Background
Gustav Lindenthal was born on May 21, 1850 at Brünn in the province of Moravia, now Brno, Czech Republic, the son of Dominik and Franciska (Schmutz) Lindenthal.
Gustav Lindenthal was born on May 21, 1850 at Brünn in the province of Moravia, now Brno, Czech Republic, the son of Dominik and Franciska (Schmutz) Lindenthal.
Lindenthal was educated at the Provincial College in Brünn and at the polytechnical schools in Brünn and Vienna.
Lindenthal began his professional career in the engineering department of the Austrian Empress Elizabeth Railroad in 1870. For two years he was with the Union Baugesellschaft in Vienna and then for a year a division engineer for the Swiss National Railroad in charge of location and construction.
In 1874 he emigrated to America. He was first associated with the construction of buildings for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. In 1881 he established himself in a private engineering practice in Pittsburgh. He was engaged in many railway and bridge projects, including the reconstruction of bridges on parts of what is now the Erie Railway, various bridges in and near Pittsburgh, and railway surveys and estimates in Pennsylvania and neighboring states. He set up a consulting office in New York City, devoting most of his time to bridge work.
For a year, 1902-1903, he served as commissioner of bridges for the City of New York. In this capacity he advocated and established the practice of association in the design of large bridges with architects whose special interest lay in the esthetics of bridge work. His greatest work was left unfinished. From 1880 until his last illness he worked on the problem of transportation to Manhattan Island across the Hudson River. He first proposed in 1890 to bring into Manhattan all of the railways terminating in Jersey City over a bridge at Twenty-third Street. This plan was approved by Congress. When financial conditions made this bridge impracticable, and the Pennsylvania Railroad built its tunnels and its terminal on Manhattan Island, Lindenthal served as consultant on this work and on the interrelated New York Connecting Railway which included his great arch over Hell Gate. Later he redesigned the North River bridge for a terminal at Fifty-seventh Street. He urged it up to the time of his death, but complications arising from decisions of the United States army engineers with reference to clearance defeated the final approval. The long span--3, 100 feet--heavy loading, and huge costs of this project may be taken as a measure of the vision of this engineer.
Lindenthal's designs were characterized by originality and boldness. He differed from many of his American contemporaries in his frequent choice of more complex structural forms and in some of his views as to working stresses. He contributed many technical papers chiefly in the field of bridge design. His monument, however, is in his work rather than in his writings.
Lindenthal was a member of numerous technical societies at home and abroad. He was an honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Lindenthal was a man of impressive appearance and rather austere personality. Of versatile mind, he was a lover of music and of the arts.
Lindenthal was twice married: on July 10, 1902, to Gertrude Weil of New York, who died in 1905, and on February 10, 1910, to Carrie Herndon of Durham, North Carolina. His wife and their daughter Franciska survived him.