The Brooklyn Bridge disease

The Brooklyn Bridge has been one of the great staples of New York City. This bridge has withstood decades of weather, tourists, and vehicles. The bridge was made to last and was one of a kind during its initial construction. Construction began in 1869 by the “John Roebling’s Company” and finished in 1883. In the first part of the construction of this bridge, caissons were constructed. These are watertight chambers used in construction work under water or as foundations. After these caissons would be finished they would be cemented in to create a base for the towers. This part of the bridge was the most difficult to get finished, but ultimately was accomplished. From that point, the towers would be connected with steel cables and a roadway, leading to the bridge we have today. In theory, this construction was simple but no one could account for the unknown disease that plagued the workers in the caissons. This disease made the work terrifying as no one knew what was going on. This one part of the bridge construction is probably the most interesting thing about the history of this landmark and I would like to express the dangers of it. 

Starting from the basics, the caissons had to be watertight so it was an engineering marvel to get them perfectly done. While in today’s time, we can get this done much easier and safer, back then building these structures took hundreds of men that were able to withstand large pressure changes and work without the help of crazy machinery. The only problem with this construction was caisson disease. No matter how strong you were you had a high risk of being affected and becoming incredibly ill. Working in the caissons was no easy feat, “One hundred men … worked in the hot, humid caisson … pressurized air was difficult to breathe and candles gave only dim light. It was exhausting, dirty work (Mann 2006)” Working in these types of conditions was bound to create health issues. To add to that the workers had to dig into the bedrock to securely fasten the foundations of the towers. The deeper they dug the greater the pressure was. At this point, it was when workers started getting incredibly ill.

Once workers would leave their shift they would have to take in large changes of pressure very quickly. This quick change in pressure turned out to be the problem that created the caisson disease. As written by Tran in How the Brooklyn Bridge was built on LinkedIn, “Essentially, the deeper you are in a body of water, the higher the pressure you’ll experience because more water is on top of you”. This led to decompression sickness. Washington Roebling realized this and knew that going any further down would cause major health problems. This change resulted in the Brooklyn caisson being dug to bedrock but the Manhattan caisson being stopped at firm soil. Implementing this change helped the workers but also sped up the construction of the bridge. 

Although the caissons were now done there were many people affected during its construction. In the article The remarkable (wooden) foundation of the Brooklyn Bridge it was stated that “the level dropped …the air in the caisson and exploded out like a volcano. But the caisson did not crumple …  Roebling’s wooden box held the falling weight of 35 million pounds”. This refers to the water level inside the caissons. There had to be constant monitoring of this during construction, and if the water level dropped too much too much air would go in and the caisson would explode. But in this situation, the caisson withstood the blast and held up the immense pressure of the water. Luckily no one was inside during this time, but if this had occurred during working hours there would have been immense amounts of casualties. This was one of the many fears that workers would experience while working in the caisson. Another problem that occurred was worker health. As stated in Brooklyn Bridge – length, Timeline & Facts by History.com, workers  experienced “excruciating joint pain, paralysis, convulsions, numbness, speech impediments and, in some cases, death”. This told the world that working under extreme water pressure was not a simple task and had to be done very precisely. Out of all the people affected, Washington Roebling was bedridden because of the disease and was forced to watch over the construction through a telescope in his apartment. Also in the same article, it was stated that “in 1909, New York’s legislature passed the nation’s first caisson-safety laws to protect sandhogs’ ‘ meaning that the negative effects caused during the Brooklyn bridge construction positively affected later construction of caissons to help workers out.

Overall the caissons were a step in a new direction for the underwater construction and foundation creation. Even though hundreds of people had to first experience the pains of the caisson disease it helped the later generations of workers to work safely. Working in these terrible conditions showed workers that they have to take care of themselves and slowly operate during certain circumstances. We also learned how to build more proper caissons that are going to protect workers and be able to withstand immense pressure during construction. The brooklyn bridge was an engineering masterpiece that reignited a spark in NYC for more creation and it has lasted till this day.

References

• Mann, E., & Witschonke, A. (2006). The Brooklyn Bridge. Mikaya. 
• Tran, N. (n.d.). How the Brooklyn Bridge was built. LinkedIn. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-brooklyn-bridge-built-nicolas-tran
• Brooklyn Bridge – length, Timeline & Facts – History. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://www.history.com/topics/landmarks/brooklyn-bridge 
• The remarkable (wooden) foundation of the Brooklyn Bridge. From the Public Domain. (2021, December 29). Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://fromthepublicdomain.com/2020/08/26/the-brooklyn-bridge/