Chief Engineer

Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge

Erica Wagner

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9781620400531
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Biographies

"A welcome tribute to the persistence, precision and humanity of Washington Roebling and a love-song for the mighty New York bridge he built." - The Wall Street Journal

Chief Engineer is the first full biography of a crucial figure in the American story--Washington Roebling, builder of the Brooklyn Bridge. One of America's most iconic and recognizable structures, the Brooklyn Bridge is as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet its distinguished builder is too often forgotten --and his life is of interest far beyond his chosen field. It is the story of immigrants, the frontier, the Civil War, the making of the modern world, and a man whose life modeled courage in the face of extreme adversity.
Chief Engineer is enriched by Roebling's own eloquent voice, unveiled in his recently discovered memoir, previously thought lost to history. The memoir reveals that his father, John —a renowned engineer who came to America after humble beginnings in Germany —was a tyrannical presence in Roebling's life. It also documents Roebling's time as a young man in the Union Army, where he built bridges to carry soldiers across rivers and fought in pivotal battles from Antietam to Gettysburg. He then married the remarkable Emily Warren Roebling, who played a crucial role in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Roebling's grandest achievement —but by no means the only one.
Elegantly written with a compelling narrative sweep, Chief Engineer introduces Washington Roebling and his era to a new generation of readers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• More Praise for Chief Engineer
• Half Title
• Dedication
• By the Same Author
• Title Page
• Contents
• Epigraph
• Foreword
• 1. “No one ever does just the right thing in great emergencies”
• 2. “The finest place in the world”
• 3. “Something of the tiger in him”
• 4. “I was not a chip off the old block”
• 5. “It is curious how persons lose their heads in times of excitement”
• 6. “The urgency of the moment overpowers everything”
• 7. “I am very much of the opinion that she has captured your brother Washy’s heart at last”
• 8. “All beginnings are difficult, but don’t give up”
• 9. “I will have to go to work at something”
• 10. “Good enough to found upon”
• 11. “I have been quite sick for some days”
• 12. “Now is the time to build the Bridge”
• 13. “Trust me”
• 14. “She goes everywhere and sees everything”
• 15. “The image of his wife floats before him”
• 16. “You can’t desert your job”
• 17. “Time & age cures all this”
• Epilogue: Cold Spring
• Photographs
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• A Note on the Author
• Copyright