As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, WTOP presents “250 Years of America,” a multipart series examining the innovations, breakthroughs and pivotal moments that have shaped the nation since 1776.
AAR is proud to partner with WTOP to bring you this series.
The iconic Brooklyn Bridge in New York City opened in 1883 after nearly 14 years of construction and numerous delays.
The 143-year-old bridge is 1,595 feet long and 127-feet-high, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River. When it opened, it was the longest suspension in the world.
Building the bridge was difficult. It was constructed during a period of political corruption in New York — Tammany Hall controlled patronage jobs which caused numerous controversies, and the bridge’s unique design prolonged the construction.
DePaul University transportation professor Joe Schwieterman said nearly a century and half later, the Gothic Revival style bridge remains an icon of America’s determination to build big things.
“Just a magnificent architecture, and it showed just how you can build high-capacity bridges over really deep waterways using cable suspensions. Just the carrying capacity of the bridge with a long span without abutments is really striking for its time,” he said.
The bridge was dangerous to build. At least 27 people, including the main architect John Roebling, died from injuries during the construction. His son, Washington Roebling, was also severely incapacitated by a case of decompression sickness.
Countless others were seriously injured, and construction was at a time when there was no Occupational Health and Safety Administration or disability insurance if you were hurt.
As a result of Washington Roebling’s injuries, his wife Emily Warren Roebling, herself also an engineer, took over as the lead architect and she consulted with him regularly as he recovered.
“You look back at just the human toll of these bridges, it was partly due to just the lack of ability to have backup safety systems so your people standing on pillars, handling these heavy iron and steel, you know, cables and so forth, and a slight bit of wind or a slight mistake, and, you know, somebody’s tumbling into the deep sea,” Schwieterman said. “You wouldn’t tolerate those things today, but at the time it got to these projects done, at a cost society could afford back then.”
Due to gradual deterioration, Schwieterman said the bridge has been updated numerous times.
“It’s still around, functioning, still safe. 140 years later, that’s pretty remarkable,” he said. “The Interstate bridges are built to last about 50 years, before they need complete rebuilding. But the Brooklyn Bridge, that’s going to last for generations and there’s no sign there’s a risk to safety.”
The bridge cost $15 million to build, far above the original budget. To construct it today, it would cost more than three billion dollars. But Schwieterman said that’s still a bargain.
“New York City is just a jigsaw puzzle. You got this massive development. You’ve got (the) population making (it) one of the world’s largest cities. For a city like that to work, which is surrounded by waterways and islands and so forth, you had to build these facilities that were just meant to move millions, you know, every week,” he said. “The Brooklyn Bridge just opened up that commerce between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and it’s one of the country’s biggest transportation workhorses.”
The bridge was designed to elongate and contract 14 to 16 inches because of weather and temperature changes.
In a 1909 article, Engineering Magazine said that at the center of the span, the height above the Mean High Water could fluctuate by more than 9 feet due to temperature and traffic loads, while more rigid spans had a lower maximum deflection.
Built from limestone, granite and Rosendale cement, the bridge’s two suspension towers are 278 feet high above the water line.
According to the New York Department of Transportation, in 2024, an average of 103,051 vehicles, 28,845 pedestrians, and 5,504 cyclists traveled over the Brooklyn Bridge each day.
Today, the Brooklyn Bridge is also a designated a National Historic Landmark, a New York City landmark and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
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