Annabelle Tuma

Profesor Weyn

Writing for Engineers 

March 14, 2023 

The Cost of Caissons

                     The Brooklyn Bridge by Elizabeth Mann concisely tells the story of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, through the lens of the family responsible for it. Joe Roebling was the man who originally conceived the idea of a bridge connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, when cold weather made the ferry previously serving this purpose unusable in the winter of 1852. An engineer specializing in bridges, Joe Roebling was the perfect visionary to take on the optimistic project. Even so, it took many years for him to get the support and funding necessary for the endeavor, and planning was not finalized until 1869. Tragically, Joe Roebling died a month after his planning was complete, and his son, Washington Roebling, oversaw the entirety of the bridge’s actual construction. His first task to this end was to establish stable foundations on the riverbed. Because the riverbed was primarily unstable mud, workers had to dig deeply enough to reach bedrock in order to ensure secure supports. Wooden boxes called caissons, which rested on the floor of the river and protected workers inside from water, were used to achieve this. Because construction of the Brooklyn Bridge occurred years before scientists understood the dangers of high-pressure environments on humans, workers in caissons often became sick with Caisson Disease, now referred to as Decompression Sickness (according to libretexts.org). Washintgon unfortunately fell ill with it after an emergency during construction, and after a few false recoveries, was permanently hospitalized. He was able to see the construction through his window, and communicated his instructions through his wife, Emily Warren Roebling. Despite having no formal education in engineering or construction, Emily’s intelligence was well-respected, and she was able to play an incredibly important role in the Brooklyn Bridge’s construction against all odds. 

                     After establishing stable foundations, construction of the actual bridge commenced. First, the 25 story towers were built, then both anchorages (essentially the counterweights to the bridge, according to the University of Iowa’s website), then the hanging Spinning Cable. There were many unprecedented challenges that arose from constructing such an unusual bridge that was so large, and these issues had to be addressed creatively. Examples of this are the hiring of sailors to do the cable work because of their familiarity with height and swaying in the wind, the construction of a tiny hanging swing that a mechanic rode across the completed first cable, and the creation of a wooden footbridge for workers (that eventually became a tourist attraction in its own right). Eventually, after an estimated 27 to 40 construction-related deaths (including John Roebling’s), construction was completed but for the actual roadway. This was hung from steel suspenders and diagonal stays, marking the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in May of 1883. 

                     Though the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge resulted in many truly remarkable incidents and innovations, I was most interested by the way that construction continued despite workers falling ill from Caisson Disease. I think the fact that work continued despite the widespread terror of this mysterious illness befalling so many people shows how dedicated everyone was to constructing the Brooklyn Bridge, and how necessary they felt the Bridge was to the lives of New Yorkers.

                     During the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the singularly-unusual task of digging deep into the buddy bottom of the East River to build bridge foundation on bedrock was necessary. To do this, workers employed the use of Caissons, which are, for all intents and purposes, essentially hollow wells that rest on the floor of a body of water, and protect the workers inside from water while allowing them to exit from the open top. Though the Caissons succeeded at keeping their workers dry and enabling the necessary digging, their use came at massive cost to the health of their workers. According to a website for divers to learn about safety, though it was generally recognized that pressure could cause health issues in certain people subjected to it, decompression sickness (as we now call it) was not discovered until 1908, when S. Haldane, A. E. Boycott and G. C. Damanthis published “The prevention of Compressed Air Illness:” the first paper outlining the phenomenon. This means that when the Brooklyn Bridge was being constructed in the late 1800’s, crew members had no idea how dangerous their behavior was, or why they were falling so ill as a result. Decompression Sickness is caused by nitrogen in one’s bloodstream, and occurs when too-rapid a decrease in atmospheric pressure occurs (such as, when exiting a Caisson too quickly). The History Channel details this, and outlines some of the devastating symptoms. Though illness can vary in intensity, it can include “strange muscular paralysis, slurred speech, vomiting, chills and excruciatingly sharp joint pains and stomach cramps.” In extreme cases, death can even occur, which is what happened to many who worked on the brooklyn Bridge. 

                     According to Global Underwater Explorers, the Caissons used in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge were almost 79 feet deep. To put the significance of this depth into perspective: Wiki How recommends divers observe proper decompression protocol when diving below 30 feet, and even says that decompression sickness is occasionally witnessed in the 10 to 20 feet range. And this ludicrous depth was certainly accompanied by a ludicrous number of workers experiencing Caisson Sickness, to the extent that the phrase “Caisson Sickness” was first used by the physician overseeing the Brooklyn Bridge’s Construction. That the first term for this sickness was, for all intents and purposes, “invented” by the Brooklyn Bridge’s construction only shows how prevalent it was. Again according to In Depth, the Physician overseeing construction noted 119 total cases of Caisson sickness out of 600 total workers, meaning nearly 20% fell ill enough to have to see a doctor. Fourteen of these cases proved fatal and countless others debilitating, including that of one of the chief inventors of the bridge, Washington Roebling, who was bed-bound and in agony for the majority of its construction. 

                     Despite this horrific illness and the sinister mystery surrounding its contraction, the work in the caissons never ceased. In Depth describes the way that people would still go to work in the Caissons, despite suffering from Caisson sickness already. They often walked in a bent, stooped way as a result of pain in their spines, which eventually gave rise to the term “the bends;” still used as a colloquial term for Decompression Sickness today. To me, this particular detail highlights just how significant construction of the bridge was taken, despite the suffering of the actual workers. Indeed, it was acknowledged that people were suffering, but alternate means of relief were explored, instead of a halting of the conditions causing this suffering in the first place. Examples of these attempts include galvanic bands worn around one’s chest during work, and a “medical lock” (essentially a decompression chamber) invented by the resident physician at the time, which were the earliest recorded recompression treatment for decompression sickness ever recorded.  

                     In summation, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge was deeply fascinating and involved many innovative solutions, inventions, and occurrences. Of these happenings, though, the devotion of the planners to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge despite their extensive sickness is most notable. Caisson sickness was rampant during construction to the point that it changed the way then-undiscovered decompression sickness was interacted with by physicians, yet the Brooklyn Bridge’s construction was never paused. 

 

Works Cited: 

“Glossary of Bridge Terminology.” University of Iowa Libraries, Lichtenberger Engineering 

                     Library, http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/eng/bridges/WaddellGlossary/GlossA.htm#:~:text= 

                     Anchorage%3A%20A%20device%20for%20anchoring,to%20an%20angle%2Diron%20section. 

Halpern Josh, Shah Dhara. “The Bends.” LibreTexts, NICE CXone Expert, 2023, 

                     https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_

                     Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Equilibria/Heterog

                     eneous_Equilibria/The_Bends#:~:text=The%20Bends%20is%20an%20illness,)%2C%20

                     and%20Divers’%20Disease. 

InDEPTH. “Caisson and the Brooklyn Bridge.” InDepth, 26 Feb. 2023, 

                     https://gue.com/blog/caisson-and-the-brooklyn-bridge/#:~:text=The%20Brooklyn%20bri

                     dge%20project%20employed,was%20due%20to%20extreme%20cold. 

Klein, Christopher. “How Many Were Killed during the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge …” 

                     History, A&E Television Networks, https://www.history.com/news/brooklyn-bridge-construction-deaths. 

wikiHow. “8 Ways to Avoid the Bends.” WikiHow, WikiHow, 25 Aug. 2021, 

                     https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-the-Bends#:~:text=It’s%20rare%2C%20but%20the%20

                     bends,is%20a%20big%20factor%20here.