I researched the Brooklyn Bridge by looking through
historical newspapers. I started with reading the article titled Rumors About Building a Bridge in 1829. The people of New York thought that this was a very interesting project and that it was a project the whole city was fascinated with. One reason the people were so excited about this is because of the idea of transportation and they thought that this project would be easy to accomplish. However, this may have not been the case. When I was reading these newspapers it seemed like they highlighted the major downfalls of the bridge but also the very exciting parts. From the newspaper, A Caisson Catches on Fire on December 30, 1870, I read that there was a veteran working and all of a sudden water and mud bursted out of the caisson onto him and the water shot up so much it broke the dipper. This was one of the first issues with building the bridge.
One of the next problems that I read in the newspaper, One of the Bridge Cable Snaps on June 20, 1878, was that people were injured from the snapping of one of the cables. It seems to me like whenever there is a problem it comes with another problem, for example here the cable snapped but it also injured someone else. In the newspaper, The Bridge Company is Investigated on May 13, 1873, I found that there was an accusation of fraud but after doing some more reading I learned that they investigated it and everything was fine. Those were a few problems that were occurring during the construction of the bridge, but then there were still issues when the bridge was complete.
When the bridge opened people were so excited that it caused injuries and even deaths. In the newspaper, Account of the Official Opening Day on May 31,1883, I read that people were killed and injured from fainting because the bridge was overcrowded. Because of this they had to get police to monitor the bridge and thin out the crowds.
Not only were people being injured from being on the bridge but the bridge brought along a lot of daredevils. People were excited that they could create the opportunity to show off and jump off the bridge. In, Robert Odlum the First Man to Jump from the Bridge, I read that Robert Odlum was a diver and wanted to show off to people that he could jump off the bridge but he ended up dying when he hit the water. After him jumping off the bridge it encouraged many others to do the same.
I read that one man jumped off at an attempt to commit suicide but he actually survived the jump. I think it's crazy that right when this bridge opened that is what some of these people wanted to do. I kept reading about all of these crazy and bad things happening on the bridge because that is what the newspapers were highlighting because it was interesting to the readers. From the newspapers that I read I wanted to read more about how excited the people were and what they thought about the bridge after 14 years of construction and 15 million dollars had gone into it.
This topic related to progressivism because it showed that the people were excited for planning to move forward. There was money coming from the government that the progressives were excited about because it was going to bring something new and useful to their city. The turnout of the people there on opening day just shows how excited they were about this bridge and what it was going to do. The bridge opened up many new ideas and led to more bridges being built in other cities.
John Roebling Plans the Bridge-THe east river suspension bridge- september 21, 1867
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