The Great Bridge (85 page)
“Billy Sunday”:
Ibid.,
p. 274.
“I claim a small part of this”: WAR to JAR II, June 10, 1922. RUL.
“It’s my job to carry the responsibility”: New York
World
interview quoted in the Trenton
Times,
June 13, 1921.
“Think not that I am improving”: WAR to Mrs. JAR II, May 14, 1926. RUL.
“As far as we are concerned, it will last forever”: Jack Schiff, city engineer in charge of all East River bridges, in an interview with the author, March 16, 1971.
Manuscript Sources
There are two collections of Roebling manuscript papers: the Roebling Collections in the Library of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, and in the Special Collections of the Library of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Both are of vast scope and value and have been almost totally ignored by all but two or three scholars.
The latter collection contains numerous notebooks, ledgers, diaries, and other documents belonging to John A. Roebling, in addition to his philosophical papers, patents, numerous drawings, sketches, and the early papers and records of John A. Roebling’s Sons. But the most important part of the collection, so far as the telling of this story, is the file of Washington Roebling’s correspondence. The letters cover a span of nearly seventy years and include, for example, all of his war letters to Emily, plus those written to his son in the years after the completion of the bridge. This correspondence has been carefully arranged by the late Clarence E. Case, a prominent New Jersey attorney and friend of the Roebling family. Like everything else in the collection the letters are readily accessible. Interested scholars ought to be warned, however, that in editing the letters for a typed transcription, Mr. Case cut a great deal that he considered of too personal or too technical a nature.
The RPI collection is the larger of the two and contains far more concerning the Brooklyn Bridge. It includes hundreds of letters, notebooks, reports, cashbooks, and personal memorandums relating to the careers of both John A. and Washington Roebling. It includes drawings of all of John A. Roebling’s bridges, his various preparatory schemes for the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge, numerous plans and blueprints of the bridge, photographs, and his private library. It includes the notes he kept during the spiritualist séances of 1867, Washington Roebling’s letters from Europe that same year, and two large scrapbooks kept by Emily Roebling from April 1876 to October 1882. Most important of all, it includes the letter books and private notes kept by Washington and Emily Roebling during the years the bridge was being built. Recently the entire collection was classified and catalogued for the first time by Robert M. Vogel of the Smithsonian Institution, with a grant from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Newspapers, Magazines, and Technical Journals
Use was made of numerous newspapers, magazines, and technical journals. Many of these were in the form of clippings included in the scrapbooks kept by Emily Roebling; the rest were consulted in various libraries. Of the papers consulted the most valuable by far was the Brooklyn
Eagle.
Newspapers: Boston
Post,
Brooklyn
Argus,
Brooklyn
Eagle,
Brooklyn
Leader,
Brooklyn
Union,
Brooklyn
Union and Argus,
Cincinnati
Daily Gazette,
Cold Spring
Recorder,
Coney Island
Sun,
Long Island
Star,
New York
Commercial Advertiser,
New York
Daily Graphic,
New York
Daily Witness,
New York
Evening Express,
New York
Evening Mail,
New York
Evening Post,
New York
Evening Telegram,
New York
Herald,
New York
Independent,
New York
Mail and Express,
New York
Mercury,
New York
Star,
New York
Sun,
New York
Times,
New York
Tribune,
New York
World,
Newport
Daily News,
Niagara Falls
Gazette,
Pittsburgh
Gazette,
Trenton
Daily State Gazette,
Troy
Record.
Magazines and technical journals:
American Heritage, American Railroad Journal, Appletons Journal, Architects and Mechanics’ Journal, Beecher’s Magazine, Brooklyn Monthly, Civil Engineering, Engineering
(London),
Engineering News, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Harper’s Weekly, The Iron Age, Journal of the Franklin Institute, Mechanics
(New York),
The New Yorker, Puck, The Railroad Gazette, St. Nicholas Magazine, Scientific American, Transactions
(American Society of Civil Engineers),
Van Nostrand’s Eclectic Engineering Magazine, Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine.
Works Relating Directly to the Brooklyn Bridge
Barnard, Charles, “The Brooklyn Bridge.”
St. Nicholas Magazine,
July 1883.
Barnes, A. C.,
The New York and Brooklyn Bridge.
(Pamphlet) Brooklyn, 1883.
Brooklyn Bridge: 1883-1933.
Published by the City of New York Department of Plant and Structures, 1933.
Conant, William C., “The Brooklyn Bridge.”
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine,
May 1883.
East River Bridge, Laws and Engineer’s Reports, 1868-1884.
Brooklyn, 1885. (This very rare volume contains all of the following, most of which were published separately during the time the bridge was being built.)
An Act to amend an act entitled “An Act to incorporate the New York Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a bridge over the East River, between the cities of New York and Brooklyn,” passed April sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and to provide for the speedy construction of said bridge.
Chapter 601. Passed June 5, 1874.An Act to establish a bridge across the East River, between the cities of Brooklyn and New York, in the State of New York, a post road.
Public, No. 53. Approved by Congress March 3, 1869.An Act to incorporate the New York Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a bridge over the East River, between the cities of New York and Brooklyn.
Chapter 399. Passed April 16, 1867.An Act providing that the bridge in the course of construction over the East River, between the cities of New York and Brooklyn, by the New York Bridge Company, shall be a public work of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and for the dissolution of said Company, and the completion and management of the said bridge by the said cities.
Chapter 300. Passed May 14, 1875.Collingwood, Francis,
A Few Facts about the Caissons of the East River Bridge.
Paper read at the third annual convention of the American Society of Civil Engineers, June 21, 1871; printed originally in ASCE
Transactions;
also
Engineering
(London), February 16 and 23, 1872._____
The Foundations for the Brooklyn Anchorage of the East River Bridge.
Paper read before the American Society of Civil Engineers, June 10, 1874; in
Transactions._____
Further Notes on the Caissons of the East River Bridge.
Paper read at the fourth annual convention of the American Society of Civil Engineers, June 5-6, 1872; in
Transactions;
also
Engineering
(London), October 18 and 25, 1872._____
Notes on the Masonry of the East River Bridge
. Paper read before the American Society of Civil Engineers, November 1, 1876; in
Transactions._____
Progress of Work at the East River Bridge.
Paper read before the American Society of Civil Engineers, June 17, 1879; in
Transactions.Kingsley, William C.,
First Annual Report of the General Superintendent of the East River Bridge.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1870._____
Report of the General Superintendent, New York Bridge Company.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1871._____
Report of the General Superintendent of the New York Bridge Company.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1872.Martin, C. C.,
Report of the Chief Engineer and Superintendent of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, June 1, 1884.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1884.Report of the Executive Committee of the New York Bridge Company, June
1, 1872. Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1872.Report of the Officers of the New York Bridge Company to the Board of Directors, February, 1875.
Eagle Print, Brooklyn, 1875.Reports of Assistant Engineers and Master Mechanic, 1875-1876.
Roebling, John A.,
Report of John A. Roebling, C.E., to the President and Directors of the New York Bridge Company, on the Proposed East River Bridge.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1870.Roebling, Washington
A., Communication from Chief Engineer W. A. Roebling, In Regard to the Method of Steam Transit Over the East River Bridge.
March 4, 1878._____
First Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of The East River Bridge.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1870._____
Pneumatic Tower Foundations of the East River Suspension Bridge.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1872._____
Report of the Chief Engineer to the Board of Directors of the New York Bridge Company, June 5, 1871.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1871._____
Report of the Chief Engineer of the East River Bridge on Prices of Materials and Estimated Cost of the Structure.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, June 28, 1872._____
Report of the Chief Engineer of the New York Bridge Company,
1874. Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1874._____
Report of the Chief Engineer of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, January 1, 1877.
Eagle Print, Brooklyn, 1877._____
Report of the Chief Engineer on the Strength of the Cables and Suspended Superstructure of the Bridge, Made to the Board of Trustees, January 9, 1882._____
Report of the Chief Engineer on the Tests of the Samples of Wire, 1876._____
Third Annual Report of the Chief Engineer, June 1, 1872.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1872.Smith, Andrew H., M.D.,
The Effects of High Atmospheric Pressure, Including the Caisson Disease.
Eagle Book and Job Printing Department, Brooklyn, 1873.Specifications for Anchor Plates, New York Anchorage, East River Bridge, 1875.
Specifications for Corners, Facing and Archstone, of Granite, Required for the New York Anchorage, East River Bridge, 1875.
Specifications for Cut Face-stone, Backing and Archstone of Limestone, Required for the New York Anchorage, East River Bridge, 1875.
Specifications for Cut Face-stone and Backing, Limestone and Granite, Required for the New York Anchorage, East River Bridge, 1875.
Specifications for Granite Cut Stone, Required for the Parapets at the roadway, Brooklyn and New York Towers, East River Bridge, 1876.
Specifications for Granite Face-stone and Archstone, Required for the New York Tower, East River Bridge, April, 1875.
Specifications for Iron Anchor Bars, New York Anchorage, East River Bridge, April, 1875.
Specifications for Saddles and Saddle-Plates for the Brooklyn and New York Towers, East River Bridge, 1874.
Specifications for Steel Cable Wire, for the East River Suspension Bridge—1876.
Specifications for Wire Ropes for the East River Bridge.