onstruction projects. She won respect of all the workers. They realized how important she was to the building of the bridge.The construction of the towers was very different. Every day thousands of people watched in amazement from ferries and docks as three tall cranes, powered by noisy steam engines, hoisted each huge stone block high into the air and swung it into position. The excitement mounted as the towers grew taller, since most buildings then were less than 5 stories high, the 25-story tower must have seemed stupendous.Once the towers were finished, the two anchorages were built. The heavy roadway pulls down on the main cables, but the anchorages hold them firmly and keep them from sagging. Each anchorage weighed 120,000,000 pounds. Next, thousands of thin steel wires were strung from Brooklyn to New York. It was called spinning cable. Bundles of wires were wrapped together to make four main cables. Each cable contained over 3,500 miles of steel wire, enough to stretch from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. This was the first that a bridge had been built with steel cables. Before that, iron cables, chains, or even ropes had been used, and there had been disastrous results. He chose to use steel because it is stronger than iron, another wise decision. Since then, only steel has been used in bridge construction. Although the men were skillful and very careful, accidents still happened. One of the most serious occurred when a strand broke loose. It whipped through the air, killing two men, and injuring others. Altogether, including John Roebling, 21 men died working on the Brooklyn Bridge. The towers and anchorages were finished. The four main cables were in place. All that remained to be done was to hang the roadway from the main cables. Steel suspender cables were used for this. The suspenders were attached at the top to the main cables, and at the bottom to steel floor beams. Then the beams were bolted to each other t...
