About Us

Travel

Emily’s Bridge
Written by David Errickson

It sounds like a movie, doesn’t it? A great engineer takes on the greatest challenge of the age, building that which was said couldn’t be built. Then, tragically, before construction even starts, he contracts a deadly disease and dies with the great deed left undone. Undaunted by the task ahead, his son heroically steps forward and carries on in his father’s name, completing the effort against all odds.

This is our story today. But it takes a slightly different twist. What if the son then also becomes gravely ill, and can no longer carry the torch? His own child, far too young to step into those big shoes, can’t save the day. Who will take control, who will rescue the endeavor from disaster? Who will oversee the responsible expenditure of millions of dollars? The answer, of course, is simple: his wife.

Perhaps this scenario would not be that remarkable today, but in 1870? Fifty years before women could even vote? Here then is our true story of tenacity, teamwork, and undying love.

Before the Civil War was even ended, an idea had been hatched to build the greatest bridge the world had ever seen across the East River linking Manhattan with the city of Brooklyn. The very idea challenged everything that was then known of materials and physics. To accomplish this feat, the most famous bridge builder in America, a German immigrant named John Roebling, was hired. During surveys of the river banks in 1869 his foot was crushed between a boat and a pier. The wound developed tetanus and he soon died. His son, Washington Roebling, a hero of the war, assumed command of the project at age 32.

At that time, the science of underwater construction was in its infancy. No one understood why men who worked for extended periods in the hollow base of the bridge towers, or caissons, on the river bottom became dizzy and subject to excruciatingly painful joints, sometimes to the point of death. Roebling, following a heroic attempt in 1870 to quench a fire in the submerged bridge supports, developed a debilitating case of what we now know as decompression sickness, the “bends”. It shattered his health and left him unable to walk and addicted to pain killers. The future of the bridge was seriously in doubt.

Into the chaos steps 27 year old Emily Warren Roebling, calmly assuming the role of nurse, companion, and messenger between her husband Washington and the project team. For thirteen years she conducted daily site visits carrying her husband’s instructions from their house in Brooklyn to his assistants at the bridge, bringing back progress reports to his sickbed. She educated herself on strength of materials, cable construction, and stress analysis. She defended her husband’s position as chief engineer when his leadership came under attack by local politicians. Defying convention, fate, and the mores of the day, in 1883 she doggedly saw to the completion of the bridge. Though the opening ceremony was attended by President Chester Arthur and the mayor of New York, the first to cross was Emily Warren Roebling.

Today, mounted on the Manhattan-side tower is a plaque dedicating the bridge to her memory. It is accessible by the pedestrian walkway which surmounts the 1500 foot span from end to end. It says, simply and fittingly, “Back of every great work we can find the self-sacrificing devotion of a woman.”

If you go:
I usually try to spotlight places that are an easy daytrip from Virginia, but everyone should visit New York at some point, if for nothing else but the food. Try it, despite the crowds and all you’ve heard, you might like it. While there, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge is one of those “gotta do it” experiences you’ll remember for the rest of your life. In lower Manhattan near Chinatown and South Street Seaport, to just north of Brooklyn Heights, any cab can take you there. You climb some steps from the street at either end and walk or ride a bike across the river, enjoying spectacular views of the world’s greatest city.