50 Fun Facts About The Brooklyn Bridge

Which body of water does the Brooklyn Bridge span?

It was the first fixed crossing of the river, linking Manhattan and Brooklyn, then separate cities.

On what date did the Brooklyn Bridge open?

On the first day 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed.

What was the length of the bridge's main span, making it the longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened?

The deck sits 127 feet above mean high water; the whole structure between curbs is about 6,016 feet.

Before the Brooklyn Bridge, its designer had built a suspension bridge over which river between Cincinnati and Covington?

He had also built the Niagara Suspension Bridge and the Delaware Aqueduct in Pennsylvania.

How did John Roebling die in 1869, before construction began?

His crushed toes were amputated during final surveys in June 1869; the infection killed him the next month.

How old was Washington Roebling when he took over as chief engineer after his father's death?

He was a Civil War veteran and had studied caisson foundations in Europe.

What illness left Washington Roebling paralysed and unable to visit the site for most of the construction?

Working in compressed air in the caissons shattered his health; the project physician Andrew Smith coined the term 'caisson disease'.

Which member of the Roebling family assisted the bedridden chief engineer for over a decade and is honoured on the bridge's plaque?

She later earned a law certificate from NYU and wrote the acclaimed 1899 essay 'A Wife's Disabilities'.

What did Emily Roebling carry as she became the first person to cross the finished bridge by carriage?

It was a sign of victory; officially she was the first to cross before the opening ceremony.

Which political machine controlled the New York Bridge Company that oversaw construction?

Boss Tweed, a major landowner, had a personal interest in the project's completion.

In which year did construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begin?

It took thirteen years, prolonged by controversy and the novelty of the design.

What are caissons, in the context of the bridge's construction?

Made of southern yellow pine and later filled with concrete, they were sunk to bedrock beneath each tower.

What was the 'Great Blowout' early in the bridge's construction?

Repairs delayed work for months; the Brooklyn caisson finally reached 44.5 feet in March 1871.

How many cases of decompression sickness did physician Andrew Smith treat between January and May 1872?

Three workers died of it; Washington Roebling halted digging on the Manhattan side rather than go deeper.

Roughly how many men are estimated to have died building the bridge?

By 1876 three had fallen from the towers and nine died in other accidents; twelve more died in a stampede a week after opening.

What did the contractor J. Lloyd Haigh do that permanently reduced the bridge's safety margin?

Only five of eighty rings tested met standards; Roebling had over-designed the truss six to eight times, so it was still far stronger than needed.

Roughly how much was Haigh estimated to have made from his wire fraud?

To avoid scandal he was not fired but made to pay for the extra good wire himself; the tainted cables were finally replaced in 1986.

How many main cables support the bridge's deck?

Each is 15.75 inches thick and contains 5,282 galvanised steel wires bundled in 19 strands, the first bundling in a suspension bridge.

What architectural style are the bridge's stone towers?

Each tower has a pair of pointed arches through which the roadways run.

How tall are the bridge's two suspension towers above mean high water?

When finished they were taller than every building in the city except the spire of Trinity Church, at 279 feet.

The towers are built of limestone, granite and what third material?

The granite blocks were shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine, and delivered by schooner.

What were the vaults under the Manhattan anchorage rented out for from 1876?

They stayed at a constant 60 °F; a fading inscription found in 1978 read 'Who loveth not wine, women and song, he remaineth a fool his whole life long.'

Technically, what kind of structure is the Brooklyn Bridge?

It has both vertical suspender cables and about 400 diagonal stays from the towers.

Under what earlier official name was the span known until 1915?

The city government passed a bill to adopt the familiar name in January 1915.

Which US president crossed the bridge at its opening ceremony and shook hands with Brooklyn's mayor Seth Low?

New York mayor Franklin Edson accompanied him.

What tragedy occurred on 30 May 1883, six days after the opening?

A woman falling down a stairway on the Brooklyn approach triggered the crush.

Which showman led 21 elephants across the bridge in May 1884 to prove it was safe?

Jumbo led the parade, calming doubts about the bridge's stability while advertising the circus.

How much did the Brooklyn Bridge cost to build?

Brooklyn paid two-thirds; that is about $518 million in 2025 dollars.

Who was the first person to jump from the bridge, on 19 May 1885?

Brodie's famous 1886 leap is doubted; cartoonist Otto Eppers jumped, survived and was acquitted of attempted suicide in 1910.

Steve Brodie became famous for supposedly doing what in July 1886?

He was briefly arrested, though there is doubt he actually jumped.

What did the con men George C. Parker and William McCloundy supposedly do repeatedly to gullible newcomers?

The phrase 'selling the Brooklyn Bridge' entered American English, though one historian says no evidence exists that anyone ever bought it.

In which year were tolls on the Brooklyn Bridge and the other bridges over the same river abolished?

It was a populist move by mayor William Jay Gaynor; a 1970s attempt to bring tolls back was blocked by Congress.

Until what year did the bridge carry trolleys?

Elevated trains stopped in 1944; the bridge was then redesigned for cars only, with three lanes each way.

What was the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Railway, which began running on 25 September 1883?

It carried three million people in its first six months on the inner lanes.

What did the NYCDOT create on the Manhattan-bound roadway on 14 September 2021?

Cyclists were banned from the upper promenade, which became pedestrian-only.

What was painted on the promenade in 1971?

It created one of the city's first dedicated bike lanes.

Which company made the galvanised suspenders that replaced the bridge's original wire rope in the 1980s?

The tainted Haigh cables were replaced in 1986, their first replacement since construction, ahead of a $153 million rehabilitation.

Since when has the Brooklyn Bridge been a National Historic Landmark?

It was added to the National Register in 1966, made a city landmark in 1967 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.

Which modernist poet made the Brooklyn Bridge the central metaphor of his 1930 book The Bridge?

David McCullough's The Great Bridge (1972) tells the construction story.

Which 2001 romantic film used the dedication of part of the bridge as a key plot component?

The bridge appears in countless skyline shots and works of art.

Which documentary maker's 1981 film Brooklyn Bridge chronicled the bridge's construction?

David McCullough's 1972 book The Great Bridge is the standard history.

The centennial celebrations on 24 May 1983 were declared 'the public relations triumph of 1983' by which magazine?

A flotilla, parades and Grucci fireworks marked the day; the Brooklyn Museum showed Washington Roebling's original drawings.

Where was John Roebling born in 1806?

He studied at Berlin's Bauakademie, attended Hegel's lectures, and emigrated to America in 1831 to found a settlement in Pennsylvania.

What settlement did John and Carl Roebling found in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in 1831?

Farming bored him and few settlers came; by 1837 he was back in engineering, surveying railways over the Alleghenies.

Where did Washington Roebling study engineering from 1854 to 1857?

He was born in the settlement his father co-founded and worked in the family wire mill in Trenton.

At which Civil War battle was Washington Roebling among the first Union officers on Little Round Top?

He had enlisted as a private in the New Jersey Militia in April 1861 and also fought at Second Bull Run and Chancellorsville.

Emily met her future husband while visiting which relative's Civil War headquarters?

Washington was on Warren's staff; the couple married at Cold Spring, New York, in January 1865.

What terrorist plot involving the bridge was Iyman Faris sentenced for in 2003?

He received about 20 years for supporting al-Qaeda; the plot was thwarted.

Which iron foundry, which also made the US Capitol dome, produced the promenade's iron railings?

The Bronx foundry also made the Bow Bridge in Central Park.

What was developed under the Manhattan approach in the late 1980s?

Skateboarders petitioned when the bricks were removed in 2020; part of the space reopened as a park called the Arches in 2023.