Where Is the Brooklyn Bridge?

Young readers will connect with the story of this National Historic Landmark--the Brooklyn Bridge!
     
Building the Brooklyn Bridge was no simple feat. Despite a brilliant plan from a father-son team of engineers, the process was a dangerous and grueling one. Construction workers developed a mysterious illness (now known as the bends), several died, and the project had devastating effects on the engineers' lives. Still, after fourteen years, the Brooklyn Bridge was finished and became the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time and is still widely admired today. Megan Stine tells the fascinating story behind one of the city's best-loved landmarks. Includes black-and-white illustrations and a foldout color map!Megan Stine has written several books for young readers, including Where Is the White House?, Who Was Marie Curie?, Who Was Ulysses S. Grant?, Who Is Michelle Obama?, and Who Was Sally Ride? She lives in Clinton, Connecticut.

 

Where Is the Brooklyn Bridge?
 
New York City
 
It was a bitterly cold day in the winter of 1853. The wind beat against the passengers on a ferryboat. The boat was trapped in the East River, stuck between huge chunks of ice. But the passengers had to put up with it. The ferryboat was the only practical way to get from New York City to Brooklyn. New York was an island, surrounded on all sides by water. In those days, nearly everyone who came to New York, or left
it, traveled by boat.
 
Fifteen-year-old Washington Roebling was on the ferry that day with his father, John Roebling. At forty-six, John Roebling was the most famous bridge builder in America. He was a genius and a gentleman. He was also a very tough man. He had strong opinions and not much patience. If someone was even five minutes late for an appointment, he’d cancel the meeting and send the person away! For a man like John Roebling to be stuck for hours on a boat—doing nothing, wasting time—was pure torture.
 
It was especially hard for Roebling since all he had to do was look around and he could imagine a better way to travel. There should be a bridge here. A bridge connecting New York and Brooklyn. Right there and then, he imagined the Brooklyn Bridge in his mind’s eye. But it would take thirty more years before the bridge would be finished—and John Roebling would be long dead