Washington Augustus Roebling – 1837-1926

A German-born American civil engineer, Roebling directed construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, an engineering masterpiece of great beauty, which he had designed with his father, John Augustus Roebling, who was killed in an early phase of construction. Roebling labored 13 years, from 1869 to 1883, to complete the bridge. Stricken with “the bends” (decompression sickness) after working too long in an underwater caisson, he became a semi-invalid for the rest of his long life.