John Augustus Roebling (born Johann August Röbling; June 12, 1806 – July 22, 1869) was a German-born American civil engineer.

Recognizing his intelligence at a young age, Roebling's mother arranged for him to be tutored in mathematics and science at Erfurt by Ephraim Salomon Unger.

[3] In 1825 Roebling got a government job in the Arnsberg province and moved to Eslohe, where he worked for four years on designing and supervising construction of military roads.

Engineers had difficulty advancing and achieving economic mobility in Prussian society, in part because of the Napoleonic Wars, which had lasted until 1815, and suppressed investment in infrastructure.

Etzler believed that they could create a technological utopia in the United States, but disputes arose among the men en route.

John and Carl Roebling purchased 1,582 acres (640 hectares) of land on October 28, 1831, in Butler County[5] with the intent to establish a German settlement, to be called Saxonburg.

[6] When the Roeblings and others arrived, the United States was in the later stages of an economic boom, which ended in the financial Panic of 1837, reducing everyone's opportunities.

Transportation between eastern industrial hubs and frontier farming markets had become a matter of both national and popular interest.

Many railway and transportation projects were under way near the site which Roebling chose for his colony, but instead of continuing in the engineering profession, he took up farming.

For three years, he conducted surveys for the state of Pennsylvania for railway lines across the Allegheny Mountains, from the capital, Harrisburg, to Pittsburgh in the far west, at the start of the Ohio River.

In 1840, Roebling wrote to suspension bridge designer Charles Ellet Jr., offering to help with the design of a bridge near Philadelphia:[7] The study of suspension bridges formed for the last few years of my residence in Europe my favourite occupation ... Let but a single bridge of the kind be put up in Philadelphia, exhibiting all the beautiful forms of the system to full advantage, and it needs no prophecy to foretell the effect which the novel and useful features will produce upon the intelligent minds of the Americans.At that time, canal boats from Philadelphia were transported over the Allegheny Mountains on railroad cars in order to access waterways on the other side of the mountains, so that the boats could continue to Pittsburgh.

In 1841, Roebling began producing wire rope at Saxonburg to use in suspension bridges and such projects as the portage railroad.

Roebling's next project, starting in 1851, was a railroad bridge connecting the New York Central and Great Western Railway of Ontario, Canada over the Niagara River.

The bridge, with a clear span of 825 feet (251 m), was supported by four, ten-inch (25 cm) wire cables, and had two levels, one for vehicles and one for rail traffic.

The anchorage and stone towers were completed, and the cable wire delivered along with the material for the superstructure, when the railway company became insolvent.

In 1863 building resumed on a bridge over the Ohio River at Cincinnati, which Roebling had started in 1856 and halted due to lack of financing.

In 1867, Roebling started design work on what is now called the Brooklyn Bridge, spanning the East River in New York.

His son Charles designed and invented a huge 80-ton wire rope machine and founded the town of Roebling, New Jersey.

His granddaughter Emily Roebling Cadwalader was a married Philadelphia socialite noted as the owner of historic yachts.