When Emily Warren was born in 1843 in Cold Springs, New York, her parents, Phoebe Lickley and Sylvanus Warren, had no idea their daughter would leave behind a legacy to every woman in the United States who wished to aspire to a job traditionally held by men – civil engineer. But Emily accomplished more than that. During her 60 year life span, she actively participated in organizations focused on recognizing the importance of her fellow man. A member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she helped found and organize a quarantine camp on Long Island for returning soldiers of the Spanish-American War.
In addition, she edited and published The Journal of the Reverend Silas Constant and Richard Warren of the Mayflower and Some of His Descendants. By attending NY University’s School of Law in a special program for women, she earned a Law Certificate.
But perhaps her most notable accomplishment came as a result of tragedy. In 1865 she married Washington Roebling, son of John A. Roebling, designer of the Brooklyn Bridge. Washington was assistant engineer of the project and, after his father’s death in 1869, became chief engineer. They had one son, John A. Roebling, II.
During his work on the bridge, Washington became stricken with caisson disease, named for the cement pillars that are sunk into the river bed and support the bridge structure. Digging the deep holes necessary to hold these columns entailed working beneath the surface of the river, which produced what we know to day as the bends or decompression sickness often suffered by divers who surface too quickly. This introduces nitrogen bubbles into their blood streams causing symptoms such as severe rashes, joint pain, sensory system failure, paralysis, and sometimes death.
In Washington’s case, it caused severe debilitation and eventually confined him to a wheel chair. Determined to see her father-in-law’s and husband’s legacy completed, Emily taught herself higher math and civil engineering and took over directing the work during the final days of the structure’s completion. When the Board of Governors of the Bridge Authority would have removed her husband’s name from the records of those responsible for the bridge’s design and building, she went before them and presented a case against such action that they could not ignore. Washington’s name was left on the records.
Ironically, Washington survived Emily, who died in 1903 from cancer, and went on to marry again. But Emily’s legacy lives on in a scholarship given yearly to deserving female student at the Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in Troy, NY.
Blessings,
Diva Elizabeth
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