The Brooklyn Bridge opening took place on May 24, 1883, when the span across the East River was dedicated before President Chester A. Arthur, New York Governor Grover Cleveland, and the mayors of the two cities it joined. An estimated 250,000 people crossed within the first 24 hours.1ABC7 News. This Day in History: The Brooklyn Bridge Opens The bridge had taken more than thirteen years to build, cost roughly $15 million, and killed at least 27 workers along the way. Six days after the ribbon-cutting, a crowd crush on the span killed twelve more.
What Happened on May 24, 1883
The dedication was a carefully staged civic event. The 23rd Regiment Band played, Bishop Littlejohn offered a prayer, and William C. Kingsley delivered the presentation address before Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low and New York Mayor Franklin Edson accepted the bridge on behalf of their cities.2Internet Archive. Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge The formal orations came from Abram S. Hewitt, speaking for New York City, and the Reverend Richard S. Storrs. Cannon fire, bands, and fireworks closed the program.
Emily Warren Roebling rode the first carriage across from the Brooklyn side shortly before the ceremonies began, carrying a rooster as a symbol of victory.3Britannica. Emily Warren Roebling During the dedication, Hewitt declared that the bridge would “ever be coupled” with her name, an unusual public tribute to a woman in a field then closed to women. His remarks also included what was described as a pointed defense of the bridge’s management through its troubled history.4Project Gutenberg. Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge
Washington Roebling, the chief engineer, reportedly watched from his home. By some accounts, he never set foot on the completed bridge.
The Thirteen Years Behind the Ceremony
The bridge began as a legislative act. On April 16, 1867, the New York State legislature, on a bill introduced by State Senator Henry Murphy, created the New York Bridge Company and capitalized it at $5 million.5Structure Magazine. Brooklyn Bridge Part 1 Congress designated the future bridge a “post-road” in March 1869 and required the Secretary of War to approve its plans, which he did that June on the condition that the main span clear at least 135 feet above mean high water.6Cornell Law Institute. Miller v. Mayor, Etc., of the City of New York, 109 U.S. 385
Private capital was slow to arrive. By late 1868, Brooklyn had bought 30,000 shares and New York City 15,000; private holders, including William “Boss” Tweed, held the remaining 5,000, with Tweed acquiring 560 shares at no cost.5Structure Magazine. Brooklyn Bridge Part 1 In 1875 the legislature dissolved the New York Bridge Company altogether, declared the span a public work of both cities, and transferred management to a board of trustees.6Cornell Law Institute. Miller v. Mayor, Etc., of the City of New York, 109 U.S. 385
The designer was John A. Roebling, a wire-rope manufacturer who had built suspension bridges at Niagara Falls and Cincinnati. On June 28, 1869, while surveying tower locations at the waterfront, his foot was crushed by a boat. He died of tetanus within a month.7Museum of the City of New York. The Curse of the Roeblings: The Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge His son Washington succeeded him and oversaw the start of construction on January 2, 1870.
Caissons and Casualties
The most dangerous phase was sinking the two stone towers. Workers excavated the riverbed inside pressurized wooden caissons lowered to the river floor.8National Library of Medicine. Caisson Disease During the Construction of the Eads and Brooklyn Bridges Temperatures inside hovered around 80 degrees, and the caissons were prone to fires and explosions. Over 100 men contracted caisson disease, now known as the bends, leading to death or severe debilitation.7Museum of the City of New York. The Curse of the Roeblings: The Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge In all, 27 workers died during construction.
Washington Roebling was among the casualties. He fell ill in early 1872 after surfacing too quickly from a twelve-hour shift, and the disease left him partially paralyzed, with impaired vision and voice, and in chronic pain. He never returned to the site.
Emily Warren Roebling Runs the Job
His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, learned the mathematics, engineering principles, and materials science she needed to serve as the primary link between her bedridden husband and the engineers on-site. She relayed his instructions to the crews, brought reports back to their home, where Washington monitored the work through field glasses, and negotiated with suppliers and politicians.3Britannica. Emily Warren Roebling Many observers came to regard her as the de facto chief engineer.
When politicians moved to remove Washington on the grounds that he could not lead a project he never physically visited, Emily mounted his defense, presenting his remarks to the Society of Engineers and reassuring officials that he remained competent.9Brooklyn Paper. Emily Warren Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge The bridge company’s board voted 10 to 7 to keep him.7Museum of the City of New York. The Curse of the Roeblings: The Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge
The Wire Fraud That Almost Broke the Bridge
In 1878, Washington Roebling’s team uncovered a scheme by wire contractor J. Lloyd Haigh. Haigh’s workers were loading approved, inspected wire onto wagons, diverting them, swapping in rejected stock bearing the same certificates, and delivering the bad wire to the bridge.10Brooklyn Museum. The Builders On July 5, 1878, a Roebling surveillance team caught the swap in progress. Testing showed only five of 80 rings of wire met standards, and roughly 500 tons of defective wire had already been woven into the cables.
The fraud dropped the bridge’s designed safety factor from six times the necessary strength to about four. Rather than tear out the embedded wire, Roebling required Haigh to fund the addition of 150 extra wires to each cable to restore the margin. He also rebuilt quality control: every ring was now tested individually, and armed guards accompanied shipments from the mill.11The Wave Engineer. When Quality Control Became a Matter of Life and Death He estimated the scheme had cost roughly $300,000.
The trustees, fearing that a public scandal would push New York City, then under Tammany Hall boss John Kelly, to pull its funding, suppressed the story. Haigh was allowed to finish the contract while covering the corrective costs. He was later imprisoned at Sing Sing.10Brooklyn Museum. The Builders Washington Roebling had warned the trustees before the contract was awarded that Haigh was financially beholden to board member Abram Hewitt, who had pushed for Haigh to receive the wire contract over the Roebling company.
The Decoration Day Disaster
Six days after the opening, on May 30, 1883, Decoration Day (now Memorial Day), the bridge was packed. Engineers had opened the roadways on either side of the elevated promenade to absorb the overflow. At about 4:00 p.m. near the New York approach, a middle-aged woman lost her balance while descending the wooden stairway. A bridge patrolman rushed to help her, which disrupted the flow of the crowd behind them. Panic spread instantly.12The New York Times. Bridge Stampede Recalled: 12 Were Killed on Brooklyn Span in 1883
Twelve people were killed in the crush and 35 were injured. Among the dead was Sarah Hennessey, a 22-year-old Brooklyn woman who had been married for seven weeks.13ThoughtCo. Brooklyn Bridge Disaster Bridge management was criticized for failing to station police at key points to manage crowd flow. Uniformed officers were posted on the bridge afterward with orders to keep pedestrians moving, and the tragedy was not repeated.
What the Opening Set in Motion
When the bridge opened, New York City imposed tolls of one cent for pedestrians and ten cents for carriages.14Yale Law Journal. Transportation Law’s Congestion Problem Mayor William Jay Gaynor rescinded the tolls on the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, and Manhattan bridges in 1911, calling them “oppressive” and “irksome,” and they have never been permanently reinstated.
The bridge’s legality was tested almost immediately. In Miller v. Mayor, etc., of the City of New York (1883), the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the bridge was authorized by both state and federal governments and, because it complied with the height and navigation conditions the Secretary of War had set, could not be treated as a nuisance or ordered removed.6Cornell Law Institute. Miller v. Mayor, Etc., of the City of New York, 109 U.S. 385
The opening also reshaped the map. By making Brooklyn and New York physically continuous and economically interdependent, the bridge was one of the factors that made consolidation seem logical. On January 1, 1898, the two cities merged with Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx into the City of Greater New York, a metropolis of over three million.15Wesleyan University Digital Collections. Creating a National Landmark Brooklyn did not go quietly; its City Hall held what was described as a funeral-like observance, featuring a reading of the poem “The Passing of Brooklyn.”
Recognition
Emily Warren Roebling, writing to her son fifteen years after the bridge was completed, put her role plainly: “I have more brains, common sense and know-how generally than any two engineers, civil or uncivil, and but for me the Brooklyn Bridge would never have had the name Roebling in any way connected with it!”9Brooklyn Paper. Emily Warren Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge A plaque honoring her was placed on the bridge in 1950, and in 2021 the final section of Brooklyn Bridge Park was opened as Emily Warren Roebling Plaza.
The bridge itself was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1972.16EBSCO Research Starters. Brooklyn Bridge