Landmarks - The Brooklyn Bridge

The Bridge That Changed a City

By: James Calloway

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Two cities, one dream, and a river that held them captive.

Before the bridge, the daily crossing between America's first and third largest cities was an ordeal of filth, danger, and frustration. When the great freeze of 1867 severed the artery completely, the cry for a permanent crossing became a roar.

The call was answered by John A. Roebling, a brilliant, iron-willed engineer with a revolutionary vision. But just as his dream was approved, a freak accident and his own stubborn pride led to his shocking death. The colossal project was left in the hands of his son, Washington Roebling.

Forced to fight a war on two fronts—against the treacherous riverbed in the terrifying, disease-filled caissons and against the corrupt political machine of Tammany Hall—Washington risked everything to continue his father’s work. When the mysterious "Caisson Disease" left him a crippled invalid, the fate of the impossible bridge fell to one unlikely hero: his wife, Emily Warren Roebling.

With no formal training, Emily secretly took command, mastering higher mathematics and complex engineering to become the project's acting chief engineer, battling rival engineers, crooked contractors, and public scandal to see the vision through.

LANDMARKS: The Brooklyn Bridge is the riveting true story of the fourteen-year struggle to build the world's most famous bridge. It is a tale of Gilded Age ambition, staggering human cost, and the visionary family who sacrificed everything to conquer the East River and create a timeless monument to American ingenuity.

the untold story

The detail of the construction of the bridge and the part the wife of the engineer gave a much greater understanding of what was king n at the time and the environment in which it took place. The subsequent history of the bridge gives a stunning look at the whole picture of man’s achievements and the good and bad that arises from them.