While few people remember my name.

History has recorded my contribution to this engineering marvel.

Being a woman in Victorian society.

Higher education was unacceptable.

A woman’s place was behind her husband.

A twist of fate granted me the grace of a man’s only world entrance.

Having to tend to my husband’s decompression illness.

Finding my way through the curriculum of engineering.

Mastering this educational maze of steel and stone.

I, a woman assumed the task of chief engineer.

Enduring a decades worth of snide contractors.

Inspectors, politicians, reporters sneering in my face.

It was not until that last year my reputation garnered respect.

Did you know I was the first person to cross the Brooklyn Bridge?

In a carriage with my red rooster for good luck!

That feat gained attention to those far and wide.

That all my womanly efforts were so monumental.

I am, Emily Warren Roebling.

I am the woman who saved the Brooklyn Bridge.

© Mary Anne Abdo

This poem was on last night’s Rattlecast which is a Rattle Magazine’s weekly Monday night podcast. Check out Rattlecast on U-tube and on Facebook very interesting interviews with the best of the best authors.