Brooklyn Bridge: An Iconic Landmark

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the world’s iconic landmarks. With its presence amidst the burgeoning New York skyline, Gothic-like towers, steel cables, and six thousand feet of suspension, the Brooklyn Bridge is a breathtakingly stunning architectural beauty to behold. With its completion in 1883, the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” as the Brooklyn Bridge was affectionately called, became the world’s first and longest steel-wire suspension bridge.

Sacrifice and love constructed the bridge that would unite Brooklyn and Manhattan. Between twenty to forty men died during its construction; many others became permanently incapacitated, including its chief engineer, Washington Roebling.

Washington Roebling’s disability resulted from his work supervising the placement and construction of the bridge’s caissons (watertight chambers for the underwater construction of the bridge’s bases). Roebling became ill with “decompression sickness,” also known as “caisson disease” --“the bends” in modern parlance.

Bedridden, Washington’s wife, Emily, would take upon herself the mantle of completing the bridge. Emily dedicated herself to caring for her husband’s physical ailments and to her husband’s desire to complete the task he had begun. She would serve as the bridge’s day-to-day supervisor, project manager, and chief engineer until its completion in 1883.

Emily Roebling’s dedication did not go unnoticed. The congressman from New York, Abram Stevens Hewitt, called the Brooklyn Bridge Emily Roebling’s “everlasting monument” of “sacrificing devotion.”

The Brooklyn Bridge’s charm is feasibly symbolic of the love and sacrifice of those who built it.

True love requires sacrifice, and true sacrifice requires love; love and sacrifice almost always produce beautiful effects.

Couples come to the Brooklyn Bridge to perhaps reflect upon this mystery we call beauty, love, and sacrifice.