John Augustus Roebling (born Johann August Röbling; June 12, 1806 – July 22, 1869) was a German-born American civil engineer. He was most famous for designing and building wire rope suspension bridges.
John Roebling tried a farmer’s life in Saxonburg, a town he founded, but he soon returned to his training as an engineer.
He invented this machine for twisting wire into cables and soon became a celebrated bridge builder, spanning the Monongahela with an early version of the Smithfield Street Bridge before designing the famed Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
Patent model, Roebling wire rope (Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History).