Articles and Reviews

“John A. Roebling Story,” The Cincinnati Enquirer (August 9, 2007)


John A. Roebling Story

John A. Roebling and His Suspension Bridge (Little Miami Publishing, $12.95) by Cincinnati historian Don Heinrich Tolzmann brings together all kinds of documentation about the elegant Ohio River bridge that connects downtown Cincinnati and Covington, and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

He focuses on Roebling, who he feels has been overlooked because of an emphasis on the construction and engineering behind his bridges - the most famous of which is the Brooklyn Bridge. "The bridge builder belongs in the foreground, not in the background, since without the creator there would have been no creation," he writes.

The book is sprinkled with reproductions of historic material such as Roebling's naturalization papers, letters, pages from workbooks, etchings and photographs. One terrific find is the cover of sheet music for the "Suspension Bridge Grand March," which was composed for the opening of the bridge in 1866.

Sara Pearce