The Bridge He Gave to Flight
He built the bridges that let railroads cross a continent, then applied the same trussed structure to the wing. He gave the knowledge of flight away rather than chase the patent.
-
-
The Wheel That Rivaled a Tower
In 1893, a bridge engineer staked his money and reputation on a 264-foot revolving wheel meant to answer Paris and its iron tower. It carried a million people into the sky and changed what machines could be for.
-
The Man Who Bridged the Ocean
In 1917 a short man in a bow tie stood at a windswept strait and proposed to span a mile of open ocean channel that many engineers swore could never be bridged. He spent more than a decade fighting to prove them wrong.
-
The Draftsman Who Drew Light
An office boy who taught himself mechanical drawing at night rose to draft the telephone patent, patent a more durable lamp filament, and become the only Black member of an elite circle of American engineers.
-
The Signal Between Moving Trains
In 1887, a self-taught Black inventor found a way for moving trains to send messages to distant stations without wires, turning electricity into a safeguard against deadly collisions.
