Under Pressure: The Brooklyn Bridge and Birth of Decompression Sickness

The Brooklyn Bridge was one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 19th century. But building it introduced workers to a mysterious new disease that could cause agonizing pain, paralysis, and death. In this episode of Beyond Ether Dome, we head beneath the East River to the enormous pneumatic caissons used to build the foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge. Workers descended into a hot, dark world of compressed air, only to emerge suffering from what became known as caisson disease, or the bends. We follow the remarkable Roebling family, from John Roebling’s fatal encounter with tetanus to Washington Roebling’s own disabling case of decompression sickness and Emily Warren Roebling’s extraordinary role in completing the bridge. Along the way, we explore the emerging science behind decompression sickness and the physicians trying to understand a disease created by new technology. In this episode: Why New York needed the Brooklyn Bridge John Roebling, wire rope, and the origins of the bridge Boss Tweed, corruption, and dangerously defective bridge wire How pneumatic caissons allowed men to work beneath the East River The brutal conditions faced by caisson workers Why decompression causes “the bends” The deaths of workers from caisson disease Washington Roebling’s disabling illness Dr. Andrew Smith and an early experiment in occupational medicine Smith’s remarkably modern idea for a recompression chamber Paul Bert’s experiments proving the role of gas bubbles Emily Warren Roebling and her extraordinary role in finishing the bridge How industrial progress forced medicine to confront entirely new diseases The Brooklyn Bridge is remembered as a monument to engineering. But beneath its towers is another story: a new technology created a new disease, and medicine had to learn how to recognize it, prevent it, explain it, and eventually treat it.