Emily Roebling finished the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. But 70 years passed after the job was done before Emily Roebling received credit for her work, in the form of a plaque on the Brooklyn tower.

A series of family tragedies had placed her in the position of top responsibility. First, her father-in-law died. John A. Roebling had been designer and chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1869, his foot was crushed in an accident, while he was examining where to place the Brooklyn Tower, and he soon died of a tetanus infection.

John Roebling’s son, Washington Roebling, took command on his father’s death. To help him, Emily Roebling began to study civil engineering, including mathematics, strength of materials, catenary curves and cable construction. Then came a second blow. Emily’s husband became paralyzed, and lost his voice from ”The Bends” (decompression sickness) in 1872. He had been working in an underwater pressurized caisson that was building a base for the New York tower. Thereafter, Washington Roebling stayed in his Brooklyn apartment overlooking the site.

Emily Roebling proved more than a match for this second crisis. She began to convey his orders to construction officials. When she was called to defend her husband’s cost and construction time estimates, she became the first woman ever to address the American Society of Civil Engineers.