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Chief engineer : Washington Roebling : the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge / Erica Wagner.

by Wagner, Erica, author.

New York : Bloomsbury, 2017.

xviii, 364 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

"No one ever does just the right thing in great emergencies" -- "The finest place in the world" -- "Something of the tiger in him" -- "I was not a chip off the old block" -- "It is curious how persons lose their heads in times of excitement" -- "The urgency of the moment overpowers everything" -- "I am very much of the opinion that she has captured your younger brother's heart at last" -- All beginnings are difficult, but don't give up" -- "I will have to go to work at something" -- "Good enough to found upon" -- "I'll have been quite sick for some days" -- "Now is the time to build the bridge" -- "Trust me" -- "She goes everywhere and sees everything" -- "The image of his wife floats before him" -- "You can't desert your job" -- "Time & age cures all this" -- Epilogue: cold spring.

As much a part of the New York skyline as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge is instantly and internationally recognizable. Yet as iconic as it is, its builder, Washington Roebling, is too often forgotten. The Brooklyn Bridge took 14 dramatic years to complete and here the personal story which lies behind that construction is told for the first time. Meticulously researched, and written with revealing archival material only recently uncovered, this is an engaging and illuminating portrait of a brilliant and driven man, and of the era in which he lived.

"His father conceived of the Brooklyn Bridge, but after John Roebling's sudden death, Washington Roebling built what has become one of America's most iconic structures--as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet, as recognizable as the bridge is, its builder is too often forgotten--and his life is of interest far beyond his chosen field. It is the story of immigrants, of the frontier, of the greatest crisis in American history, and of the making of the modern world. Forty years after the publication of The Great Bridge, David McCullough's classic chronicle of how the East River was spanned, Erica Wagner has written a fascinating biography of one of America's most distinguished engineers, a man whose long life was a model of courage in the face of extraordinary adversity. Chief Engineer is enriched by Roebling's own eloquent voice, unveiled in his recently-discovered memoir that was previously thought lost to history. The memoir reveals that his father, John-a renowned engineer who made his life in America after humble beginnings in Germany-was a tyrannical presence in Washington's life, so his own adoption of that career was hard won. A young man when the Civil War broke out, Washington joined the Union Army, building bridges that carried soldiers across rivers and seeing action in many pivotal battles, from Antietam to Gettysburg-aspects of his life never before fully brought to light. Safely returned, he married the remarkable Emily Warren Roebling, who would play a crucial role in the construction of the unprecedented Brooklyn Bridge. It would be Washington Roebling's grandest achievement-but by no means the only one."--Publisher's description.

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