Fabbed on the beams and towers of the Brooklyn Bridge is the story of a woman who lived up to a challenge.
Emily Warren Roubling was Washington Roebling’s wife, Brooklyn’s bridge chief engineer.
When Washington disabled due to the decompression illness during construction, Emily took over the project and took it to the finish line.
“He did everything since construction management, workers’ management, facilitating conversations with politicians who did not want the project to continue to be called invalid,” said Natiba Guy-Clement, director of special collections in the Brooklyn Library Library History Center for Brooklyn History.
Family story of roebling
The Historical Library is home to a collection of artifacts on the roeblings.
“Being one of the twelve children, being a daughter of a politician, I think he only had to have this level of empowerment within her,” said Guy-Clement.
Historians say that Emily met Washington, the son of the John Roebling Bridge designer, on a ball. They immediately fell in love and soon married.
This union created a family tree that continues with Kriss roebling, his great -grandson.
When he recently walked on the bridge with Hannah Klicer of CBS News New York, he stopped at the monument in honor of his family’s contributions: a monument that his father helped to awaken as a teenager in the 1950’s.
“It was the first time that anything from the bridge has mentioned that she was involved in any way,” she said. “At that moment [it] It was not heard, that a woman would be responsible for all engineers on situ for such an ambitious construction project. This was the most ambitious and extreme construction project of modern times. “
Emily Roubling honored in Brooklyn Bridge Park
Below the brooklyn tower of the bridge there is Emily Warren roebling Plaza.
“A great piece of design on the ground mimics the bridge above,” said Eric Landau, president of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Unveiled by 2021, public green space is now used to see that engineering is near.
“In fact, it was a suggestion of community members who do something to honor -and his legacy,” said Landau.
At the Brooklyn Bridge inauguration ceremony in 1883, he was the first to drive through the extension with a rooster, as a sign of victory, showing that the barriers are to be broken.
Roebling then studied and received a title of law, turning it among the first women lawyers in New York State.
“He got a Nyu title and used it to start a number of organizations that helped make it easier for other women to have careers,” said Kriss Roubling.
His successes and his determination not only shaped the horizon.
This month of women’s history, he also helped open the way for women in engineering, law and beyond.
Do you have an idea or advice on Brooklyn? Send an email to Hannah for Clicking here.
