“It seemed as if Noah’s Ark were emptying itself over on Long Island,” The New York Times wrote of the parade of elephants and camels that crossed the Brooklyn Bridge in 1884, per History.com.
The animals belonged to P.T. Barnum, who led the procession across the bridge on the evening of May 17, 1884. It included 21 elephants and 17 camels. The Times counted 7 camels and 10 dromedaries, per Ephemeral New York. Barnum’s most famous elephant, Jumbo, did not lead. The Times said “Old Jumbo brought up the rear.”
The march came a year after a terrible tragedy. The bridge had opened on May 24, 1883, and on May 30, a crowd of holiday sightseers packed the promenade, per the New-York Historical Society. Near the stairs on the approach, a woman tripped and another screamed, and the crowd surged, according to the historical society. Twelve people died, and the Library of Congress says 36 were seriously injured.
Barnum had seen an opening. Before the stampede, he had offered to parade Jumbo across the bridge for a $5,000 toll, and the offer was turned down by the bridge’s management, per History.com. After the disaster, the offer came back, this time with no toll.
It was less a load test than a publicity move, thought it must have been interesting to learn that the Brooklyn Bridge could handle a score of elephants crossing it. Ronald B. Tobias, author of Behemoth: The History of the Elephant in America, writes that the directors believed people would accept the bridge’s safety if “the largest animal in the world walked across it.”
No one had to pay to see the animals cross. Tolls were waived for the elephants and camels, and the toll superintendent was reportedly stumped on what an elephant or a dromedary should pay, per Weekly Recess.
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