The Roeblings

John Augustus Roebling, a German immigrant who made wire rope, designed the Brooklyn Bridge and never saw a stone of it laid. In June 1869, while he was surveying at the Fulton Ferry, an arriving ferry crushed his foot, and he died of tetanus a month later. His son Washington took over as chief engineer, worked inside the pressurized caissons under the river, and was left disabled by caisson disease, the bends.

For more than ten years his wife, Emily Warren Roebling, carried his instructions to the site, learned the engineering, and managed the work between him and the men on the bridge. Before the opening in May 1883 she was the first to cross, by carriage, carrying a rooster as a sign of victory. On our Brooklyn walk, the plaza beneath the bridge is named for her; stand in the middle and look straight up at the deck. On the promenade, remember that a contractor sold the project rejected wire; about 221 tons of it was already spun into the cables, so 150 extra wires were added to each cable, and the bad wire is still up there.