“If there is to be a bridge, it must take one grand flying leap from shore to shore over the masts of the ships. There can be no piers or drawbridge. There must be only one great arch all the way across. Surely this must be a wonderful bridge.” (p. 24)
In lists of the “Wonders of the Modern World”, arguably one of the most interesting cases can be made for the Brooklyn Bridge. Although the “Great Bridge” was the longest suspension bridge for only approximately twenty years, it spanned not only the East River between Brooklyn and New York City, but it spanned significant periods of time in our country’s history. David McCullough tells the fascinating story of “The Great Bridge” from its inception by John Robeling through its completion by his son Washington Robeling. The Bridge spans the East River to bring Brooklyn and New York City into one municipal entity. The completion of the bridge was completed in large part by the efforts of Washington Robeling’s wife, Emily Warren Robeling, long before women’s suffrage or equality were a consideration in the workplace. Beyond these points, the sheer engineering feat of the construction was of an epic nature. McCullough’s narrative brings “The Great Bridge” into the eye of today’s society and explains the exceptional nature of this construction of steel and shows how it became a symbol of the future, strength, and beauty to a century of Americans.
Prior to the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn was the third largest city in America. The people of the city conducted commerce and worked in New York City by means of a ferry system that crossed the East River. As winters came and went, it became apparent to the citizenry of both cities that some type of bridge system was necessary to circumvent the problems that they faced due to weather. Commerce came to a grinding halt as ferries became frozen and immobile in the East River. The farmers and manufacturers would be able to transport their goods with greater ease for greater profit. During times of Depression and Recession, great public works projects were considered a great option to unemployment issues that plagued great cities. As New York City grew, issues of transportation and the movement of millions of people became a vital civic concern. McCullough argues that “This …was to be something much more than a large bridge over an important river. It was to be one of history’s great connecting works, symbolic of the new age…” (p. 27)
John Robeling would have been in complete agreement with David McCullough. He saw his creation as the “greatest bridge in existence” and the “greatest engineering work of the continent and of the age.” (p. 27) The sheer size of the bridge and the elements within its design were massive and unheard of at the time. It would be built with two foundational towers and four gigantic cables that would suspend the bridge roadway itself. McCullough walks the reader through the engineering specifications and building with great detail. The caissons that would be sunk to serve as foundations for the towers was an incredible engineering feet of their own. With the use of air locks to dig the foundation in the East River, unprecedented construction was begun. Without a working model for this technology, they created as they went. Compressed air was pumped into the caissons as the digging continued. This gave doctors a first chance to observe the effects of the bends and work to create treatments for those afflicted. As the towers rose to soaring heights, new methods of construction were created. The utilization of Robeling cable and wire was of immense importance to the operation. Again, newly designed cable would prove to be so substantial and effective that the same cable holds the bridge today, more than 100 years past the opening day. Each of the four cables is 15 ¾ inches in diameter, 3578.5 feet in length and includes over 3515 miles of wire in each cable. (p. 563) The sheer size, type of construction, weight and engineering processes available at the time make the Brooklyn Bridge of great historical significance for all time.
In a unique place in the bridge’s construction sat Emily Warren Robeling. After her husband, chief engineer Washington Robeling, became very ill from extensive time in the caissons, Emily became the eyes, ears, and feet for the ongoing construction. She assumed non-traditional roles of the time to continue the on-going design and construction of the bridge. Emily had studied higher mathematics and under her husband’s tutelage, she learned the craft of wire and suspension cables. Emily served as the chief go-between between her incapacitated husband at home and the engineers on sight. For eleven years, Emily might be considered the supervisor of the entire project. Throughout “The Great Bridge”, McCullough recounts her presence and hand in the completion of the bridge and recounts, “it was common gossip that hers was the real mind behind the great work and that this the most monumental engineering triumph of the age was actually the doing of a woman.” (p. 462) Emily Warren Robeling would not be given the credit for her part in this magnificent achievement for many decades, but hers might truly have been instrumental to the completion, and longevity of the bridge.
The Brooklyn Bridge is truly an icon of America. It spans the East River connecting Brooklyn and New York, but more importantly today, it spans a century. The Bridge originally affected commerce, but today it affects the life of the people of New York City. Its use is commercial and pedestrian and it serves as a monument in the skyline of the Big Apple. When one things of New York City, an immediate picture of the Brooklyn Bridge comes to mind. The Bridge serves as a great piece of architecture and logistic cog in the wheel of transportation, but even more important, it serves as a giant monument to man’s creation and the heart of a country
