In 1855, John Roebling, the owner of a wire-rope company and a famous bridge designer, proposed a suspension bridge over the East River after becoming impatient with the Atlantic Avenue-Fulton Street Ferry. Roebling worked out every detail of the bridge, from its massive granite towers to its four steel cables. He thought his design entitled the bridge "to be ranked as a national monument? a great work of art."
The elder Roebling had experience with suspension spans, with bridges along the Delaware, Niagara and Ohio Rivers. The first of these, the Delaware Aqueduct (1848) between Lackawwaxen, Pennsylvania and Minisink Ford, New York, is the oldest surviving suspension bridge in America. The second, the Niagara Suspension Bridge (1855), served rail and carriage traffic until it was replaced with a stronger steel-arch bridge in 1891. The third, the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge (1867), was significantly strengthened in the 1890's with the addition of a steel deck truss, and remains in service today.
Initially, Roebling was met with cool reception by the city governments of New York and Brooklyn. He then approached William C. Kingsley, a Brooklyn businessman with political connections and publisher of the influential Brooklyn Eagle, who met the idea with enthusiasm. In turn, Kingsley enlisted the support of Henry Murphy, a state senator and former mayor of Brooklyn. Murphy then drafted a bill to the New York State Legislature that would enable a private company to build a bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn.
In 1867, a group of prominent leaders formed the New York Bridge Company "for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a bridge across the East River." Under the enabling act, the city of Brooklyn (which stood to benefit the most from the bridge) subscribed for $3 million of the capital stock, while the city of New York only subscribed for $1.5 million. The company was permitted to fix toll rates for pedestrians and all types of vehicles, receiving a profit of no more than 15 percent per year.
Responding to those who doubted the need for the bridge, Roebling responded that projected growth in the cities of New York and Brooklyn would necessitate the construction of additional bridges. Specifically, Roebling suggested future construction of the Williamsburg and Queensboro bridges further north along the East River.
Two years later, in June 1869, the New York City Council and the Army Corps of Engineers approved Roebling's design. Later that month, while examining locations for a Brooklyn tower site, Roebling's foot was crushed on a pier by an incoming ferry. Roebling later died of tetanus as a result of the injuries. Immediately following Roebling's death, his son, Washington, took over as chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge.
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