Drawing on The Great Bridge by David McCullough, the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn Bridge was the very first documentary that Ken Burns ever made. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author also narrates the hour-long documentary.

When it was first built in the late 1800s, the Great River East Bridge was the going to be the largest bridge at the time. Nowadays, it is not even the largest bridge in New York. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, a suspension bridge, spans 13,700 feet between Brooklyn and Staten Island. But at the time, its 1,595.5 feet span made it the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. It also became the first fixed crossing of the East River.

Civil engineer John A. Roebling designed the bridge but his son, Washington Roebling, and daughter-in-law, Emily Warren Roebling, would finish it. The elder Roebling died before construction could get underway. Unfortunately for Washington, he was working in the caissons when a fire broke out in 1870. Because of working in the decompressed air, he was forced to supervise the rest of the project from his home. Caisson disease would bother him for the rest of his life. While Washington retained the formal title, it was Emily taking over the day-to-day supervision and other management duties through the bridge’s completion in 1883. Over a hundred people got sick with caisson disease during the first half of 1872–three people would end up dying.

Through a mix of photos, drawings, interviews, and narration, Burns tells the impressive story of the Brooklyn Bridge. Unparalleled at the time, this achievement would become an American achievement. Anyone that’s ever studied American history is familiar with Tammany Hall’s Boss Tweed. It should not surprise you that Tweed oversaw the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Company. Tweed had a vested interest in seeing the bridge project through to completion. While it isn’t covered in the documentary, American history buffs might be interested in knowing that the Manhattan anchorage was built on the site of the Samuel Osgood House. President George Washington and his family lived in the house from a week before the April 30, 1789 inauguration until moving into the larger and since-demolished Alexander Macomb House on February 23, 1790.

After watching the documentary, it’s piqued my interest in reading the David McCullough book that inspired it. Not that I know if or when I’ll have the time to read the book, consisting of over 600 pages. Still though, it’s always fascinating to learn about the history behind American landmarks and the Brooklyn Bridge is such a landmark. Next to maybe the Statue of Liberty, it was one of the greatest achievements of the late 1800s. To give you an idea about the power of film, the doc would inspire a family from Idaho to visit the bridge after watching the PBS broadcast. How about that?!?

Despite its brief run time, Brooklyn Bridge is a fascinating look into the New York landmark.

DIRECTOR: Ken Burns
SCREENWRITERS: Amy Stechler
NARRATOR: David McCullough
FEATURING: Paul Goldberger, Arthur Miller, Lewis Mumford, Jack Unteracker
VOICE CAST: Paul Roebling, Julie Harris, Arthur Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Pino, Fred Sherry, Austin Stevens, Richard Rescia

PBS released Brooklyn Bridge on November 8, 1981. Grade: 4/5

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