Synopsis

Washington Roebling was the chief engineer on the project to build a bridge across the east river, linking Brooklyn to New York began. Washington supervised the sinking of the giant pressurized caissons, often taking the same risks the workers were. As a result, well into the project, Washington began suffering ill effects from moving too swiftly form a pressurized environment to one with a normal atmosphere (the bends). Before long he was laid up in bed, studying the progress on the bridge form his apartment via a telescope and relying on his wife Emily to carry his instructions to the workers and to address the board of trustees for the project. Together they delt with difficult building conditions, the objections of the board, fraud by suppliers and more, but in the end, they succeeded in building a bridge once called the eighth wonder of the world.