Under construction from 1870 to 1883,over fifty sand hogs died of nitrogen narcosis also known as the bends or caissons disease, while working over sixty feet below the surface of the water under massive wooden and steel caissons (think of a square pot upside down seventy five feet on a side). It was the bends that killed the principal construction superintendant of the bridge Washington Roebling, son of the designer, John Roebling. Building the Brooklyn Bridge was deadly work. Medical doctors were called in to try to help. They pronounced that work should proceed that nothing could be done. The wire rope used on the Brooklyn Bridge is identical in principal to the wire rope that supports the Golden Gate Bridge and made by the same company: Roebling Steel.