Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge

by Erica Wagner

Overview

“A welcome tribute to the persistence, precision and humanity of Washington Roebling and a love-song for the mighty New York bridge he built.” - The Wall Street Journal

Chief Engineer is the first full biography of a crucial figure in the American story—Washington Roebling, builder of the Brooklyn Bridge. One of America's most iconic and recognizable structures, the Brooklyn Bridge is as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet its distinguished builder is too often forgotten—and his life is of interest far beyond his chosen field. It is the story of immigrants, the frontier, the Civil War, the making of the modern world, and a man whose life modeled courage in the face of extreme adversity.

Chief Engineer is enriched by Roebling's own eloquent voice, unveiled in his recently discovered memoir, previously thought lost to history. The memoir reveals that his father, John-a renowned engineer who came to America after humble beginnings in Germany-was a tyrannical presence in Roebling's life. It also documents Roebling's time as a young man in the Union Army, where he built bridges to carry soldiers across rivers and fought in pivotal battles from Antietam to Gettysburg. He then married the remarkable Emily Warren Roebling, who played a crucial role in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Roebling's grandest achievement-but by no means the only one.

Elegantly written with a compelling narrative sweep, Chief Engineer introduces Washington Roebling and his era to a new generation of readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620400524
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/05/2019
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	392,760
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

American writer and critic Erica Wagner was the literary editor of the London Times for seventeen years and is now a contributing writer for New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper's Bazaar. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, the Economist, 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 lives in London with her husband, the writer Francis Gilbert, and their son, Theodore.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

1 "No one ever does just the right thing in great emergencies" 1

2 "The finest place in the world" 19

3 "Something of the tiger in him" 36

4 "I was not a chip off the old block" 61

5 "It is curious how persons lose their heads in times of excitement" 77

6 "The urgency of the moment overpowers everything" 89

7 "I am very much of the opinion that she has captured your brother Washy's heart at last" 113

8 "All beginnings are difficult, but don't give up" 130

9 "I will have to go to work at something" 151

10 "Good enough to found upon" 171

11 "I have been quite sick for some days" 189

11 "Now is the time to build the Bridge" 197

13 "Trust me" 219

14 "She goes everywhere and sees everything" 247

15 "The image of his wife floats before him" 266

16 "You can't desert your job" 288

17 "Time & age cures all this" 303

Epilogue: Cold Spring 310

Acknowledgments 313

Notes 317

Bibliography 347

Index 355

Editorial Reviews

A masterful psychological study about duty and drive.” —The Economist, "Books of the Year 2017"

“Compelling and elegant . . . [an] exploration of the life of Washington Roebling, the engineer whose energy and ideas got the Brooklyn Bridge built . . . the story not just of two engineers, father and son, but also of a son who survived treatment that, as he wrote in a private memoir at the end of the 19th century, could have led to his death . . . [a] powerful book.” —The Guardian

“Ms. Wagner's writing is graceful, even evocative, conveying a mellow admiration of Washington Roebling that suits the man.” —Wall Street Journal

“A masterful work of research, revelation and gripping narrative. It brings to pulsating life 19th-century New York and New Jersey and manages to be moving, too.” —New Statesman, "Books of the Year"

“The impressive career of [Washington Roebling] is well told in Erica Wagner's captivating new book.” —New York Post

“[An] engaging new biography . . . [a] detailed portrait of a sensitive and tormented man.” —New York Times Book Review

“In this engrossing biography. . . Wagner writes detailed, lucid descriptions of the technological advances that made the bridge possible. . . . Wagner grounds her fine study of the human side of industrial progress in patient devotion to science and craft.” —Publishers Weekly

“With contemporary notes, clippings, and letters, too, [Chief Engineer] makes a fascinating tale . . . A sturdy, illuminating biography.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A well-judged and well-written portrait.” —Booklist

“As we learn from Chief Engineer, Erica Wagner's highly original biography of Washington Roebling, the little-remembered and rather strange man who built it, the feat of raising such a bridge took over a dozen years of his life—and nearly killed him . . . Chief Engineer also sheds light on matters beyond engineering . . . Where she unquestionably succeeds is in bringing to life, and very probably bringing to the public's attention for the first time in generations, the name—and rather peculiar life—of a man who deserves his place on the top tier of the pantheon of engineers. ****” —The Sunday Telegraph

“Chief Engineer was made possible by the discovery of an unpublished memoir at Rutgers University and Wagner has mined it well. She tells the story with the thoroughness of Roebling's calculations: the book is as robust in structure and fine in detail as the bridge itself and, like its subject, unlikely to be bettered. It is immaculately researched, meticulously written but exciting and evocative too.” —Spectator

“In her bravura book about its creation . . . The magnificent book by Wagner, an NS contributing writer, focuses on the two men responsible for building the edifice: John A Roebling and his patriotically named son Washington.” —New Statesman

“Powerful.” —The Observer

“Warm, meticulous . . . Chief Engineer makes a solid case for Washington as a great American hero.” —Times Literary Supplement

“Erica Wagner honours Washington with a fine, sympathetic biography.” —Literary Review

From the Publisher

The subject of Wagner's engaging new biography…is known for his engineering legacy, but he was also a talented wordsmith. Roebling's unpublished memoir, letters and carefully preserved notebooks complement Wagner's detailed portrait of a sensitive and tormented man who survived well into his 80s via two lifelines: a clever mind and a saintly wife…Washington's dry wit and even tone give life and personality to Wagner's already enjoyable prose. The book is also peppered with cheerfully informative footnotes. Perhaps best of all are the quotations from Washington's letters (including crossed-out lines), which offer unfiltered insight into the mind of a long-dead luminary of American innovation.

The New York Times Book Review - Joseph Alexiou

04/03/2017
Wagner (Ariel’s Gift), former literary editor at the Times of London, celebrates the stunning achievement of Washington Roebling, an unlikely giant of the industrial revolution, in this engrossing biography. Roebling oversaw construction of the iconic New York bridge in the 1870s and 1880s, a feat that pioneered new building methods and materials but broke his health (he got the bends from high air pressure in the underwater caissons where workers excavated the foundations). Wagner writes detailed, lucid descriptions of the technological advances that made the bridge possible, and the bewilderingly complex planning and calculations Roebling undertook to combine them into a feasible structure. Roebling had a conflicted relationship with his father, John, a brilliant engineer and inventor of the wire rope that made large suspension bridges possible; John initiated the bridge project but died before construction began. The two could be Eugene O’Neill characters: the father a tyrant who built a business empire but tormented his family with violence, quack medical regimens, and bizarre diets; the son a low-key ironist always in his father’s shadow but possessed of a meticulous intellect and dogged tenacity. Wagner grounds her fine study of the human side of industrial progress in patient devotion to science and craft. Photos. Agent: Antony Harwood, Antony Harwood Literary (U.K.). (June)

Publishers Weekly

2017-04-17
A biography of the man who helped design and build one of the most iconic bridges in America.John Roebling planned much of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, but he died in 1869, just before scheduled construction. The project fell to his son, Washington (1837-1926), and it took 14 years. New Statesman contributing writer Wagner (Seizure, 2007, etc.) chronicles the story of a father's influence on the son and the son's influence on his own family. There are plenty of texts about the Roeblings and their bridge—notably, David McCullough's The Great Bridge (1972)—but this portrait has the advantage of Washington's recently recovered memoir of life with his father. With contemporary notes, clippings, and letters, too, it makes a fascinating tale. John, who came to America to establish a village and then a wire mill, was extremely strict, and he was cheap. He was certain that copious water would cure every illness, and he was a devout spiritualist. A Rensselaer engineer, Washington was at Gettysburg, the Battle of the Crater, and the Wilderness. He was discharged as a colonel, a title he kept ever after. Washington's marriage was legendary. When he became incapacitated with the bends while working on the bridge, his wife, Emily, acted as his amanuensis, relaying his detailed instructions to workers on the site. Wagner recounts the festivities in Manhattan and Brooklyn when the bridge opened in 1883, but she fails to mention the widely reported panic, barely a week later, when the general public was invited to walk the span without the set fee of a penny. Many died or were injured by the crush. Washington's fortune grew with the Roebling wire mill, which supplied the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh with wire for their aircraft and thousands of miles of cable wire for the George Washington Bridge. Washington remarried after Emily's death and grew to be a hypochondriac, stingy old man, and he died in the summer of 1926, just short of his 90th birthday. A sturdy, illuminating biography.

Kirkus Reviews