Roebling Legacy Looms Large on Land, Air and Sea
Video by Robert Stern
ROEBLING – Visitors to the Empire State Building might be surprised to learn that a Trenton company, John A. Roebling’s Sons, made their elevator ride to the top possible. The same goes for some of the most instantly recognizable suspension bridges in the world. Even Charles Lindbergh’s landmark flight across the Atlantic and the first undersea cable linking the United States to Europe depended on wires Roebling manufactured during its heyday.
Roebling anchored Trenton as a major manufacturing hub from the mid-1800s into the second half of the 20th century. It even built a self-sufficient company town alongside its Kinkora Works plant eight miles south of Trenton.
The firm remained family-owned until 1952 but gradually succumbed to economic pressures, shutting down in 1974.
Today, the former company town of Roebling is a bedroom village community where many former plant workers or their descendants still live alongside newcomers.
It is also home to the Roebling Museum, which showcases the history of the company, its people and the community it built.
George Lengel, a retired history teacher and lifelong Roebling resident whose parents, grandparents and other relatives worked in the Kinkora plant, was a driving force behind the museum.
As a museum volunteer and board member, he plays his part in ensuring that Roebling’s special place in history and as a standard-bearer of New Jersey’s industrial glory days live on.
“It’s a remarkable story,” Lengel said. “It would make a good movie some day.”
