Page 235 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

BROOKL Y N BRIDGE  233

First Crossing VISITORS’ CHECKLIST
Master mechanic E. F. Farrington in
1876 was the first to cross the river Practical Information
on the bridge-in-progress, using a Map 2 D2. 7
steam-driven traveler rope. His
journey took 22 minutes. Transport
q J, Z to Chambers St; 4, 5, 6
to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall
Steel Cable Wire (Manhattan side); A, C to High St
Each cable contains 3,515 miles (Brooklyn side). @ M9, M15,
(5,657 km) of wire, galvanized M22, M103.
with zinc for protection from the
wind, rain, and snow.

Brooklyn
Tower (1875)
Two Gothic double
arches, each 271 ft
(83 m) high, one in
Brooklyn, the other
in Manhattan, were
meant to be the
portals of the cities.

John A. Roebling
The German-born Roebling
designed the bridge. In 1869,
just before construction started,
his foot was crushed between
an incoming ferry and the ferry
slip. He died three weeks later.
His son, Washington Roebling,
finished the bridge, but in 1872
he was taken from a caisson
suffering from the bends and
became partly paralyzed. His
Inside the Caisson wife, under his tutelage, then
Immigrant workers broke up rocks took over.
in the riverbed.

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