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(Thursday, May 24, 1883, ceremonies were scheduled for 2:00-5:30 p.m., local time) — The Brooklyn Bridge, a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge linking New York City and Brooklyn by spanning the East River, was dedicated today by U.S. President Chester Alan Arthur, New York Governor Grover Cleveland, and Emily Roebling, the wife of the bridge’s main engineer, Washington Roebling.
The bridge took 13 years to construct at a cost of $15 million (about US$436,232,000 in 2021).
When it opened, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world, with a span of 1,595 feet. It had two carriageways and two railway lines, with a raised middle platform for pedestrians, who could cross the bridge for the price of one cent.
German immigrant John A. Roebling drafted original plans for the bridge, but he died in an accident a year before construction began.
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His son, Washington, took over the project and worked alongside laborers in underwater chambers known as caissons. He, like many of the workers, became ill with “caissons disease,” a disease now known as decompression sickness or “the bends,” which occurs when one returns to the surface after spending time underwater.
The disease forced Roebling to take leave from the project in 1872 and oversee the remainder of the construction from his home, with his wife serving as a liaison between him and the construction crew.
Though Washington Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony (and rarely visited the site again), he held a celebratory banquet at his house on the day of the bridge opening.
Further festivity included a performance by a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.
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On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed the span.
It was the first land connection between New York and Brooklyn, which previously was linked only by ferry or boat.
Six days after the bridge’s opening, a stampede caused at least 12 people to die when thousands of pedestrians became panicked.
A year later, circus promoter P.T. Barnum displayed the strength of the bridge by leading 21 elephants across it.
