Women Scientists

Emily Roebling 1844-1903

At a glance:

silent engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge

Born into an upper class American family, Emily Warren defied convention, taking maths and science subjects at school. Emily married Washington Roebling, an engineer whose father John, also an engineer, was designer of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, the greatest engineering project of its day. After Roebling Senior died suddenly of tetanus, his son took charge. But then he too was struck down with decompression sickness acquired during the works. Fearing that he wouldn't live to finish the project, she learnt the technical issues, including strength of materials, stress analysis, cable construction and calculation of caternary curves. She went to the site every day to give her husband's instructions and answer worker's queries. Many suspected that hers was the intelligence behind the project, as indeed it had become. That this was the work of a woman was thought both preposterous and potentially dangerous. But in 1883, when the bridge opened, it was Emily who rode across the bridge with the President. She continued to lead an extraordinary life, taking a law degree when she was 56.
Emily Roebling

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