Roebling, John Augustus

views updated

Roebling, John Augustus (1806–69). German-born American engineer. In 1841–9 he perfected the manufacture of twisted-wire cables which he employed to suspend the Pennsylvania State Canal aqueduct above the Allegheny River (1844–5), a work that won him recognition. With his son, Washington Augustus Roebling (1837–1926), he designed the Brooklyn Bridge, NYC (1869–83), then the longest suspension-bridge in the world. J. A. Roebling published Long and Short Span Railway Bridges (1869).

Bibliography

Condit (1960, 1968);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
H. Schuyler (1931);
Jane Turner (1996);
A. Trachtenberg (1965);
Vogel (1971)

More From encyclopedia.com