Fig. 1: The Great East River Suspension Bridge, Connecting the Cities of
New York and Brooklyn, 1884. Library of Congress
thought that Roebling would buy wire from his Trenton Iron Company across the canal, but Roebling instead drew his own wire and Cooper subsequently started making wire rope. T e two factories competitively manufactured wire rope for more than 125 years. American Steel & Wire Company acquired the Trenton Iron plant in 1903, and Bridon American acquired it in 1984 and operated it until 1987. Colorado Fuel and Iron Company acquired the Roebling plant in 1953 and operated it until 1973. John Roebling sent Washington, his fi rst child, to study engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded as the nation’s fi rst engineering school in Troy, N.Y., in 1824. After graduating from RPI in 1857, Washington helped his father complete the Allegheny Suspension Bridge in Pittsburgh in 1859, and then worked at the Roebling factory in Trenton. T ree days after the attack on Fort Sumter
in April 1861, Washington enlisted in the New Jersey Militia (Fig. 2). Two months later he joined the 9th New York Regiment and served with an artillery brigade in Maryland and Virginia, where
he witnessed the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack. Fearing that the Merrimack might sail up the Potomac, the Army leadership decided to barricade the river. As Washington later recalled,
Two plans were proposed - one, to load a number of canal boats with stone and sink them in the channel. Another, to support a lot of chain or big wire ropes on buoyant logs and anchor them to the shore. Large chains would have taken too much to make, so General Montgomery Meigs (the Army Quartermaster) telegraphed to Trenton for John A. Roebling to come down to make the necessary arrangements. He came and got the order…
Fig. 2: Washington A. Roebling served in the Union Army from April 1861 to January 1865, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He participated in the battles of Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Petersburg. The Roebling Museum in Roebling, N.J., is currently featuring an exhibit on Washington Roebling’s Civil War service.” Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2013
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