Constructing the Cables on the Brooklyn Bridge was Exacting and Perilous

The four suspension cables on the Brooklyn Bridge had to be spun of wire, meaning that men worked hundreds of feet above the river. Spectators likened them to spiders spinning webs high in the air. To find men who could work up in the cables, the bridge company hired sailors who were used to being in the tall rigging of sailing ships.

Spinning the wires for the main suspension cables began in the summer of 1877, and took a year and a half to complete. A device would travel back and forth between each anchorage, placing wire into the cables. At one point all four cables were being strung at once, and the bridge resembled a gigantic spinning machine.

Men in wooden "buggies" would eventually travel along the cables, binding them together. Besides the difficult conditions, the work was exacting, as the strength of the entire bridge depended on the cables being spun to precise specifications.

There were always rumors about corruption surrounding the bridge, and at one point it was discovered that a shady contractor, J. Lloyd Haigh, had been selling shoddy wire to the bridge company. By the time Haigh's scam was discovered, some of his wire had been spun into the cables, where it remains to this day. There was no way to remove the bad wire, and Washington Roebling compensated for any deficiency by adding 150 extra wires to each cable.