The Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn over the East River, was the first steel-wire suspension bridge ever constructed. Completed in 1883 after 14 years of grueling work, it was designed by John A. Roebling. Following his death, his son Washington Roebling took over, but after becoming bedridden with 'the bends' (decompression sickness) from working in the underwater caissons, the project was managed by Washington's wife, Emily Warren Roebling. She is widely credited as the person who ensured the bridge's completion. To prove the bridge was safe to a skeptical public shortly after it opened, the circus performer P.T. Barnum led a parade of 21 elephants across its span. Its distinctive neo-Gothic granite towers and intricate web of steel cables have made it an enduring symbol of New York City's resilience and innovation.