Brooklyn Bridge essay
The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge raised a number of challenges, which had to be eliminated in the course of the construction. The engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge had proved to be successful in creating suspension bridges. However, along with technical difficulties, a number of legal issues had emerged, when the city decided to use many contractors and sub-contractors instead of one large contractor, which could conduct the construction of the bridge from the beginning and development of the bridge project till the end and the opening of the bridge. In this regard, it is possible to distinguish the engineer working on the construction of the bridge, John Roebling and his company as one of the major contractors along with the company supplying steel for the bridge’s suspension system as another major contractor.
In fact, the choice of diverse contractors was driven by the intention of the city to save costs of the construction because the policy makers believed that hiring minor contractors, the city can save considerable costs (McCullough, 1972, 187). On the contrary, the policy makers considered hiring a large construction company to be too costly for the city. However, the use of multiple contractors and subcontractors raised the problem of the effective management of the construction, which was aggravated by the consistent deterioration of the health of the engineer of the project, John Roebling. Roebling could not be present on the site of the construction physically because he suffered a paralyzing injury because of the decompression sickness. In such a way, the construction was slowed down and the city could not complete the construction for ten years. Eventually, after ten years of construction, the bridge was completed but its costs were extremely high that proved the low efficiency of the construction management. In such a situation, the decision to use multiple contractors was, in all probability, erroneous (Haw, 2005, 135). At any rate, judging from results of the construction, the failure of the city to manage the construction and the long time of the construction of the bridge had proved to be too costly compared to projects of the bridge construction involving one major contractor solely.
Nevertheless, the involvement of multiple contractors provided the city with the possibility of choice of minor suppliers and contractors (Cadbury, 2004, 128). At this point, the contract with the engineer, who planned and designed the bridge, John Roebling was probably the most important contract the city had signed in the course of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, the choice of John Roebling was reasonable and grounded on the past experience of the engineer. By the time of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the engineer had already gained the recognition as a talented and skillful professional, who had already constructed several suspension bridges, including one over the Ohior River at Cincinnati and one over the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh. In such a way, John Roebling had a considerable experience before he was hired by the New York City to construct the Brooklyn Bridge. The task was quite challenging because for the time being the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge and remained such for a long time since its construction had been completed (Haw, 2008, 117). The contracted engineer had managed to perform his part of the contract almost perfectly, although he confronted substantial physical health problems, which limited his involvement into the construction process. Nevertheless, he worked on the project until the end of his life (Trachtenberg, 1965, 144). In fact, the design of the bridge and the major accomplishments and elements of the bridge constructed under Roebling’s supervision was reliable, safe and effective.
As for another contract signed by the company with the supplier of steel for the suspension system of the bridge, this contract was also quite successful since the supplier of the steel materials for the bridge provided products of the high quality, respectively to the requirements of John Roebling. However, the problem emerged at the stage of the delivery of the product from the steel manufacturer to the city because the city hired a transportation company, which did not perform its functions and tasks well enough (Strogatz, 2003, 72). As a result, the city construction was accompanied by delays in the supply of the steel but it was rather the responsibility of the transportation company than the responsibility of the steel supplier.
At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the steel supplier has to create the highly reliable and durable products, which were quite unique for that time because of the large size of the bridge. Respectively, steel suspension elements had to be durable and large enough to support the bridge and to prevent any sort of emergencies occurring on the site after the completion of the construction.
Thus, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge raised substantial difficulties because the city’s policy makers hired multiple contractors to complete the project. Nevertheless, the engineer of the project, John Roebling and the steel supplier of the project had proved to be reliable and performed their contracts well.
