Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
On a warm spring day in 1883, a woman rode across the Brooklyn Bridge with a rooster on her lap.
It was the first trip across an engineering marvel that had taken nearly fourteen years to construct. The woman's husband was the chief engineer, and he knew all about the dangerous new technique involved. The woman insisted she learn as well.
When he fell ill mid-construction, her knowledge came in handy. She supervised every aspect of the project while he was bedridden, and she continued to learn about things only men were supposed to know:
math,
science,
engineering.
Women weren't supposed to be engineers.
But this woman insisted she could do it all, and her hard work helped to create one of the most iconic landmarks in the world.
This is the story of Emily Roebling, the secret engineer behind the Brooklyn Bridge, from author-illustrator Rachel Dougherty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this affectionate biography, Dougherty tells the story of Emily Roebling, who was pivotal to the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. A curious learner as a child, she later marries engineer Washington Roebling, who plans to construct a means "to finally link Manhattan and Brooklyn." But when her husband falls ill, Roebling educates herself about engineering and oversees the building of the initially controversial ("The skinny wires look too weak") but soon beloved landmark. In Dougherty's accessible artwork, Roebling appears as a gentle, smiling figure, undaunted by the task at hand. The integration of architectural blueprints provides readers with a sense of the bridge's design, as do photographs appearing in endpapers. Ages 5 8.
