View source for John A. Roebling

{{Short description|German-American engineer (1806–1869)}}
{{About||his son|Washington Roebling|his grandson|John A. Roebling II}}
{{Redirect|Roebling|the community in New Jersey|Roebling, New Jersey}}
{{Infobox person
|name       =John A. Roebling
|birth_name = Johann August Röbling
|image      = Brooklyn Museum - John Augustus Roebling.jpg
|caption    = Roebling, {{Circa|1866}}
|nationality=Prussian → American
|birth_date ={{birth date|1806|06|12|mf=y}}
|birth_place=[[Mühlhausen]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]]
|death_date ={{death date and age|1869|07|22|1806|06|12|mf=y}}
|death_place=[[New York City]], U.S.
|resting_place = [[Riverview Cemetery (Trenton, New Jersey)|Riverview Cemetery]], [[Trenton, New Jersey]]
|known for= [[Brooklyn Bridge]]<br />[[John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge]]
|spouse=Johanna Herting
|children=9, including [[Washington Roebling|Washington]]
|relatives=[[Emily Roebling Cadwalader]] (granddaughter)<br />[[Washington A. Roebling II]] (grandson)<br />[[Donald Roebling]] (great-grandson)<br />[[Paul Roebling]] (great-great-grandson)
}}

'''John Augustus Roebling''' (born '''Johann August Röbling'''; June 12, 1806 – July 22, 1869) was a [[Germans|German]]-born American [[Civil Engineering|civil engineer]].<ref name=obit/> He designed and built [[wire rope]] [[suspension bridge]]s, in particular the [[Brooklyn Bridge]], which has been designated as a [[National Historic Landmark]] and a [[National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark]].
{{TOC limit|2}}

==Early life and education==
Roebling was born June 12, 1806, in [[Mühlhausen]] to Friederike Dorothea (née Muelleren) and Christoph Polykarpus Roebling. Recognizing his intelligence at a young age, Roebling's mother arranged for him to be tutored in mathematics and science at [[Erfurt]] by Ephraim Salomon Unger.<ref>Caso, Frank. [http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=37 "John Augustus Roebling."] In ''Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present'', vol. 2, edited by William J. Hausman. German Historical Institute. Last modified May 15, 2014.</ref> He went to Erfurt when he was 15. In 1824 he passed his Surveyor's examination and returned home for a year.

In 1824 he enrolled for two semesters at the [[Bauakademie]] in [[Berlin]], where he studied [[architecture]] and [[engineering]] under Martin Friedrich Rabe (1765–1856), bridge construction and foundation construction under Johann Friedrich Dietlein (1782–1837), [[hydraulics]] under [[Johann Albert Eytelwein]] (1764–1848), and languages. Roebling also attended lectures of the philosopher [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]]. He developed an interest in natural philosophy, and many years later worked on a 1000-page treatise on his own concepts of the universe.<ref>Roebling, Washington A., ''Washington Roebling's Father'', 2008, ASCE Press, Reston, VA</ref>

In 1825, Roebling got a government job in the [[Arnsberg (region)|Arnsberg province]] and moved to [[Eslohe]], where he worked for four years on designing and supervising construction of military roads. During this period he made sketches for suspension bridges over [[Ruhr (river)|Ruhr]]- and [[Lenne]]-river, which were never built. In 1829, he returned to his home to work out his final thesis and prepare for his second engineer examination. For unknown reasons, he never took the examination.<ref>Güntherroth, Nele, ''Roebling's Development to Being an Engineer'', 2006, Proceedings John A Roebling Symposium, ASCE, Reston, VA</ref>

==Career==
[[File:Brooklyn Bridge by David Shankbone.jpg|thumb|The [[Brooklyn Bridge]] in February 2007]]
[[File:Roebling Shop with bridge.jpg|thumb|Roebling's Shop in [[Saxonburg, Pennsylvania]], adjacent to a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge]]
[[File:Cincinnati-roebling-suspension-bridge.jpg|thumb|[[John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge]], spanning the [[Ohio River]] from [[Cincinnati]] to [[Covington, Kentucky]], at night]]
On May 22, 1831, Roebling left Prussia with a group of emigrants bound for the United States. They included his brother Carl and the older [[Johann Adolphus Etzler]], who believed in a technological [[utopia]]. Engineers had difficulty advancing and achieving economic mobility in Prussian society, in part because of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], which had lasted until 1815, and suppressed investment in infrastructure. During this period, [[Prussia]] also had considerable political unrest, as authoritarian governments took the places of democratic ones.

Etzler believed that they could create a technological utopia in the United States, but disputes arose among the men en route. The group split up after reaching [[Pennsylvania]]. John and Carl Roebling purchased 1,582 acres (640 hectares) of land on October 28, 1831, in [[Butler County, Pennsylvania|Butler County]]<ref>''Historic Saxonburg and Its Neighbors'', Ralph Goldinger, {{ISBN|1-55856-043-2}}</ref> with the intent to establish a German settlement, to be called [[Saxonburg, Pennsylvania|Saxonburg]]. Most of the other settlers had remained with Etzler.  In 20th-century recognition of his historic importance, the [[John Roebling House]] at Saxonburg was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1976.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>

When the Roeblings and others arrived, the United States was in the later stages of an economic boom, which ended in the financial [[Panic of 1837]], reducing everyone's opportunities. Farmers were deeply affected by it as they often depended on credit to produce the next season's crops. But by the 1840s, the economy was improving and many Americans believed in the nation's [[manifest destiny]] to extend its borders and achieve greatness on the North American continent. Transportation between eastern industrial hubs and frontier farming markets had become a matter of both national and popular interest.

Many railway and transportation projects were under way near the site which Roebling chose for his colony, but instead of continuing in the engineering profession, he took up farming.  After five years he married Johanna Herting, a tailor's daughter. He found agrarian work unsatisfying, and Saxonburg  attracted few settlers.

In 1837, after the birth of his first child and the death of his brother Carl, Roebling returned to engineering for work. He first worked on projects to improve river navigation and build [[canal]]s. For three years, he conducted surveys for the state of [[Pennsylvania]] for railway lines across the [[Allegheny Mountains]], from the capital, [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]], to [[Pittsburgh]] in the far west, at the start of the [[Ohio River]].

In 1840, Roebling wrote to [[suspension bridge]] designer [[Charles Ellet Jr.]], offering to help with the design of a bridge near [[Philadelphia]]:<ref>Steinman, David B. & Watson, Sara Ruth, ''Bridges and their Builders'', 1941</ref>
<blockquote>The study of suspension bridges formed for the last few years of my residence in Europe my favourite occupation ... Let but a single bridge of the kind be put up in Philadelphia, exhibiting all the beautiful forms of the system to full advantage, and it needs no prophecy to foretell the effect which the novel and useful features will produce upon the intelligent minds of the Americans.</blockquote>

At that time, canal boats from Philadelphia were transported over the Allegheny Mountains on railroad cars in order to access waterways on the other side of the mountains, so that the boats could continue to Pittsburgh. The system of inclines and levels that moved the boats and conventional railroad cars was a state-owned enterprise, the [[Allegheny Portage Railroad]]. The railroad cars were pulled up and down the inclines by a long loop of thick [[hemp]] rope, up to 7&nbsp;centimetres thick. The hemp ropes were expensive and had to be replaced frequently.

Roebling remembered an article he had read about [[wire rope]]. Soon after, he started developing a seven-strand wire rope at a [[ropewalk]] that he built on his farm. In 1841, Roebling began producing wire rope at Saxonburg to use in suspension bridges and such projects as the portage railroad.

In 1844 Roebling won a bid to replace the wooden canal [[aqueduct (bridge)|aqueduct]] across the [[Allegheny River]] with the [[Allegheny Aqueduct (Pittsburgh)|Allegheny Aqueduct]]. His design encompassed seven spans of 163 feet (50 m), each consisting of a wooden trunk to hold the water, supported by a continuous cable made of many parallel wires, wrapped tightly together, on each side of the trunk. He followed this innovation in 1845 by building a [[suspension bridge]] over the [[Monongahela River]] at Pittsburgh.  The confluence of the Allegheny and [[Monongahela River|Monongahela]] rivers at [[Pittsburgh]] forms the [[Ohio River]].

In 1848, Roebling undertook the construction of four suspension aqueducts on the [[Delaware and Hudson Canal]]. During this period, he moved to [[Trenton, New Jersey]]. In Trenton, Roebling built [[John A. Roebling's Sons Company, Trenton N.J., Block 3|a large industrial complex]] for wire production for his growing company: John A. Roebling's Sons Company. This complex inspired Trenton's motto that appears on the [[Lower Trenton Bridge]]: "Trenton Makes, the World Takes".

Roebling's next project, starting in 1851, was [[Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge|a railroad bridge]] connecting the [[New York Central]] and [[Great Western Railway (Ontario)|Great Western Railway]] of Ontario, Canada over the [[Niagara River]]. Construction took four years. The bridge, with a [[clear span]] of 825 feet (251 m), was supported by four, ten-inch (25&nbsp;cm) wire cables, and had two levels, one for vehicles and one for rail traffic.

While the Niagara bridge was being built, Roebling designed a railway suspension bridge across the [[Kentucky River]], which required a [[clear span]] of 1,224 feet (373 m). The anchorage and stone towers were completed, and the cable wire delivered along with the material for the superstructure, when the railway company became insolvent. The bridge construction was halted and he was never able to complete it.

What is now known as the [[High Bridge of Kentucky|High Bridge]] was later completed as the first [[cantilever bridge]] in the US, with a [[truss bridge|truss for carrying the railway track]]. A second version was built on the same foundations in 1911. The highest railroad bridge over a navigable river in the United States, the bridge is still in use.

In 1859 Roebling completed [[Sixth Street Bridge (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)|another suspension bridge]] at Pittsburgh over the Allegheny River. Its total length was 1,030 feet (314m), consisting of two main spans of 344 feet (105m) each, and two side spans of 171 feet (52m) each. His son [[Washington Roebling]] worked with him on that project, having completed his engineering degree.

The [[American Civil War]] brought a temporary halt to Roebling's work, as resources were diverted to the war effort. In 1863 building resumed on a bridge over the [[Ohio River]] at [[Cincinnati]], which Roebling had started in 1856 and halted due to lack of financing. He finished this bridge in 1867. The Cincinnati-Covington Bridge, later named the [[John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge]] in his honor, was the world's longest suspension bridge, with a main span of 1,057 feet (322 m), at the time it was finished.

==Death==
[[File:Roebling family plot, Riverview Cemetery, Trenton New Jersey.jpg|thumb|right|The Roebling family plot in [[Riverview Cemetery (Trenton, New Jersey)|Riverview Cemetery]]]]
In 1867, Roebling started design work on what is now called the [[Brooklyn Bridge]], spanning the [[East River]] in New York. On June 28, 1869, at [[Fulton Ferry (ferry)|Fulton Ferry]], while he was standing at the edge of a dock, working on fixing the location where the bridge would be built, his foot was crushed by an arriving ferry. His injured toes were amputated. He refused further medical treatment and wanted to cure his foot by "[[Water cure (therapy)|water therapy]]" (continuous pouring of water over the wound). His condition deteriorated. He died on July 22, 1869, of [[tetanus]] at the home of his son on [[Hicks Street]], in [[Brooklyn Heights]].<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=John A. Roebling, the Engineer |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E05E2DC133AEF34BC4B51DFB1668382679FDE |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 23, 1869 |access-date=2015-11-09 }}</ref> It was 24 days after the accident.<ref>McCullough, David, ''The Great Bridge'', 1982, p. 91</ref>  His son [[Washington Roebling]] was later named chief engineer of the project, but due to his further incapacity to work after suffering from [[Decompression sickness|'the bends']] while in a [[caisson (engineering)|caisson]] on the river bed, his wife [[Emily Warren Roebling]] took over the project and completed it in 1883. John Roebling is buried in the [[Riverview Cemetery (Trenton, New Jersey)|Riverview Cemetery]] in [[Trenton, New Jersey]].

==Legacy==
{{Multiple image
| header = Legacy
| align = right
| direction = 
| total_width = 300
| perrow = 2
| image2= Brooklyn Bridge poŝtmarko DE 2006.jpg
| caption2 = A 2006 German stamp commemorating Roebling
| image1 = Roebling Museum, New Jersey.jpg
| caption1 = The Roebling Museum opened in 2010
}}
Roebling devised "an equilibrium strength approach, in which equilibrium is always satisfied but compatibility of deformations is not enforced."  This was essentially an approximation method similar to the force method: First, Roebling computed the dead and live loads, then divided the load between the [[Cable-stayed bridge|cables and the stays]]. Roebling added a large safety factor to the divided loads and then solved for the forces. This approach gave a sufficiently accurate analysis of the structure given the assumption that the structure was [[Ductility|sufficiently ductile]] to handle the resulting deformation (Buonopane, 2006).

Roebling's company John A Roebling's Sons Co. is credited with being the cable contractor for the [[Golden Gate Bridge]] in San Francisco, California, constructed from 1933 to 1937. The Golden Gate Bridge was and still is a technical engineering marvel that Roebling, posthumously, has his footprint on.

Kinkora Works, the site of the Roebling Company factory complex in [[Roebling, New Jersey]] was opened as a museum in 2010.<ref name="RobMus">{{cite web |title=About Roebling Museum |url=https://www.roeblingmuseum.org/about |website=Roebling Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240707005246/https://www.roeblingmuseum.org/about |archive-date=7 July 2024 |location=Roebling, New Jersey}}</ref> The museum tells the story of the Roebling family and the John A. Roebling's Sons Company.

===Projects===
[[File:D&H Canal Neversink Aqueduct abutment.jpg|thumb|250px|right|{{center|Remaining abutment of the D&H Neversink Aqueduct}}]]
* c.1800s "Demonstration Bridge" spans two buildings of the former [[John A. Roebling's Sons Company, Trenton N.J., Block 3|Roebling Plant, Trenton, NJ]]. Now the Mercer County Executive Building on 175 South Broad Street, Trenton, NJ. 
* 1844 [[Allegheny Aqueduct Bridge]] – [[Pittsburgh]]; 162 feet (49 m) spans; demolished 1861
* 1846 [[Smithfield Street Bridge]] – Pittsburgh; 188 feet (57 m) spans; replaced 1881–1883
* 1848 [[Lackawaxen Aqueduct]] – spanning the [[Lackawaxen River]] at [[Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania]]; two spans of 115 feet (35m) each, two 7-inch (18&nbsp;cm) cables; no longer extant
* 1849 [[Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct]] – spanning the [[Delaware River]] from Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania to [[Minisink Ford, New York]], four spans of 134 feet (41 m) each, two 8-inch (20&nbsp;cm) cables; converted to vehicular and pedestrian use, restored in 1965 and 1995
* 1850 [[High Falls Aqueduct]] – one span of 145 feet (44 m), two 8½-inch (22&nbsp;cm) cables<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.canalmuseum.org/|title=D&H Canal Historical Society|website=D&H Canal Historical Society}}</ref>
* 1850 [[Neversink Aqueduct]] – spanning the [[Neversink River]]; one span of 170 feet (52m), two 9½-inch (24&nbsp;cm) cables
* 1854 [[Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge]] – spanning the [[Niagara River]] from [[Niagara Falls, New York]] to [[Niagara Falls, Canada]], 821 feet (250 m) span
* 1859 [[Sixth Street Bridge (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)#First bridge|Allegheny Bridge]] – Pittsburgh; 344-foot (105 m) spans
* 1866 [[John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge]] – spanning the [[Ohio River]] from [[Cincinnati, Ohio]] to [[Covington, Kentucky]]; 1,057 feet (322 m) long with a deck clearance of 100 feet (30 m)
* 1883 [[Brooklyn Bridge]] – spanning the [[East River]] from [[Manhattan]] to [[Brooklyn]] in New York City; 1,595 feet (486 m) span
* 1898 [[Ojuela Bridge]] (Puente de Ojuela)  – suspension bridge at the site of the [[Ojuela]] Goldmine, [[Durango|Durango, Mexico]]; span of 271.5 metres
* 1904 [[The Riegelsville Bridge]]- 577 feet (176 m) suspension bridge crossing the Delaware River at Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, connecting it with Riegelsville, New Jersey, United States -opened on April 18, 1904

=== Honors ===
* In 2006, the ''[[Deutsche Post]]'' honored Roebling's 200th birthday with a stamp.
* [[Mühlhausen]] named the "John-August-Roebling-Schule" after him.

=== In popular culture ===
* Roebling makes a brief appearance in the opening scene of the 2001 romantic comedy film ''[[Kate & Leopold]]'', portrayed by actor and dialect coach [[Andrew Jack (dialect coach)|Andrew Jack]]. He delivers Roebling's lines in a pronounced German accent.  This is an anachronism, as the scene takes place in [[1876]], seven years after Roebling's death.
* In the sixth-season ''[[Brooklyn Nine-Nine]]'' episode "The Tattler," it is revealed that Jake and Gina attended John Roebling High School.
* In the second season of [[The Gilded Age (TV series)]], an HBO drama, [[Emily Warren Roebling]] is depicted as having a larger role in the engineering of the Brooklyn Bridge than is publicly known. The fact that a woman engineered the bridge becomes an issue for the characters.

==Personal life==
Roebling was the youngest of four children. He was baptized in the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] church [[Divi Blasii, Mühlhausen|Divi Blasii in Mühlhausen]]. As a young boy he played the [[bass clarinet]] and the [[french horn]]. He also exhibited great artistic talent for sketches and paintings. His father owned a small tobacco shop, but the business was insufficient to provide livelihood for all three sons. Roebling's sister Friederike Amalie married Carl August Meissner, a poor merchant in the town, and his oldest brother Herman Christian Roebling prepared to take over the tobacco shop.<ref>Schuyler, Hamilton, ''The Roeblings'', 1931, p. 9, Princeton NJ</ref> As noted earlier, Roebling and his brother Carl immigrated to the United States, settling first in Pennsylvania.

John Roebling and Johanna Herting had nine children:
* son: [[Washington Roebling|Washington Augustus Roebling]] (b. 1837, d. 1926)
* daughter: Laura R. Methfessel (b. 1840, d. 1873)
* son: Ferdinand William Roebling (b. 1842, d. 1917)
* daughter: Elvira R. Stewart (b. 1844, d. 1871)
* daughter: Josephine R. Jarvis (b. 1847,)
* son: [[Charles Roebling|Charles Gustavus Roebling]] (b. 9-Dec-1849, d. 1918)
* son: Edmund Roebling (b. 1854, d. 1930)
* son: William Elderhorst Roebling (b. 1856, d. 1860)
* daughter: Hannah Roebling (died in infancy)

Roebling's son Washington and his daughter-in-law [[Emily Warren Roebling]] continued his work on the Brooklyn Bridge. His son Ferdinand expanded his wire rope business. His son Charles designed and invented a huge 80-ton wire rope machine and founded the town of [[Florence-Roebling, New Jersey|Roebling, New Jersey]]. Here the John A. Roebling's Sons company [[Florence-Roebling, New Jersey#Roebling Steel Mill|steel mill]] was built.

His granddaughter [[Emily Roebling Cadwalader]] was a married Philadelphia socialite noted as the owner of historic [[yachts]]. His grandson [[Washington A. Roebling II]] died as a passenger on the {{RMS|Titanic}}. His great-grandson [[Donald Roebling]] was a noted philanthropist and inventor who devised the [[amphtrack]]. His great-great-grandson [[Paul Roebling]] was a well-regarded actor.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Buonopane, S. ''The Roeblings and the Stayed Suspension Bridge: Its Development and Propagation in 19th Century United States'' (2006)
* Haw, Richard. ''Engineering America: The Life and Times of John A. Roebling'' (Oxford University Press, 2020)
* McCullough, David. ''[[The Great Bridge (book)|The Great Bridge]]'' (Simon and Schuster, 1982)
* Reier, Sharon. ''The Bridges of New York'' (Dover, 2000)
* Sayenga, Donald. ''Washington Roebling's Father: A Memoir of John A. Roebling.'' Reston, Va.: American Society of Civil Engineers, 2009 {{ISBN|978-0-7844-0948-0}}
* Tolzmann, Don Heinrich. ''John A. Roebling and His Suspension Bridge on the Ohio River.'' Milford, Ohio: Little Miami Publishing Co., 2007
* Tolzmann, Don Heinrich. ''The Roebling Suspension Bridge: A Guide to Historic Sites, People, and Places''. Cincinnati: Archivarium Press, 2017.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100407111635/http://www.inventionfactory.com/history/RHAgen/jarbio.html Invention Factory: Detailed biography]
* {{Structurae person|id=d000030|name=John Augustus Roebling}}
* [http://www.historicsaxonburg.com John Roebling Historic Saxonburg Society]
* {{Wikisource-inline|list=
** {{Cite AmCyc |last=Johnson |first=Rossiter |author-link=Rossiter Johnson |wstitle=Roebling, John Augustus |short=x |noicon=x}}
** {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Roebling, John Augustus|year=1900  |notaref=x |short=x |noicon=x}}
** {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Roebling, John Augustus |short=x |noicon=x}}
}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:1806 births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
[[Category:Prussian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in manufacturing]]
[[Category:American civil engineers]]
[[Category:Boating accident deaths]]
[[Category:American bridge engineers]]
[[Category:Deaths from tetanus]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in New York (state)]]
[[Category:American amputees]]
[[Category:People from Mühlhausen]]
[[Category:People from Brooklyn Heights]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in New York (state)]]
[[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:Roebling family|John A.]]