This week we’re discussing a topic that keeps Vivan up at night: bridges. In the first half of this two episode topic we’ll be learning about the world’s first steel wire suspension bridge, the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is a tale of three engineers, John Roebling, his son Washington Roebling, and his son’s wife Emily Warren Roebling. Prior to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1869 through 1883 there was no crossing from Brooklyn to Manhattan and all commuting was done by ferry. The local government would enter into a partnership similar to what we call a P3 today (Public Private Project), wherein a private entity would build the bridge, the government would own the bridge, and revenue from a toll booth on the bridge would be split between the private entity and the government.

John Roebling was selected as the chief engineer for the project because of his prior bridge work and his company’s revolutionary iron and steel rope, and the strength of these materials would make the 1.8km long bridge possible. Unlike many of our engineering heroes in the 1800s John Roebling was not self-trained, and despite his impressive track record and strong materials his plans for the bridge would be met with great skepticism. To put the minds of concerned engineers at ease Roebling would host a page turn, essentially locking 7 skeptical engineers and industry professionals in a room and reviewing every page of the plans until they were satisfied, not unlike what Vivian does today! Ultimately the industry was satisfied but getting the local government on board with his plans would take more convincing and a group would be organized to tour four of his previous bridges. Ultimately they were convinced of the viability of his plans and construction would begin shortly afterwards.

While surveying areas where the bridge would meet with the road system John Roebling would have his foot crushed by a ferry. This stubbornly tough engineer would agree to having his toes amputated but insisted upon having the procedure completed without anesthetic. As a believer in hydrotherapy he would attempt to treat the surgical wound by pouring water on his feet day and night, but ultimately he would succumb to infection and die just 28 days later. Upon his death his son Washington Roebling would be assigned to take over the project and despite being only 32 years old at the time he was enormously respected for being not only technically competent and great with details, but also much humbler than his father. Washington Roebling and his wife Emily Warren Roebling had previously been sent to Europe to research the use of pressurized caissons as a method for building bridge foundations underwater. These workshop-diving-bell hybrids would be the cause of many deaths during the construction of the bridge, primarily as a result of decompression sickness which had not yet been discovered.

Washington Roebling himself would suffer a grave accident as the result of the caissons and decompression sickness when a fire broken out in one of the caissons in 1870 and he would go down into the caisson himself to help fight the fire and direct the firefighting efforts. He would experience some aches and pains coming back out and would head back down the next day with the fire still burning. The result of his repeated long trips would be crippling decompression sickness that left him bed ridden for the remaining 13 years of his life. At this point his wife Emily Warren Roebling would step up to become what we would today call the Field Engineer. She would become the eyes and ears of her husband, and was involved in every step of the construction, including working with the local government to justify the overrun of the original $5M budget and the request of an additional $8M to complete the project. The first female engineer of our podcast would be honoured at the unveiling of the bridge:

“The bridge was an everlasting monument to the sacrificing devotion of a woman and her capacity for that higher education from which she has been so long and too long been disbarred”

Next episode in our season finale we’ll be speaking with an actual bridge engineer about the science of how it was constructed and how we construct bridges today.

Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com

Edited by: Astronomic Audio

Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram