NYC BRIDGES

The first person to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge on its opening day, May 24, 1883, was Emily Roebling who played a significant role in the building of the bridge and whose family sacrificed much during its construction.  Emily was the daughter-in-law of the bridge's designer and chief engineer, John Augustus Roebling, and wife of his son Washington Augustus Roebling.  President Chester A. Arthur and N. Y. State Governor (and future U.S. President) Grover Cleveland also attended and P.T. Barnum led 21 circus elephants across the bridge to reassure skeptical New Yorkers of its safety.  A week later, a woman fell while walking on the bridge and 12  pedestrians were trampled to death when people panicked fearing the bridge was collapsing.  

During the bridge’s 16-year construction, over 24 workers died including John Augustus Roebling who crushed his foot and died of tetanus.  His son, Washington, took over as chief engineer but suffered the bends (decompression sickness), became partially paralyzed and had to view the completion of the bridge through a telescope from his Brooklyn apartment in Columbia Heights.  Emily Roebling would managed the project, visit every day, and relay Washington's instruction to the construction manager.  Working on the bridge was challenging and dangerous.  Workers were lowered into the East River in large watertight pressurized caissons to dig through bedrock and build the underwater foundation.    

Considered to be one of the the most ambitious engineering feats and industrial wonders of the 19th Century, it has inspired artists such as Walt Whitman and Hart Crane.  Crane's poem, The Bridge, was written in the same apartment where John Augustus Roebling, once lived.  When completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world until 1903 when another East River bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge, was built.  By the year 1890, over a quarter million New Yorkers per day would use the bridge.  

Brooklyn Bridge spans the East River and connects Manhattan to Brooklyn.  Each of the bridge's steel cable wires is composed of 3,515 miles of wire, galvanized with zinc.  A walk across the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn or vice versa takes about 30 minutes.  On the Brooklyn side, Brooklyn Bridge Park is only a short distance away.  This park offers a fantastic view of downtown Manhattan and of both the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.  There is a beautiful 1922 Merry-go-round, Jane's Carousel, at the riverfront near the Manhattan Bridge.  

In 1623, Kings Bridge was built over Spuyten Duyvil Creek to connect Manhattan and the Bronx.  It has the distinction of being the first toll bridge in America.  It was operated by the merchant and slave trader Frederick Philipse.  Kings Bridge was demolished in 1917.  The oldest-still-standing-NYC-bridge is the High Bridge (1843), which crosses the Harlem River.   The total number of bridges in NYC today is around 2,027.   

Mohawk ironworkers, known as the Skywalkers from the Caughnawaga reservation in Quebec, Canada, worked on many New York City bridges and skyscrapers including the George Washington and Triborough bridges, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and the World Trade Center.  The tradition of indigenous people working on bridges and steel structures dates back to the mid-1800's when they built a bridge over the St. Lawrence River in Canada.

A steel sculpture of John, Emily, and Washington Roebling was installed by the bridge at Anchorage Plaza on Fulton and Front Streets in Brooklyn on the bridge's centennial in 1983.