Views Of The World, The Brooklyn Bridge

There's so much to be found about the Brooklyn Bridge, that I'm not going to put too much info in the post.  A couple of things, the engineer who designed the bridge was German immigrant  John Augustus Roebling.  While on a survey trip for the bridge, his foot was crushed between a ferry and dock piling.  He had to have his foot amputated, developed a tetanus infection and died a few months latter.  His son, Washington Roebling, took over supervision of the project got caisson disease, also know as decompression disease, or the bends.  His health was so damaged, that he over saw the building of the bridge from his apartment window.  There was a certain amount of fear that the bridge wasn't strong enough to carry great weight.  To prove the strength of the design, a parade of elephants, lead by Jumbo the giant animal owned by P.T. Barnum, were walked across the bridge.  And my favorite involves the so called war on terror.  One of the first announced success of the patriot act was the foiling of a plot to destroy the bridge.  Yes, there was a man who planned to rent an acetylene torch and cut the support cables.  I can just see some nut spending months cutting the massive cables and no one noticing.

Click on Views of the World in labels to see the rest of the collection.