John Augustus Roebling
Born on June 12, 1806, in Muhlhausen, Thuringia, Prussia, now Germany,he was the youngest son of Christoph Polycarpus Roebling and Friederike Dorothea (Mueller). At an early age he was educated in the public schools of Muhlhausen and the city Gymnasium, and was also tutored privately to qualify him for entrance to the Royal Polytechnic School at Berlin. While in school he developed an interest in both metaphysics and in bridge building. At the Institute his course included architecture and engineering, bridge construction, hydraulics, languages, and philosophy. H…