Street Renamed After Woman Who Helped Finish Brooklyn Bridge

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, NY — Emily Warren Roebling, the woman who oversaw the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge and was the first person to ride across the span, had a street near the overpass named after her this week.

The intersection of Columbia Heights and Orange Street was co-named after Roebling on Tuesday to honor her legacy of managing the huge construction project and later fighting for equality, Councilman Stephen Levin said.

"When the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, Emily Warren Roebling was the first person to cross the bridge," Levin wrote on Twitter. "She led the way back then, and through her legacy she continues to lead the way today."

Roebling was born in Cold Spring, N.Y., in 1843 and married her husband, civil engineer Washington A. Roebling, in 1865, according to the New York Times.

Soon after, her father-in-law later set off to manage the construction of the suspension bridge across the East River, but he fell ill just a few days into the project and Roebling's husband took over, the Times reported. However, a mysterious sickness rendered him partially paralyzed, so his wife jumped in to oversee the complex project while he watched the work from a nearby Brooklyn Heights apartment.

The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883 and Roebling was the first person to ride across the span, with legend saying she carried a rooster with her on the journey for good luck, the Times reported.

Later in her life Roebling studied law at New York University and fought for equal rights in marriages, according to the Times.

Image: Councilman Stephen Levin/Twitter