“The Great Bridge” report by Brendan Schwartz
Why I chose the book: This book intrigued me for a number of reasons First of all, the Brooklyn Bridge has been a part of my life ever since my father moved to Brooklyn in 2006. I’ve been traveling over the bridge for years, and every time I end up travelling over it, I had always wondered how on earth could any man make such a magnificent and enormous bridge, and especially during the 19th century. Throughout the book you could get a sense of just how hard the building of the bridge was, (especially on the Roebling’s) and that even the slightest failure could lead to the entire project being ruined. One of my favorite factors of the book was the way that it played on gilded age throughout. I …show more content…
The caissons were pretty much giant boxes filled with compressed air, that were sunk to the bottom of the river and allowed for the workers to dig into the ground, once a deep enough hole is reached, they are filled with cement and act as foundations for the structure. A common disease would be contracted from working in these caissons, it was known as “The Bends”. This part of the book was also riddled with tons of scandal after the fall of the Tweed ring. Tweed was a major holder of bridge stock along with being on a committee that managed the project's finances, he had planned to skim money from bridge contracts before he was arrested in 1871 but was never able to do so. By june of 1872 the Brooklyn Caisson was standing 100 feet above the river, however, the Manhattan caisson was still 70 feet below it. The depth of the Manhattan caisson posed many problems to the workers that had to go deep into it, and more and more people contracted “The Bends”, even chief engineer Roebling himself. Many questioned whether or not he would be able to finish the project, but low and behold, part 2 ends with both the Brooklyn and Manhattan caisson being raised
Why I chose the book: This book intrigued me for a number of reasons First of all, the Brooklyn Bridge has been a part of my life ever since my father moved to Brooklyn in 2006. I’ve been traveling over the bridge for years, and every time I end up travelling over it, I had always wondered how on earth could any man make such a magnificent and enormous bridge, and especially during the 19th century. Throughout the book you could get a sense of just how hard the building of the bridge was, (especially on the Roebling’s) and that even the slightest failure could lead to the entire project being ruined. One of my favorite factors of the book was the way that it played on gilded age throughout. I …show more content…
The caissons were pretty much giant boxes filled with compressed air, that were sunk to the bottom of the river and allowed for the workers to dig into the ground, once a deep enough hole is reached, they are filled with cement and act as foundations for the structure. A common disease would be contracted from working in these caissons, it was known as “The Bends”. This part of the book was also riddled with tons of scandal after the fall of the Tweed ring. Tweed was a major holder of bridge stock along with being on a committee that managed the project's finances, he had planned to skim money from bridge contracts before he was arrested in 1871 but was never able to do so. By june of 1872 the Brooklyn Caisson was standing 100 feet above the river, however, the Manhattan caisson was still 70 feet below it. The depth of the Manhattan caisson posed many problems to the workers that had to go deep into it, and more and more people contracted “The Bends”, even chief engineer Roebling himself. Many questioned whether or not he would be able to finish the project, but low and behold, part 2 ends with both the Brooklyn and Manhattan caisson being raised