On this day in Labor History the year was 1883.
The “eighth wonder of the world, the Brooklyn Bridge opened for traffic. 600 men worked on the project, which took 14 years to complete.
Between twenty and thirty men died working on the bridge. This included the bridge’s designer, German-born John. A. Roebling.
Roebling was visiting the site taking compass readings when his foot was accidentally crushed.
Although his toes were amputated, he later died of tetanus.
Some of the most harrowing work for the project had to be completed under the East River.
The bridge’s stone towers were to stand on top of caissons.
These were wooden boxes, with no bottoms, that would be filled with concrete.
Men known as “sand hogs” had the job of digging until they hit bed rock to rest the caissons.
The underwater boxes were dimly lit by gaslights.
If the “sand hogs” came up to quickly they risked getting the bends.
A fifteen-year-old Irish immigrant described the work saying,
“When the air was fully compressed, the door of the air-lock opened at a touch and we all went down to work with pick and shovel on the gravelly bottom. My headache soon became acute. The six of us were working naked to the waist in a small iron chamber with a temperature of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit: in five minutes the sweat was pouring from us, and all the while we were standing in icy water that was only kept from rising by the terrific air pressure. No wonder the headaches were blinding.”
Due to this incredible labor, the bridge finally opened.
In the first twenty-four hours, 150,000 people crossed the new bridge.
More than 125 years later the Brooklyn Bridge still stands as one of most iconic manmade structures in the U.S.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show