The Brooklyn Bridge Opens

On May 24, 1883, the New York and Brooklyn Bridge opened to the public, the first fixed crossing to link Manhattan with the then-independent city of Brooklyn. President Chester A. Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin Edson crossed the span and shook hands with Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low on the far side, while a band played, ships fired their guns, and fireworks lit up the East River. The bridge was designed by John A. Roebling, who died of tetanus before construction began, and built under his son Washington Roebling as chief engineer. When Washington was left partially paralyzed by decompression sickness from working in the underwater caissons, his wife Emily Warren Roebling took over as his link to the job site for the final years of construction, and she is credited as the first person to cross the finished bridge, riding over in a carriage with a rooster as a sign of victory. On opening day, 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed a bridge that was, at that moment, the longest suspension bridge on earth.