Bridges presentation
developed by the Roeblings and used in the structure's rebuilding, following a storm that ripped the
cables off their saddles, the bridge remains in service today.
Figure 17 Niagara Bridge (USA), whose
completion in 1855 vindicated John Roebling's
conviction that the suspension bridge would work
for railroads, lasted nearly half-a-century before it
had to be replaced in 1896. At mid-century, it was
the only form capable of uniting the 821ft (250m)
gorge in a single span. This half-stereoscopic
viewshows the massive stiffening trusses and the
wire-cable stays that tied the deck superstructure
to the walls of the gorge. Eric DeLony Collection
Roebling had arrived in the USA ten years earlier and established a wire-rope factory in Saxonburg,
Pennsylvania, which he later moved to Trenton, New Jersey. Educated in Europe, he would have
been exposed to the concepts of wire-cable suspension bridge engineering of the French and Swiss.
He and Ellet competed for primacy in suspension bridge design
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