Out of all the
engineering advances that took place in
New York during the 1800s, the Brooklyn
Bridge stands out to be one of New York's greatest and most famous landmark.
This was not a creation that was polished overnight, but one that took more
than a decade to build. The bridge is not only recognized for its majestic
stone towers and steel cables overlooking the East River; the towers and steel
cables has served as a gateway to millions of daily commuters and tourists.
The man behind this masterpiece was John Augustus
Roebling. Born in Germany on June 1806, he studied industrial engineering in
Berlin and graduated from the Royal
Polytechnic Institute ( The Brooklyn Bridge: A World Wonder). At the ripe age
of 25, he immigrated to western
Pennsylvania, where he attempted
to make his living as a farmer, but it was not successful. He later moved to the state capital in
Harrisburg, where he found work as a civil engineer where he promoted the use
of wire cable and established a wire cable factory ( history.com). While working in Pennsylvania, he introduced
the idea of manufacturing wire rope for industrial use which became essential to
his designs for suspension bridges and earned him a reputation as one of the leading
suspension bridge builders in the U.S.
In 1831, he moved to
the U.S along with a group of
pilgrims from Germany with the intention of starting an agricultural community.
After successfully completing the Cincinnati Suspension
Bridge over the Ohio River and his suspension over the Allegheny River,
Roebling envisioned the design for a suspension bridge
connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn that he described would be "
the greatest in the world" ( Wright, p.465, 2008). Based on his
achievements and reputation, the New York State Legislature passed a bill
granting for a suspension bridge Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1866 ( history.com).
With the help of his son Colonel Washington Roebling, who served as a
engineer in the army, Roebling put forth a daring plan for the bridge (Wright,
p.465, 2008). Unfortunately, Roebling did not live long enough to see the
completion of the bridge because three days after construction began, he was
fatally injured while determining the exact location of the bridge's tower. He
suffered from lockjaw infection and died two weeks at the age of 62 on July
22,1869. The plan was left to Washington Roebling to complete his dad's plan and make it
what his dad had envisioned (Wright, p. 465, 2008).
As innovative as his dad was for introducing the idea of
wire rope into his design for suspension bridges, Washington took this idea a
step further and developed a revolutionary system for fabricating heavy
suspension cables in mid-air. To lay a good foundation for the bridge, caissons,
enormous inverted boxes of timber were built on the shores of the river. These caissons were inflated with compressed
air and heavy stones were piled on top of each box until they were in place. The men would then go to the bottom of the
river to remove the mud and boulders at the bottom of the river. After doing
this for a period of ten months, the Brooklyn cessation touched bedrock.
Building the bridge did not come was not that of a
fairytale, there were hazards and consequences of working with caisson. An
unknown phenomenon known as " caisson disease" plagued Roebling,
along with his workers with symptoms such as, temporary paralysis, vomiting ,nose
bleeds, pain in the joints, speech impediments, convulsions, and even death. Caisson disease brought about these symptoms
because when the men would go under the water to make sure that the caissons
were in place, they used small iron containers called airlocks, which were
filled with compressed air. The compressed air enabled them to breathe by
keeping the water from seeping in. Once they ascended after their shifts,
nitrogen bubbles formed in the body and released into their bloodstreams ( history.com).
This put a halt into Roebling's plan because
he developed a nervous disorder which left him paralyzed and prevented him from
working on the work site. Despite his
condition, he remained chief engineer, while his wife, Emily led the
construction of the bridge until its
completion in 1883 (http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Roebling__Washington.html).
Since its opening
on May 25, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge has been an important landmark in New
York. To this day it stands as a monument to its creators and the American
spirit. It serves as a reminder that our imaginations are not limited and that
we should continue to test our own limits with new and exciting ventures.
References
Brooklyn Bridge. (n.d.). In History.com. Retrieved
September 14, 2012, from http://www.history.com/topics/brooklyn-bridge
Mellinger, T. (2006). Roebling
Washington. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from
http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Roebling__Washington.html
Presentin Wright, C. V. (2008). Blue Guide: New York
(4th ed., pp. 464-465). United States, NY: Blue Guides Limited.
The Brooklyn Bridge: A world wonder. (n.d.). In The Brooklyn
Bridge: A world wonder. Retrieved September 15, 2012, from
http://www.brooklynbridgeaworldwonder.com/john-roebling.html
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