Credit: Image donation by Corbis-Bettmann.
Commissioned to design the now-famous Brooklyn Bridge in 1867, John Roebling reported to the New York Bridge Company that "the contemplated work, when constructed in accordance with my design, will not only be the greatest bridge in existence, but it will be the great engineering work of the Continent and of the age." Begun in 1870 and completed by his son in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, modeled after Roebling's earlier suspension bridge designs in Pennsylvania and Ohio, was the largest bridge in the world, exceeding all other bridges of the time by more than fifty percent in length. Roebling's bridge has stood up remarkably to near constant, heavy traffic. In 1922, a slipped cable required closing of the bridge to automobile traffic for repairs.
