Peter Hodgson

THE BRIDGE is an epic new musical based on the true story of the woman who was secretly Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. 

​

It is 1869, and Emily Roebling has just moved to Brooklyn with her husband, Washington, and their infant son.  While Washington is busy assisting his father to build the first-ever bridge over the East River, Emily plans to blaze a trail of her own in the women’s suffrage movement.  But when Washington’s father dies unexpectedly, Emily must put her dreams on hold to support her husband as he steps into his father’s historic shoes as Chief. 

​

As Emily helps Washington navigate political and personal challenges on and off the site, she develops an unlikely friendship with the Roeblings’ new nanny, an Irish immigrant named Mary-Ann Supple.  Their deepening bond serves as a source of support for both women, and never more so than when Washington is struck by the mysterious “Caisson’s Disease.”  With Washington unable to continue, Emily must do the impossible: take her husband’s place as Chief, in an era half a century before women were allowed to vote.

​

THE BRIDGE is an examination of class, culture, and gender—of the forces that unite and divide us.   It celebrates the unprecedented engineering accomplishment that took many years and lives to complete, but also wrestles with the question:

​

What is the true cost of progress, and who pays it?