The woman behind the bridge

摘要

The winter of 1852 was particularly bitter in New York City. For days, the frozen East River paralysed ferry traffic between Manhattan and Brooklyn. On one ferry - stranded for hours in the freezing, foggy haze - John Roebling, a bridge engineer, stood beside his 15 year old son, Washington, and conceived of a bridge to cross the river, a river that many at the time believed could not be bridged. Fourteen years would pass before the river froze over again in 1866. By this time, Brooklyn had swelled to 400,000 inhabitants, and the river remained blocked for weeks, preventing more than 1000 ferry crossings per day. There were calls for action. Roebling was working on his famed Cincinnati Bridge when he heard his East River bridge concept was finally under consideration. The New York Bridge Company was formed to deliver the bridge and its trustees appointed John Roebling as chief engineer.