Suspension

May 31, 1883, 3:55 p.m. Twenty thousand men, women, and children, their faces shining in the late afternoon sun, are strolling the Eighth Wonder of the World. The Brooklyn Bridge is open just a week, its promenade a magnet for the teeming masses of New York and Brooklyn. An engineering marvel of transcending beauty, the bridge is simply breathtaking.

In precisely five minutes, it will fall.

Seven desperate men, former Confederate soldiers turned saboteurs, have labored for years to destroy th...