The oldest son of Johanna and John A Roebling, Washington was born in 1837 in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, a town co-founded by his father and his uncle, Carl Roebling.
17 Facts About Washington Roebling
2.
Washington Roebling was sent to stay with Professor Lemuel Stephens of the Western University of Pennsylvania, where Roebling attended some classes.
3.
Washington Roebling performed staff duty engaged in the construction of suspension bridges to provide for the movement of troops.
4.
Washington Roebling rose steadily in rank and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant.
5.
General Warren and Washington Roebling descended further to find troops to secure this important tactical position.
6.
Washington Roebling helped haul artillery up the hill, while Warren sent two of his aides, including Lt.
7.
Washington Roebling sent the 140th New York Volunteers to the hill, not knowing that Vincent's brigade was already engaging with advance Confederate troops.
8.
Washington Roebling was brevetted lieutenant colonel in December 1864 for gallant service.
9.
From mid-1865 to 1867, Roebling worked with his father on the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge.
10.
Washington Roebling made several important improvements on the bridge design and further developed bridge building techniques.
11.
In 1870, fire broke out in one of the caissons; from within the caisson, Washington Roebling directed the efforts to extinguish the flames.
12.
From 1902 to 1903 Washington Roebling served as President of the Alumni Association at Rensselaer.
13.
Washington Roebling remarried in 1908 to Cornelia Witsell Farrow of Charleston, South Carolina.
14.
Washington Roebling's namesake and nephew, Washington Augustus Roebling II, born March 25,1881, only son of his brother Charles G Roebling, went down with the RMS Titanic in 1912.
15.
Washington Roebling died in 1926, after being bedridden for two months, at age 89.
16.
One of the items in Washington Roebling's collection was the Canary Diamond, a nearly 18-carat yellow diamond found in 1917 in Arkansas at what is Crater of Diamonds State Park.
17.
Washington Roebling endowed the Mineralogical Society of America with funds that support the award of the society's Washington Roebling Medal, its highest award.