Suspension bridge built (186983) over the East River to link Brooklyn to Manhattan island.
It was designed by the cable manufacturer John A. Roebling and his son Washington. A brilliant feat of 19th-century engineering, the bridge was the first to use steel for cable wire and the first in which explosives were used inside a pneumatic caisson during construction. In 1869 John was killed in one of at least 27 fatal construction accidents; his son saw the project to completion. The bridge's main span of 1,595 ft (486 m) was the longest in the world to date. It opened to such fanfare that within 24 hours an estimated quarter-million people crossed over it, using an elevated walkway designed to give pedestrians a dramatic view of the city.