Woven into the beams and towers of the Brooklyn Bridge is the story of a woman who was up for a challenge.
Emily Warren Roebling was the wife of Washington Roebling, the chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge.
When Washington became disabled due to decompression sickness during construction, Emily took over the project and brought it across the finish line.
“She did everything from managing construction, managing the workers, facilitating conversations with politicians who also did not want him to continue the project because they called him an invalid,” said Natiba Guy-Clement, director of special collections at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Center for Brooklyn History.
Roebling family history
The historic library houses a collection of artifacts about the Roeblings.
“Being one of 12 kids, being the daughter of a politician, I think that she just had to have that level of empowerment within herself,” Guy-Clement said.
Historians say Emily met Washington, son of bridge designer John Roebling, at a ball. They immediately fell in love and were soon married.
That union created a family tree that continues with Kriss Roebling, their great-great-grandson.
As he recently walked along the bridge with CBS News New York’s Hannah Kliger, he stopped by the monument honoring his family’s contributions — a monument his father helped unveil as a teenager in the 1950s.
“It was the first time anything on the bridge mentioned that she was involved in any way,” he said. “At the time [it] was unheard of, that a woman would be responsible for all of the on-site engineers for such an ambitious building project. This was hands down the most ambitious and extreme building project of modern times.”
Emily Roebling honored in Brooklyn Bridge Park
Underneath the Brooklyn tower of the bridge is Emily Warren Roebling Plaza.
“A big piece of the design on the ground mimics the bridge above it,” said Eric Landau, president of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Unveiled in 2021, the public green space is now used to see the engineering marvel up close.
“In fact, it was a suggestion from members of the community that we do something to honor her and her legacy,” Landau said.
At the opening ceremony of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, she was the first to drive across the span with a rooster, as a sign of victory, proving that barriers are meant to be broken.
Roebling then went on to study and receive a law degree, making her among the first female lawyers in New York state.
“She got a degree from NYU, and she utilized it to start a series of organizations that helped facilitate other women’s capacities to have careers,” Kriss Roebling said.
Her achievements and determination didn’t just shape the skyline.
This Women’s History Month, it also helped pave the way for women in engineering, law, and beyond.
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