The Brooklyn Bridge is the first thing someone might think about Brooklyn and there are various reasons why. When we think of the Brooklyn Bridge all we see are the tangible features that it offers us. The events that occurred while developing the bridge and even after it was built are not visible to us which means many people are not aware of them. Thousands of New York residents cross this bridge every day yet not many would know of controversies that have occurred involving the Brooklyn Bridge. Two distinct stories lie in the death of John A. Roebling and the Stampede of 1883. One story revolves around the architect responsible of the Bridge and his death while the other story revolves a tragedy that could’ve been prevented. Both of these accounts have an aftermath and that can be either similar or different. These accounts provide meaning to what the Brooklyn is in its present day today. Being that we aren’t able to see the past events that occurred on the Brooklyn Bridge when we stand in front of it in person, we would have no idea what the past held. We would have no idea why the bridge is the way it is today, there is always a background story and the Brooklyn Bridge has various stories leading up to what it is today.

The man responsible for the Brooklyn Bridge was John A. Roebling. He planned to make the bridge the biggest suspension bridge during its time due to new ways of building suspension bridges[1]. After construction began, tragedy soon struck. Roebling, while being the architect was also assisting in building the bridge. He was on site one day taking compass readings on some pilings at a ferry slip. He wasn’t aware when the boat banged into the slip, his foot was violently caught on the pilings[2]. He was rushed to his son’s house in Brooklyn Heights, not too far from where the bridge stands today. There the doctors amputated his toes and all seemed to be fine. That was until he passed away three weeks later on due to an illness. The tragedy continued as the project resulted in serious sicknesses and deaths to various workers and Washington Roebling. Washington Roebling was John A. Roebling’s son who took over the project after his father’s death became very ill due to the working conditions of the bridge. He acquired decompression sickness and in 1879 he became completely disabled from it living the rest of his life in pain[3].

The Bridge was alas opened to the public on May 24, 1883. It took just 6 days for a tragedy to happen. The Bridge, being new was asked to be tested on its endurance by a man by the name of P.T Barnum. He proposed an elephant march along with various animals to promote his circus and at the same time prove to the public that the bridge was safe and stable[4]. He was denied this event but on May 30, 1883, a huge stampede was unleashed. On the day of May 30^th, a women tripped and rumors spread throughout the bridge that it was going to collapse. This let out a huge fear among people as they rushed to get off the bridge, trampling people without care as their main goal was to save their own lives. No one trusted the bridge so when the rumors spread quickly throughout the bridge, a terrible stampede began. In the end, 12 people were trampled and 36 left injured[5]. The scene was terrible and controversy let out because if P.T Barnum would’ve been allowed to do his elephant march, this tragedy could’ve been prevented. The stampede could’ve been prevented because Barnum’s elephant march would prove to people that if the bridge was able to sustain large elephants and many other animals then it can sustain hundreds of people. After he did the march, the speculations were minimal.

These two accounts are surrounded by death and sorrow as the lives of innocent people were lost. That is what is similar between the death of the man responsible for the Brooklyn Bridge, John A. Roebling and the Stampede of 1883. Another similarity is that both of these events could’ve been prevented. The death of Roebling could’ve been prevented if he would’ve never been out on the work site as he was not a construction worker. The stampede could’ve also been prevented if P.T Barnum would’ve been allowed to perform his elephant march. The accounts differentiate in various ways. The death of Roebling was caused by machinery and the unawareness of his surroundings while the deaths of the stampede were caused by human beings trampling others to death. Another difference is the after math, after Roebling died, his son suffered from a severe life changing illness and workers died while a year after the Stampede, P.T Barnum was able to perform his march to prevent such event from happening again[6]. The difference lies in that the days after John A. Roebling’s death tragedy followed up with son and his employees and no positivity was seen while after The Stampede a man was able to change the mind of others and prevent an event like that from occurring ever again.

Now history can be defined as an argument on how we interpret the past[7]. This mean that many people view these accounts different as they can be viewed differently. Although both of these stories that revolve around the bridge are tragedies which have impacted the Brooklyn Bridge’s future in various ways, they are also controversial and occurred through different events. One had a positive aftermath while another resulted in further tragedies. It can be an example of how history can be found in years after an event occurred no matter how different or indifferent they may seem to be. Although the stampede resulted in positive things and improvements for the safety of people on the bridge, the death of John A. Roebling also allowed Washington Roebling to take over the project and create the beautiful bridge that we see before us today.