Brooklyn Timeline: Brooklyn Heights
1883: The Brooklyn Bridge
Throughout the 19th century, Brooklyn Heights continued to grow and prosper and there needed to be a more elegant solution to commuting than the ferry system. Especially considering the cold, hard reality that commuters were getting crushed to death on overcrowded boats. (Side note: I will now stop complaining about the C train.) So what was the solution? The Brooklyn Bridge, of course! Designed by John Augustus Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge is over a mile long and was a spectacular feat of engineering when it was first constructed and still continues to be pretty incredible when you really stop and look at its gothic stone arches.
The Brooklyn Bridge’s origin story is tempered by tragedy, however, because John A. Roebling sustained a serious injury while inspecting the bridge’s construction. Roebling was apparently struck by a ferry which resulted in a crushed foot that needed to be amputated. This was before the days of penicillin and, I guess, avid hand-washing, so he developed a tetanus infection and died. His son, Washington Roebling, took over the project, but he too fell ill with something called “decompression sickness” which happens when you scuba dive sometimes and also, I suppose, when you build bridges. Luckily, Washington Roebling’s wife, Emily Warren Roebling, took over for him and was brilliant and awesome and totally supervised the rest of the bridge’s construction. So, the story ends well, at least.