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ROEBLING, JOHN AUGUSTUS

John Augustus Roebling (1806–1869) came to the United States and created in New York what has become one of the nation's best-known and earliest examples of suspension bridges, the Brooklyn Bridge.

John Roebling was born in Prussia in 1806. He received an excellent formal education and graduated in 1826 with a degree in civil engineering from the Royal Polytechnic Institute in Berlin. As a practicing civil engineer, Roebling was dissatisfied with the simple road building projects available in his homeland at that time. He set his eyes elsewhere in search of more challenging work.

His search ended in the United States, where Roebling and his brother emigrated and established a 7,000-acre agricultural community in western Pennsylvania. Roebling was an unsuccessful farmer and found himself returning to his civil engineering interests and the building opportunities available in the United States.

He saw in his new country an opportunity to achieve the realization of his philosophical ideal of harmony. Creating order out of chaos was foremost in Roebling's life. The many bridge building projects he led, pioneering the design of the suspension bridge, were an extension of his desire "to bring in harmony all that surrounds me."

Drawn back into civil engineering, Roebling began his career in the United States first as a surveyor for the Pennsylvania Railroad. At the railroad he observed the thick, crude, and expensive rope used to haul heavy barges up hills to reach the canal systems and saw a way to improve the process. He invented and began manufacturing a smaller cable composed of many thin strands of wire twisted together to make a single cable, far stronger than the bulky rope then in use. Roebling was a leader in the manufacture of strong steel cables, and he later used their unique blend of strength and lightness in the construction of suspension bridges.

Roebling combined strength and lightness, extension-in-space and compactness, and the precision of steel cables with rolling Gothic arches in the stone towers of the bridges he created. His first suspension bridge was a highway bridge over the Monongahela River that runs through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He then went on to construct a bridge across the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio. Across the Niagara River in 1855, he built the first cable suspension bridge capable of handling human road traffic.

Roebling's last project, the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, began in June 1869. The Brooklyn Bridge was the longest and most modern bridge ever attempted at that time. It spans New York's East River, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn. Hanging from steel cables almost sixteen inches thick, the bridge boasts two Gothic towers along its 1,595 foot length.

During the first stages of construction, Roebling suffered an accident while inspecting the stone base-pilings of the bridge and his foot was crushed. An infection quickly set in and he died of tetanus complications on July 22, 1869.

The Brooklyn Bridge, finished in 1883, fourteen years after the death of its creator, is a symbol of American ingenuity as the nation emerged from a farming economy into an industrial nation. It was completed by Roebling's son, Washington, who carried out the realization of his father's dream.

See also: Brooklyn Bridge

FURTHER READING

Gimsing, Niels J. Cable Supported Bridges: Concept and Design. New York: J. Wiley, 1983.

Mann, Elizabeth. The Brooklyn Bridge: A Wonder of the World Book. New York: Mikaya Press, 1996.

McCullough, David G. The Great Bridge. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.

Placzek, Adolph K. Architects. New York: The Free Press, 1982.

Steinman, David B. The Builders of the Bridge; the Story of John Roebling and His Son. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1945.

IN PURSUIT OF HIS PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAL "TO BRING IN HARMONY ALL THAT SURROUNDS ME," JOHN AUGUSTUS ROEBLING BECAME A PIONEER OF SUSPENSION BRIDGES IN THE UNITED STATES.