaces to raise money for the bridge's construction. In 1876, the vaults under the bridge stored wine
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It was the perfect spot because the vaults had a consistent temperature that was perfect
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for wine storage. Known as the Blue Grotto, the vaults were inscribed with the words
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Who loveth not wine, women, and song? He remaineth a fool his whole life long
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The Brooklyn Bridge was eventually completed in 1883, and it officially opened up on May
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24th of that year. The final product supported horse-drawn carriages and rail traffic, and had a separate elevated
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walkway in the center designated for pedestrians and bicycles. In 1950, the bridge underwent a redesign. The space occupied by the streetcar rails was
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repurposed for automobiles and has carried six lanes of automobile traffic ever since
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On an average weekday, an estimated 145,000 vehicles crossed the bridge. The bridge's walkway has also proven invaluable, allowing people to cross the river at times when
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other means are unavailable. For example, during the 1965, 1977, and 2003 New York City blackouts
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Most memorably, in 2001, it famously transported thousands of pedestrians following the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center when bus and subway services were suspended
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