Johann August (Röbling) Roebling (1806 - 1869)

Born 12 Jun 1806 in Mühlhausen, Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia

Husband of Johanna (Herting) Roebling — married 1836 in Saxonburg, Butler, Pennsylvania, United States

Descendants

Died 22 Jul 1869 at age 63 in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York City

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Albert Taylor [send private message]

John Augustus (Röbling) Roebling is buried in Riverview Cemetery.

John Augustus (Röbling) Roebling is Notable.

Biography

Born to Christoph Polycarpus Roebling and Frederick Dorothea Robeling on 12 Jun 1806 in Mühlhausen, Saxony, Germany. Studied at the Polytechnic Institute in Berlin, where he also met Hegel. Worked for three years for the Prussian government building roads. In 1831 Roebling returned to Mühlhausen to organize a party of "pilgrims" to leave for America. John and his brother, Karl, left on 11 May, 1831 for America. He was 24. ^[1]

• The civil engineer responsible for the creation of the Brooklyn Bridge - the largest bridge of its time and the tallest structure in America, at the time.

• John A. Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge - Hidden Genius
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGYUkRf_RKs

• His toes were crushed by a ferry boat captain who intentionally crashed his ferry into the pier with the intention to do bodily harm Johann August Roebling while Roebling was surveying the site where the Brooklyn tower would eventually be on the East River of New York City. The owners of the ferry boats the captains and crew knew full well that their livelihood would change once the Brooklyn Bridge was completed. It was widely reported by spectators passengers on the ferry boat and those onshore that witnessed the incident that the boat captain did not adjust his craft's speed to have a normal safe approach and mooring at the dock.

• Roebling refused to have his injury to his foot properly treated, believing in water-therapy to cure him instead. Water-therapy involved a continual drip of cold, clean water onto the wound; this was supposed to keep the area clean and uninfected. Unfortunately it didn’t work and Roebling had to have the injured toes amputated (without anesthetic), gangrene and tetanus set in. He died on the 22nd of July, 1869, aged just 63. He died 3 weeks after the accident. And the project to finish the Brooklyn Bridge passed to his son Washington Augustus Roebling and Washington's wife Emily Warren-7393 who took over a man's job when he husband Washington was incapacitated by "the bends" (nitrogen narcosis compressed air affliction). And Emily a strong willed and determined person completed the Brooklyn Bridge while her husband oversaw the day to day developments from his bedroom near the construction site of the bridge via a telescope.
• Emily Roebling & The Brooklyn Bridge - Inspiring & Motivational Story about a Woman's Courage
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyBXZvOqoNQ
• The Woman Who Built The Brooklyn Bridge
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm0kSZRrLzw

• Iron John Roebling had the biggest funeral in Trenton history when he was buried

• The youngest of four children, he had siblings Friederike Amalie, Carl August and Herman Christian. His mother was Friederike Dorothea Roebling.

• He married Johanna Herting.

• Roebling left Prussia along with his brother Carl on May 22nd, 1831 to emigrate to the United States of America. They bought 1582 acres of land in Butler County Pennsylvania to establish a German settlement which they named Saxonburg.

• Roebling is best known for the design of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Died on July 22nd 1869 ^[2] after an accident in which his right foot was crushed by a docking boat. He was diagnosed with tetanus and developed lockjaw. and was buried on July 25th. ^[3] at Riverview Cemetery in Trenton, New Jersey.^[4]

"The Brooklyn Bridge has been called the eighth wonder of the world. "It opened up the future" as someone observed. Johann Augustus Roebling, born in Muehlhausen on June 12, 1806, designed the plans and began construction on the bridge, but did not live to see its completion.

According to family lore, Roebling was one of Hegel's favorite students, and his desire to emigrate to America was strengthened by the philosopher. His friend, Hans Etzler, had been imprisoned for his liberal ideas and had gone to America upon his release. Roebling shared Etzler's ideas, initially even his plan of founding German utopian colonies in America.

Roebling settled in Germania, PA., later Saxonburg, as a "Latin Farmer," a term applied to German intellectuals who took up farming although they knew more about Cicero than about plowing. He married Johanna Hertig, the daughter of another German immigrant. Roebling had little success as a farmer.

He described his emigration in his "Diary of My Journey from Muehlhausen in Thuringia via Bremen to the United States in the year 1831, written for my friends."

Roebling became interested in bridge building. He often recalled the small suspension bridge spanning the river Regnitz in Bamberg and the intense discussions on modern methods of bridge construction with his professor in Berlin; he knew that what he had seen in Europe was only a tentative beginning.

Roebling replaced the chain cables previously used to hold up bridges with a system of wire-rope cables, which were stronger than chain cables. After 1840, he manufactured these wire ropes in his own shop in Saxonburg. Using this new system, he first built the railroad bridge across the Allegheny, then constructed the suspension bridge across Monongahela near Pittsburgh. In 1851, he offered to link both banks of the Niagara just below the famous falls by means of a suspension bridge. Many people throughout the world, not only in America, considered him a dreamer or even a charlatan. In 1855, the bridge was nonetheless completed. After the long interruption in construction caused by the Civil War, he completed a suspension bridge across the Ohio near Cincinnati in 1867.

He was then ready to realize his dream project of linking Manhattan and Brooklyn. Roebling had to overcome both extraordinary difficulties and many intrigues before starting the preliminary work in 1869. A falling beam squashed his foot, which had to be amputated. Tetanus set in, and he died on July 22, 1869.

His oldest son, Colonel Washington A. Roebling, who had served in the Civil War under General McDowell, completed the bridge after 13 years of hard work, severe accidents and illness. President Chester Alan Arthur and 50,000 visitors from all over the world were present at the opening of the bridge on May 24, 1883.

As Alan Trachtenberg writes in his book on the Brooklyn Bridge, the bridge is both a symbol of American culture and an image of German liberal idealism transplanted to the new world. In the introduction to the book, Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior under President Kennedy, observes that the bridge is an object of world history, an inspiration to artists, a monument of industrial culture, a source of inventiveness for engineers, and an awe-inspiring object of beauty for the layman. "His vision was prophetic." The Brooklyn Bridge remains a favorite subject for praise and portrayal."

Sources

1. ↑ McCullough, David. The Great Bridge. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. Pages 42-43.
2. ↑ "New Jersey Deaths and Burials, 1720-1988," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZ7Y-T5M : accessed 10 June 2015), John Augustus Roebling, 22 July 1869; citing , reference ; FHL microfilm 542,524.
3. ↑ "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WQG-HVX : accessed 10 June 2015), John A. Roebling, 22 Jul 1869; citing Death, Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm .
4. ↑ "BillionGraves Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVRS-QYJV : accessed 10 June 2015), JOHN A ROEBLING, ; citing , , , BillionGraves (http://www.billiongraves.com : 2012).

• Gerard Wilk, Americans from Germany, German Information Center, Second printing 1987(copywrite 1976), pg.41
• John A Roebling at Wikipedia
• Find A Grave Memorial
• McCullough, David. The Great Bridge. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. Pages 42-43, 1972.
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LZ6W-Z2S

Census

"United States Census, 1850," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6MK-RRD : accessed 10 June 2015), John A Roebling, Hamilton, Mercer, New Jersey, United States; citing family 198, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

United States Census, 1860," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFHG-4KN : accessed 10 June 2015), John A Roebling, Third Ward City Of Trenton, Mercer, New Jersey, United States; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing p. 93, household ID 706, NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 803,697.