09/24/2026
A Mighty Girl's Pick of the Day is in honor of Emily Warren Roebling's birthday: "The Engineer's Wife" by Tracey Enerson Wood. In 1869, when her father-in-law John Roebling died of tetanus after an accident on the Brooklyn waterfront, Emily Warren Roebling's husband Washington -- Wash, to his family -- inherited the project of a lifetime: the design and construction of what would become, when it opened fourteen years later, the longest suspension bridge in the world. Emily had no engineering training, no background in the trade, and no place at any of the tables where the work would be discussed. What she had was a passion for learning, a husband who trusted her, and, before long, no other choice.
When Wash was struck down by caisson disease -- decompression sickness contracted while inspecting the bridge's underwater foundations -- he was left partly paralyzed and unable to leave his sickbed. Someone had to serve as his eyes on the site, translate his instructions to a crew of hundreds, negotiate with the bridge's investors, and answer to a public and press that assumed the whole project was doomed. For the next eleven years, that someone was Emily.
Tracey Enerson Wood follows Emily from her Civil War courtship with Wash through the decade she spent teaching herself higher mathematics, materials science, and the daily politics of a massive public-works project -- all while raising a son, running a household, and postponing the suffrage work she had planned to devote her life to. The Brooklyn Bridge opened in May 1883, with Emily riding across it before any other person in the first ceremonial carriage; a plaque near the bridge's tower now bears her name alongside her husband's and her father-in-law's. "The Engineer's Wife" is a vivid and engrossing tribute to a woman whose genius brought one of the 19th century's engineering marvels to life, and whose story was nearly lost to history. Highly recommended for adult readers.
"The Engineer's Wife" is available at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781728226255 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4AviygU (Amazon)
For two inspiring picture books telling her story, we highly recommend "Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge" (https://www.amightygirl.com/secret-engineer) and "How Emily Saved the Bridge" (https://www.amightygirl.com/how-emily-saved-the-bridge), both for ages 5 to 9
Roebling is one of the women featured in “Women of Steel and Stone: 22 Inspirational Engineers, Architects, and Landscape Designers” for teens and adults, ages 13 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/women-of-steel-and-stone
For adult readers, Emily Warren Roebling's story is also told in David McCullough's "The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge" at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780671457112 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/3sWpy4J (Amazon)
For children's books about more real-life women in engineering and girls who love to invent, visit our blog post "30 Books About Mighty Girls and Women in Engineering," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=35594
