Rash's Surname Index
Notes for John Augustus ROEBLING
ROEBLING, John Augustus (1806-69), German-American, civil engineer, who was one of the pioneers in the construction of suspension bridges.
Roebling is the name of two American engineers, father and son, who were pioneers in the development of suspension bridges and wire cable. They are best known as the designers and builders of the Brooklyn Bridge. John Augustus Roebling, b. Mühlhausen, Germany, June 12, 1806, and educated at the Royal Polytechnic School, Berlin. In 1831 he immigrated to Saxonburg, near Pittsburgh, Pa., and shortly thereafter was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Corp. to survey its route across the Allegheny Mountains between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. He then demonstrated the practicability of steel cables in bridge construction and in 1841 established at Saxonburg the first factory to manufacture steel-wire rope in the U.S. Roebling utilized steel cables in the construction of numerous suspension bridges and is generally considered one of the pioneers in the field of suspension-bridge construction. From 1851 to 1855 he built a railroad suspension bridge over the Niagara River at Niagara Falls. He designed the Brooklyn Bridge but, while supervising preliminary construction operations, was injured and died on July 22, 1869. Washington Augustus Roebling, b. Saxonburg, Pa., May 26, 1837, was made chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge after his father's death. Although disabled by decompression sickness after entering a caisson in 1872, he completed the bridge in 1883. Thereafter, he managed the family firm in Trenton, N.J., where he died on July 21, 1926.
The Brooklyn Bridge (1869-83) was the first great suspension bridge in the United States that had cables formed from parallel steel wires that were spun in place. This fundamental method is still used today. Designed by John Roebling and completed by his son Washington Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge links the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan across the East River in New York City. When the Brooklyn Bridge was opened for use on May 24, 1883, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge carries six lanes of traffic on a span of 486 m (1,595 ft), 50 percent longer than the previous maximum span. The foundations were built in timber caissons sunk to depths of 13.5 m (44 ft) on the Brooklyn piers and 24 m (78 ft) on the Manhattan piers. Compressed air pressurized the caissons. At that time little was known of the risks of working under such conditions, and more than a hundred workers suffered serious cases of the bends. But in spite of all hazards, the work was completed, and the bridge stands today as an enduring tribute to its daring engineers. New York City honored the bridge with a gala centennial celebration in 1983.
John Augustus Roebling
was born on June 12, 1806, in Muhlhausen, Thuringia, Prussia, now Germany. The youngest son of Christoph Polycarpus Roebling and Friederike Dorothea (Mueller).
At an early age he was educated in the public schools of Muhlhausen and the city Gymnasium, and was also tutored privately to qualify him for entrance to the Royal Polytechnic School at Berlin. At the Institute his course included architecture and engineering, bridge construction, hydraulics, languages, and philosophy. He was a pupil of the great Hegel, and there is a tradition in the Roebling family that he was the philosopher's favorite disciple. Upon his graduation in 1826, he was obliged to render three years in the service of the state, most of his time being spent on road building in Westphalia.
He emigrated to the United States in 1831, and settled in the area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He purchased a tract of wild land, and devoted himself for several years to reclaiming it, and building up a small country town, which he would call Saxonburg. The life of a farmer proving rather monotonous to one educated for an engineer he embraced the first opportunity which offered to enter again upon the pursuits of his profession. Extensive canal and slack-water improvements were then in progress in most of the states of the Union, and he obtained his first situation in America as assistant engineer on the slack-water navigation of the Beaver river, a tributary of the Ohio; this was followed by an engagement on the Sandy and Beaver Canal, a work intended to connect the waters of Lake Erie with the Ohio River, but never completed, both from lack of means, and from the opposing influence of the rising era of railways. The last employment on works of this kind was on the upper Allegheny River, where he located a feeder for the Pennsylvania state canal. Entering the service of the state of Pennsylvania, he was employed for three years in surveying and locating three lines of railway across the Allegheny mountains, from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, the road being ultimately built by the Pennsylvania central railway company, and not by the state. A short interim was devoted to entering upon the manufacture of wire rope, a business in which he was the pioneer in America, and in which the Roebling factory still occupies the first place. The introduction of these ropes on the inclined planes of the old portage railroad, on which the canal-boats of the Pennsylvania state canal were transported across the Allegheny mountain range, was attended by the usual opposition incident to the introduction of anything new, and necessitated the rebuilding of the machinery by him on a style adapted to wire rope. It was in this manufacture that his necessary experience was gained, in regard to the nature and qualities of wire, and the practical application and handling of the material, an experience soon to be brought into play in the construction of the first suspension aqueduct in the United States. The general idea of suspension bridges has been a favorite one with him, ever since his college days, when it formed the subject of the graduating thesis. A suitable opportunity was merely wanting to carry it out in reality. This was offered in the year 1844, at Pittsburgh. The wooden aqueduct of the Pennsylvania canal across the Allegheny River, had become so unsafe as to require its removal, and the erection of a new structure on the old piers, the time being limited to nine months, including the winter season of 1844-45. The work was let by contract to the lowest bidder, who proved to be Mr. Roebling. It was carried to a successful completion by him within the time specified, and opened in May, 1845. This aqueduct comprised seven spans of 163 feet each consisting of a wooden trunk to hold the water, and supported by a continuous wire cable on each side, of seven inches diameter. A rigorous winter and an unusually rapid river added greatly to the difficulties to be overcome, heightened as they were by the entire novelty of the method of construction, and by the unavoidable imperfections of hitherto untried cable machinery, intended for the first time to make a cable in the place it was to occupy permanently. One satisfactory phase in the history of that work and of a subsequent one also, was the practical refutation its success afforded to the numerous attacks of the engineering profession of that day, who scouted at the bare idea of a suspension aqueduct, and predicted its downfall as soon as the water was let into it. Following the building of the aqueduct, came, in 1846, the erection of the Monongahela suspension bridge at Pittsburgh on the piers of the old wooden bridge, destroyed by fire in 1844. It consists of eight spans of 188 feet each, supported by two four-and one-half inch cables, which, in this instance, were made on land separately for each span, and then hoisted in place from flatboats. In this bridge the pendulum principle was applied to counterbalance adjoining spans under the action of unequal loads. In 1848 Mr. Roebling undertook the construction of a series of four suspension aqueducts on the line of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, connecting the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania with the tidewater of the Hudson River; they were all completed in the course of two years, as follows:
Lackawaxen Aqueduct, 2 spans of 115 feet each, and two 7-inch cables.
Delaware aqueduct, 4 spans of 134 feet each, and two 8-inch cables.
High Falls aqueduct, 1 span of 145 feet, and two 8 1/2-inch cables
Neversink aqueduct, 1 span of 170 feet, and two 8 1/2-inch cables.
They are all essentially permanent works, as merely the woodwork of the trunk requires occasional renewal. During this period Mr. Roebling removed from the West, establishing his works and his residence in Trenton, New Jersey. Public attention had for some time past been directed to the problem of connecting the New York Central and Great Western Railway of by bridging the chasm of the Niagara River, a problem which, from, the nature of the locality, admitted of no other solution than by a railway suspension bridge. A company had been formed several years before for that purpose, and had selected Mr. Ellet for their engineer. Under his superintendence a temporary bridge was erected at the site for foot travel and light carriages this was in use several years, being subsequently removed. When, however, the time arrived, for beginning the main work, Mr. Ellet had become involved in personal difficulties with the company, and left. Mr. Roebling was invited to make plans and estimates for the bridge, and was at the same time appointed the engineer, For four years commencing with 1851, the work was continued without interruption, even during the coldest Canada winters, until in March, 1855, the first locomotive and train crossed a railway suspension bridge, and it may be safely said that up to the present day it is still the only example of the kind of any magnitude. It is needless to enter into the details of construction here, as the bridge is too well known; it will be sufficient to state that it has a clear span of 825 feet, is supported by four wire cables of ten-inch diameter each and has two floors: the lower one devoted to vehicles and the upper one to the railway traffic. These two floors are connected by struts and diagonal tension rods, so that the superstructure forms a continuous. hollow girder, stiff enough to support the action of rolling load; the weight, however, being supported by the cables. Simultaneous with the progress of the Niagara bridge, another railway suspension bridge was commenced by Mr. Roebling across the Kentucky River, on the line of the Southern Railroad leading from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. The gorge of the river in that region is deeper and wider than that of the Niagara, requiring a clear span of no less than 1,224 feet. The anchorage and stone towers were rapidly completed, and the necessary plates and saddles hoisted on the towers; most of the cable wire was delivered, as also the material for the superstructure, the girder principle adopted here being essentially different from that carried out in the Niagara Bridge, no floor for vehicles being required in this case; suddenly, however, the finances of the railway company collapsed, with the unfortunate result that the building of this stupendous bridge, already well advanced, was immediately stopped, as well as work on the railroad, and has never been renewed since. In the fall of 1856 the foundations of the towers of the Ohio Bridge at Cincinnati were laid work was resumed the next year, and then interrupted for want of means. In the meantime arrangements were made to proceed with the erection of still another suspension bridge at Pittsburgh, to take the place of the old wooden bridge, built in 1818, and now no longer safe. The removal of the old structure, and construction of the new permanent work, including the building of three new piers and two anchorages, required three years, from 1858-60 inclusive. The total length of the bridge is 1,030 feet, divided into two spans of 344 feet each, and two side spans of 171 feet each. The floor has a width of forty feet, including two sidewalks, ten feet wide. The framework of the superstructure is composed essentially of iron girders, with a flooring of wood. Ornamental open towers of cast iron support the cables, four in number, two of seven-inch diameter, attached to the floor between the sidewalks and carriage-way, and two of four-inch diameter attached to the ends of the floor-beams. In addition to the cables there is an effective system of stays, This bridge being completed, all enterprise was stopped for a couple of years by the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1863, however, operations were resumed on the work at Cincinnati, and that bridge was finished in 1867. During 1867 the reports, plans, and estimates of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, across the East River, were matured. As Mr. Roebling had established the efficiency of the suspension principle for railroad bridges, and of developing their construction, he was chosen chief engineer of the proposed bridge. He immediately entered upon the work of preparing the plans and specifications, and was superintending the initial operations of its construction when an injury of fatal character was experienced. While making a survey near the Fulton ferry slip, on the Brooklyn side of the river, the abrupt entry of a ferry-boat caused the crushing of one of his feet between the piling and rack of one of the slips. The accident occurred on the 6th of July, some hope was entertained at first of recovery, but lockjaw set in, and, in spite of medical skill, his death occurred sixteen days later. The noble structure designed by him, and carried to its completion by his son, Washington A., is an enduring monument to his genius.
John Augustus Roebling died in Brooklyn, New York on July 22, 1869.
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