American Field Engineer and Lawyer 1843–1903

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the Equal Rights Party was organized; Susan B. Anthony and sixteen other women tried to vote but were arrested; and Congress passed a law that gave female federal employees equal pay for equal work. During this period in American history, Emily Warren Roebling oversaw the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, which was heralded in those days as the eighth wonder of the world.

Emily Roebling's father-in-law, John August Roebling, was a pioneer in the construction of steel suspension bridges. He had designed the Brooklyn Bridge in 1865 to cross the East River in one uninterrupted span, thereby connecting the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge would be the first bridge to use steel for its 16-inch diameter cable wires. Its main span would be the...