these two 19th-Century technologies would help the American population to expand horizontally over the terrain and vertically upwards into the skyscrapers. Before the elevator, buildings were only five stories tall because people could not easily walk up and down for more than five stories at a time. Even more exciting, is the incredible confidence that both John and Washington Roebling had when designing the bridges and specifying the wire rope used on the projects. Fortunately, they both had an intimate understanding of wire rope that lead into their genius bridge-designing intuition. In many ways, it seems as though John was the
visionary and Washington was the man who got all of John’s visions accomplished. Tis relationship led Washington right into Chief Engineer on the Brooklyn Bridge project. When David McCullough wrote Te Great Bridge, which was a part of Wagner’s inspiration and supporting research for her book, there was a significant piece of history still missing about the Roeblings and the Great Bridge. “Tere had always been rumors about Washington having written a book about his father,” says Wagner. “However, this biography was not with the family’s archives, either at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York or at Rutgers University.” In fact, Washington did sit down and write a biography of his father, John A. Roebling in his later years. “Washington viewed himself as a keeper of his family’s history, particularly as he had outlived most of them,” says Wagner. Fortunately, this fabled biography surfaced before Wagner wrote Chief Engineer. A self- made historian of the Roebling Family, Donald Sayenga, had possession of the biography. Sayenga was the former general manager of Bethlehem Wire Rope, the company that acquired Roebling Wire Rope in 1973. “Washington was a wonderful writer with a clear,
dry style,” says Wagner. “Washington drew me to his character, to his persistence and tenacity. Washington wrote that it was a biography of his father, but it really is a memoir as well.” Tis book was the first record of John A. Roebling’s real character seen at home, a character that would make life harder for Washington from a young age. Both Wagner and Sayenga share a deep appreciation for Washington. Wagner says, “Sayenga is a good friend of mine. We share something in common, we both love to learn and share stories about the Roebling family. His knowledge and friendship were instrumental in the making of this book.” Interestingly, it was not the Roebling Wire Company that supplied the wire rope for the Brooklyn Bridge. Rather, the wire rope contract went to the lowest bidder, who was J. Lloyd Haigh. Washington was, in particular, very cautious of this other wire rope manufacturer. And, for a good reason too, as it turned out the other manufacturer ended up producing and delivering to the site wire rope that was too brittle and that did not pass the engineering requirements for the Bridge. “200 tons
28 JULY–AUGUST 2017 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
of bad wire is still in the Bridge today,” says Wagner. “Washington ended up adding in good wire to make up the difference. He had designed the bridge to be six times stronger than it needed to be in the first place, so the faulty wire was less of a problem than it might have seemed.” Many Americans view
the Brooklyn Bridge as having been designed, detailed, and constructed solely by John A. Roebling when in fact Washington, his eldest son, should receive a hefty sum of credit for the Bridge. As the Chief Engineer, Washington would design and detail the bridge, would oversee its construction, and would constantly problem-solve from day one to the final day of construction. Washington would be the number one person to whom everyone would consult when making decisions about how to construct the bridge. It was truly a different era in our history and, “when they started the bridge construction, finalized designs were not yet completed,” says Wagner. “Many decisions would have to be made on the fly, as the work progressed.” Overcoming severe difficulties one after another,
we can read about the character of the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge in Erica Wagner’s new book, Chief Engineer. “Te Brooklyn Bridge is truly a work of art,” concludes Wagner. “Tings that work well, that do what they are designed to do will always be beautiful.” From the day the Brooklyn Bridge opened until now, John Roebling’s vision and Washington Roebling’s iconic structure together remain a robust miracle in New York City while everything else around it changes. y
American writer and critic Erica Wagner was the literary editor of the London Times for seventeen years and is now a contributing writer for the New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper’s Bazaar. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, the Economist, the Financial Times, and the New York Times, among others. She is the author of Ariel’s Gift, Seizure, and the short story collection Gravity; she is the editor of First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner. She was the recipient of the Eccles British Library Writer’s Award in 2014, and she is a lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. She lives in London with her husband and son.
Emily and Washington Roebling. Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries
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