Remedial Class: Academic Writing

Civil Engineering Department

Name : Ridwan Nur Hidayat

Student Number : 20160110076
Date : 23 December 2019

______________________The History of The Brooklyn Bridge_____________________

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in
1883, this bridge connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York City across
the East River. At the time of its completion, this suspension bridge became the longest in the
world with a length of 3,460 feet (now 5,989 feet / 1825 m). This bridge is also the first project
to use explosives and an underwater suspension system called Caisson. This project was stopped
when the chief engineer died before starting the project and had to be taken over by his son. At
present the Brooklyn Bridge is crossed by around 144,000 vehicles at any time, and is the second
busiest bridge in New York City.

As quoted from History.com, Wednesday (05/24/2017) Roebling won a reputation as a well-

known suspension bridge designer in its era considering that this bridge often fails due to strong
winds or is not strong enough to withstand heavy loads. He succeeded in adding a network of
truss to one side of the bridge road which helped to stabilize the bridge. Using his design,
Roebling succeeded in building a bridge that connects the Niagara Gorge in Niagara Falls and a
bridge over the Ohio River. Seeing the expertise of the man who was born in Germany, the State
of New York agreed with Roebling's design to build a bridge connecting Brooklyn and
Manhattan. The bridge was the first steel suspension bridge in the world at that time.
Unfortunately before the construction process began in 1869, Roebling had an accident while he
was doing a compass reading along the East River. A boat hit his toe and three weeks later
Roebling died of tetanus. He is one of 27 people who lost their lives in the process of building
the Brooklyn Bridge. Roebling's son, Washington A. Roebling (32) finally took over the
responsibility of his father as chief engineer of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. He was
chosen because he had previously worked with his father in making another bridge. Two granite
foundations were built in a watertight space made of wood which was submerged at a depth of
13 meters on the Brooklyn side while on the New York side it was submerged at a depth of 23
meters. Low pressure air then presses the waterproof chamber to allow underwater construction.
But at that time many did not know about decompression, a side effect of working in water. This
disease is caused by the emergence of nitrogen bubbles that block blood flow. These side effects
caused several workers to die and Washington Roebling was forced to undergo treatment at his
home in 1872. Gradually many workers lost their lives one by one due to various incidents such
as construction frameworks that collapsed to the emergence of fires. Roebling continued to work
in bed by sending instructions to workers through his wife, Emily. Despite his good health,
Roebling was paralyzed until the end of his life. On May 24, 1883, Emily became the first person
to be allowed to cross the bridge with a rooster that she was holding as a symbol of victory.
Successful people are not the ones who find the least difficulty in life. Successful people are
people who managed to get out of a very bad situation by bringing victory through situations that
are not very friendly. And as the saying goes "Winners never give up and people who surrender
will never be winners." Now think of what reasons we have made so that we give up pursuing
our dreams?

Organization 5 4 3 2 Total Score:

Detail/content 5 4 3 2
Unity & Coherence 5 4 3 2
Grammar 5 4 3 2
Punctuation & Spelling 5 4 3 2