Education and Early
Career
Roebling was born Johann August Röbling. He grew up in Mühlhausen, Prussia, learning
to play musical instruments and received tutoring in
mathematics and science. He later
studied architecture, engineering, bridge and foundation construction,
hydraulics, and languages. From
1825-1829 Roebling built military roads for the government
In 1831, Roebling left Prussia with one of his brothers. This was a time of political unrest in
Prussia; the Napoleonic Wars had ended in 1815 leaving economic mobility
difficult for engineers. The brothers
purchased 1,582 acres in Pennsylvania.
They farmed for about five years.
Roebling returned to engineering. Manifest Destiny was a dominant mode of thought in
the 1840s and there were opportunities for him to work in river navigation and
canal building. He became a Pennsylvania
state engineer, surveying and supervising the construction of canals, locks,
and dams.
He began producing wire rope to replace the hemp rope used
to transport canal boats over the Allegheny Mountains via railroad car. He helped create the Allegheny Aqueduct and
later a suspension bridge over the Monongahela River. Roebling went on to create other bridges in
Trenton, New Jersey, and connecting Canada and the U.S. via the Niagara River.
The Cincinnati-Covington Bridge was built over the Ohio
River in 1867 and was later renamed the John A. Roebling Suspension
Bridge. At the time, it was the world's
largest suspension bridge.
The Brooklyn Bridge
Completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge had a main span of
1,595.5 feet, making it the longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge was built to link Manhattan and
Brooklyn. Its design boasted:
- Steel wire construction
- Stronger, longer, and larger than any other
bridge at the time
- Roadways for vehicles
- Cable car transportation
- Elevated pedestrian promenade
Pressurized pneumatic caissons were sunk to depths of 44.5
feet (Brooklyn) and 78.5 feet (Manhattan) to provide a dry underwater space for
workers to dig the bridge's foundations down to solid rock. Many workers suffered from the bends upon
leaving the high-pressure atmosphere.
John Roebling's son Washington was permanently impaired by
the bends as a result of his work on the Brooklyn Bridge. Washington's wife Emily actively supervised
the construction after that time.
The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883 but John Roebling was
unable to attend. He had died in 1869,
shortly after construction began. His
foot was crushed in an accident on site; he died of tetanus 24 days later.
Resources:
Great
Buildings: John Augustus Roebling
The
Library of Congress: Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge
Wikipedia:
John A. Roebling
http://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2008/09/designing_the_brooklyn_bridge.html [image]
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