Brooklyn Bridge's construction involved fraudulent steel wires

The Brooklyn Bridge, which spans the East River for 486 meters and has been in use since 1883, was built with steel wires supplied by J. Lloyd Haigh. Haigh fraudulently delivered up to 221 tons of defective wires, but the bridge's design allowed it to remain structurally sound despite this.

Supplier used deceptive methods to hide faulty materials

J. Lloyd Haigh implemented a system to deceive inspectors by initially presenting high-quality wires. At night, his workers replaced these wires with previously rejected ones. This scheme was uncovered when inspectors noticed that the pile of rejected wires never grew, which was illogical if some were being rejected.

Roebling's design included a large safety factor

John Roebling, the bridge's designer, incorporated a safety factor six to eight times higher than necessary into the structure. This allowed the bridge to withstand the fraud and other potential issues. Washington Roebling, who took over construction after his father's death, estimated that up to 221 tons of rejected wire had been used.

Bridge's administrators suppressed the scandal

Despite the fraud, the bridge's administrators refused to make the issue public. They rejected John Roebling's proposal to change suppliers, choosing instead to hide the scandal rather than admit a mistake in their selection of materials.

Recent collision tested the bridge's resilience

In 2025, the bridge withstood a collision with the Mexican Navy's training ship ARM Cuauhtémoc. The ship had a draft of 158 feet, while the bridge's draft at high water is only 127 feet. This incident served as a recent test of the bridge's robustness, which remained undamaged.

Bridge continues to serve New York's daily traffic

The Brooklyn Bridge remains a vital part of New York City's infrastructure, with nearly 30,000 pedestrians and over 5,600 cyclists crossing it daily on average. In 2026, the city announced plans to redesign pedestrian and cyclist access on the Manhattan side to better accommodate the large number of users.