The first person to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge was Robert Odlum, a swimming teacher from Washington, at 5:45 PM, May 19th, 1885. Interestingly, Mr. Odlum had publicly made known his plans to jump from the bridge, and there was a surplus of NYPD bluecoats patrolling the bridge that evening to prevent the successful completion of the stunt. Only through the deployment of an elaborate ruse, involving a horse-drawn cab and a blue-shirted gentleman acting conspicuously nervous, which drew the attention of the police officers and the thousands gathered on the bridge that day, was Odlum able to get close enough to the rail to jump. He emerged from the back of a black wagon, wearing a red shirt and gray swimming tights, raised his right hand straight into the air as if to signal to the boat carrying supporters in the river below, and without hesitation, threw himself off the bridge. Here's how the Times described what happened next:

Whether he jumped too quick after leaving the wagon, or destroyed his balance from some movement on the rail or in jumping cannot be known; but during the descent of the body to the water, swift as it was, those on the boat could see that it turned slightly and that it would not strike the water with the feet squarely down. The splash was heard rods away. Eyes turned toward the small rescue boat. The men in it, overcome by excitement or fright, began to shout for help. In a few seconds, which seemed long enough in that predicament, Odlum rose to the surface. He was motionless.

Only the action of his friend, one Captain Boyton, who dove into the river and, swimming against the current pulled Odlum back to the rescue boat, prevented his drowning. The damage had been done, however. Odlum regained consciousness just long enough to ask what kind of jump he had made. He died approximately 45 minutes after the jump, having broken the lower ribs on both sides of his body.

At its highest point, the span clears 135 feet over the East River. A leap off the bridge, therefore, is not necessarily fatal. In 1895 Clare MacArthur became the first woman to attempt the stunt, weighting her stockings with 20 pounds of sand so that she would fall feet first. She survived the fall. In 1960 Ed Quigley wagered $100 with his drinking buddies that he would survive a jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. He won the bet.

Just last week, a despondent woman bent on suicide lept from the Manhattan side of the bridge. In an ironic twist of fate, she survived without a scratch. 'Michelle', as she identified herself, suffered nothing more damaging than some water in the lungs, and was admitted into Bellevue Hospital. In March 2004, a 24-year-old man survived a 135-foot jump from the center of the bridge, and in August of the same year, a 16-year-old girl jumped and lived.


There is debate over whether the most famous of the Brooklyn Bridge jumpers, the barkeep Steve Brodie, actually completed the jump. In 1886, he said he jumped off the bridge to win a bet with a pal, inspiring the 1933 movie "The Bowery" as well as the phrase, "Take a Brodie." But some skeptics believe Brodie actually tricked his buddy by throwing a weighted dummy off the bridge.