The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge

  at marriage of Tweed’s daughter

  Rink Committee investigation and

  Smith, Gen. Kirby

  Smith, Gen. William

  Smithfield Street Bridge (Pa.)

  Songs on Brooklyn Bridge

  Squat sperm candles for lighting caissons

  Standard Oil Company

  Starruca Viaduct (Pa.)

  State legislature (N.Y.), approves bill for building Brooklyn Bridge

  Steam drills

  Steel

  brittleness of

  conflict over type to use

  contract for

  deck

  diameter of

  floor beams of

  fraud involving quality of

  manufacturing of

  specifications for

  superstructure of

  use of

  first planned

  questioned

  See also Bessemer steel; Crucible steel

  Steele, J. Dutton

  Steer, Henry

  Steinman

  Steinmetz, William G..

  Stella, Joseph

  Stephenson, Robert

  Stewart, A. T.

  Stewart, Elvira (daughter of John Roebling)

  Brooklyn Bridge inauguration and

  characteristics of

  Washington Roebling’s meeting with Emily and

  Stewart, John (husband of Elvira)

  Stiles, Henry

  Stock of New York Bridge Company graft and

  ownership of

  scandal over

  selling

  Tweed Ring control of

  value of

  Stokes, Edward

  Storrs, Richard

  Stourbridge Lion (first U.S. locomotive)

  Stowe, Harriet Beecher

  Stranahan, James S. T.

  award of cable wire contracts and

  breakup of Tweed Ring and

  bridge trains and

  Brooklyn Bridge inauguration and

  Committee of Investigation report and

  crosses roadway

  death of

  New York World attacks

  removal of W. Roebling and

  Rink Committee investigation and

  stock ownership of

  testifies in Miller suit, 4

  Stranahan, Mrs. James S. T.

  Strauss, Johann

  Strikes

  attacks of bends and

  Great Railroad Strike

  Strong, George Templeton

  Stroud, Henry

  Stuart, Gen. J. E. B. (Jeb)

  Subways, opening of first

  Suez Canal

  Suicides

  from Brooklyn Bridge contemplated

  first

  friend of W. Roebling commits

  Sullivan, Louis

  Superstructure alterations in

  completed

  steel for

  weight of iron

  Supple, Harry

  Supply shafts

  blowout in

  New York caisson

  Suspenders

  function of

  in place

  specifications for

  Suspension bridges

  built by W. Roebling during Civil War

  “chain bridge,”

  first suspension aqueduct

  poorly built

  primitive

  as spiritual or ideal conception

  very first

  See also specific bridges

  Sutter Street Railways

  Swan, Alden S.

  Swan, Charles

  as member of Bridge Party

  retires

  J. Roebling and

  death of Roebling and

  W. Roebling and

  Swedenborg, Emanuel

  Sweeny, Peter (Brains)

  and breakup of Tweed Ring flees the country

  Rink Committee investigation and

  bridge stock and

  at marriage of Tweed’s daughter

  Swertcope, John Valentine

  Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Wash.)

  Talmage, T. DeWitt

  Tay Bridge (Scotland)

  Telford, Thomas

  Tennessee (ship)

  Terminals

  Thurber, H. K.

  Tilden, Samuel

  Tilton, Elizabeth

  scandal involving

  Tilton, Theodore

  Timbs, Patrick

  Titanic (ship)

  Tombs (N.Y.C. prison), materials used for building

  Tooker, Commodore Joe

  Towers

  Allegheny River Bridge

  Brooklyn

  accidents and deaths

  completing

  description from top of

  granite for

  height of

  keystone of arch

  masonry on

  roadway to tower finished

  work suspended for winter (1872)

  working on top

  years taken to complete

  Brooklyn Bridge

  architectural features of.

  capstones for

  completing

  drawings for

  height of

  cable positioning between, see Cables

  of Cincinnati Bridge

  of Clifton Bridge

  New York

  accidents and deaths

  completing

  masonry on

  specifications for granite for

  testing steel wire on

  work suspended for winter (1872)

  of Niagara Bridge

  “righted down” caisson and

  see also Caissons

  roadway to finished

  stores for

  wooden foundations for

  Trains

  Brooklyn Bridge

  begin runs

  cable car

  for center of bridge

  device invented for

  fare

  passengers handled (by 1888)

  plans for

  Pullman and freight

  first locomotive

  pneumatic

  Travelers

  Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A (film)

  Trenton Daily State Gazette (newspaper)

  Trenton Iron Works

  Tribune Building (N.Y.C.)

  Triger (French engineer)

  Trusswork

  plans for

  steel used for

  to allow train travel

  to widen roadways (1948)

  Tunnels

  advantages of

  Big Bend Tunnel

  Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel

  built under Confederate lines

  under Chicago River

  Mont Cenis

  pneumatic

  “Turtles” used in Civil War

  Twain, Mark

  Tweed, Mary

  Tweed, William M. (Boss)

  arrested

  A. Beach and

  Bridge plans and

  bridge stock and

  death of

  downfall of

  as executive member of New York Bridge Company

  influence of

  marriage of daughter of

  Murphy opposed by

  political ascension of

  Rink Committee investigation and

  testimonies of

  See also Tweed Ring

  Tweed Ring

  attempts to control Bridge

  bookkeeper of

  breakup of

  Committee of Investigation

  effects on Kings County Democrats

  1871 elections

  New York Times publishes documents

  New York World investigates

  Rink Committee investigates

  caricatured

  Grant and

  as product of urban environment

  system of operation of

  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Verne)

  Union (newspaper)
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br />   award of cable wire contract and

  breakup of Tweed Ring and

  Brooklyn Bridge inauguration and

  Union and Argus (newspaper)

  Union Ferry Company

  Union Pacific Railroad

  United States Illuminating Company

  Van Anden, Isaac

  Vandalia (ship)

  Vanderbilt, Cornelius

  Vanderbilt, John

  Vanderbilt, William H..

  Vanderbilt, Mrs. William

  Van Keuren, H. R.

  Van Rensselaer, Stephen

  Van Schaick, Jenkins

  Vaux, Calvert

  Vehicle crossings, first

  Verne, Jules

  Vibrations

  of Allegheny River Bridge

  of Niagara Bridge.

  of Smithfield Street Bridge

  Victoria (Queen of England)

  Vinton, Gen. Francis

  Warren, Edgar

  Warren, Emily, see Roebling, Emily

  Warren, Gen. G. K.

  W. Roebling on

  Warren, John

  Warren, Sylvanus

  Warren, William

  Washburn’s (wire manufacturer)

  Washington, George

  Water closet, pneumatic

  Water shafts

  blasting and

  blowouts of

  frequency of

  Great Blowout

  boulders and

  described

  failure of

  Watson, James

  Webb & Bell (shipyards)

  Brooklyn caisson built by

  Eads visits

  location of

  New York caisson built by

  Weber, Max

  Weir, Robert

  West, the, opening (1869)

  Western Union Telegraph Building (N.Y.C.)

  Wheeling Bridge (W.Va.)

  collapse of

  river span of

  Whiskey Ring

  Whitman, Walt

  Williamsburg Bridge (N.Y.C.)

  Wilson, Mrs. William G.

  Winona (ferry)

  Winterset (film)

  Wire fraud.

  Wire suspension bridges

  first built (1816)

  Witte, Otto

  Woodhull, Victoria

  Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly (magazine)

  “Woodman, Spare That Tree” (Morris)

  Working conditions inside Brooklyn caisson, see also Bends

  Work crews

  Brooklyn caisson

  Brooklyn Bridge

  for building bridge

  maintenance of

  New York caisson

  strike of

  Wright, Gen. Horatio

  Yantic (ship)

  Young, Brigham

  Young, Charles

  Young Men’s Literary Association of Brooklyn

  Young Men’s Reform Association

  *The Pittsburgh Gazette

  made much of the fact that the structure was strong enough to carry the water plus six heavily loaded barges all at the same time, the editors being unaware apparently that the boats merely displaced their own weight and so the total load remained the same, whether boats were crossing or not.

  * Eads had completed the east abutment of his bridge in early April of 1871, with his caisson an incredible 136 feet below the Mississippi. Eads too was having trouble with advancing expenses, with construction costing about double his original estimate, but in October 1871, before work had even begun inside the New York caisson, Eads had written that all the most formidable difficulties had now been surmounted.

  * The anchorages were in fact built entirely of limestone, with the exception of the corners, front arches, and the cornice. There was also about 650 cubic yards of granite placed directly over the anchor plates.

  * In 1877 a group of architects would be called in as consultants on Hildenbrand’s plans. The best known of them was George B. Post, who was then designing a lofty new Queen Anne-style home for the Long Island Historical Society, at Pierrepont and Clinton Streets, and who would later do the New York Stock Exchange (1903).

  * Years later, at Quebec, a huge bridge partly designed by Cooper, by then an engineer of national prominence, would collapse during construction, killing seventy-five men. On hearing the news Roebling would write scathingly of engineers who design bridges but do not give the actual construction their personal attention. “It is one thing to sit in your office and split hairs,” he would write, “but a different thing to get out and command men and meet the realities of great construction.” Ironically, Roebling was unaware, it seems, that Cooper had not been at Quebec because of his health.

  * Prior to this time, cables were made of “bright” wire, which was oiled, greased, or painted for protection against the elements.

  * At least one photographer had already been to the top of the Brooklyn tower, J. H. Beals, who earlier in the year had made the first great panoramic photograph of lower Manhattan, from the Battery to Rutgers Street, by taking five different views that he later spliced together into one panorama more than seven feet long.

  * Crucible steel, steel made in comparatively small quantities in crucibles, or casts, was considered the finest-grade steel and was used principally for tools. Bessemer steel, made in a “converter” according to a process developed by the Englishman Henry Bessemer twenty years earlier, was the least expensive steel on the market, the kind used in the greatest quantity in the 1870’s and for rails chiefly. Between the two, crucible steel was thought to be markedly superior but the quality control of Bessemer steel had, in fact, been perfected to a remarkable degree by Carnegie and others. It could be produced in far greater quantity and was without question a perfectly respectable product.