The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest bridges of either type in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan andBrooklyn by spanning the East River. It has a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. It was originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, but it was later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name coming from an earlier January 25, 1867, letter to the editor of theBrooklyn Daily Eagle,[7] and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an icon of New York City, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964[6][8][9] and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.[10].
The Brooklyn Bridge was initially designed by German immigrantJohn Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, Waco Suspension Bridge in Waco, Texas, and theJohn A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio.
While conducting surveys for the bridge project, Roebling sustained a crush injury to his foot when aferry pinned it against a piling. After amputation of his crushed toes he developed a tetanus infection which left him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death, not long after he had placed his 32-year-old sonWashington Roebling in charge of the project.[11] Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sicknessshortly after the beginning of construction on January 3, 1870.[12] This condition, first called "caisson disease" by the project physician Andrew Smith, afflicted many of the workers working within the caissons.
