Who Was John Roebling?

Roebling is famous as the man who designed the Brooklyn Bridge.  He was actually German, being born in Mulhausen in Germany where he lived until 1831.  He studied architecture and engineering at the Royal Polytechnic Institute in Berlin, which is why he was so uniquely placed to design a bridge of this magnitude.
Upon arrival in the US, he begain to work on canal building and improving river navigation, but quickly progressed to designing suspension bridges and from there he took on the Brooklyn Bridge.  

Sadly he never saw its completion.  Work commenced on the bridge in 1867 but in 1869 his foot accidentally got crushed whilst working on the bridge.  He had his toes removed and from there tetanus set in.  He died within three weeks of the accident.
After his death, his son Washington took over the completion of the bridge, which was finally opened in 1883, after 14 years of work.