Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski was born in 1861 in Bochnia, a town in Southern Poland. As a child, he emigrated to the United States with his mother and step-father but returned to Europe to study at the School of Bridges and Roads in Paris. He graduated at the top of his class in 1885. He got married and returned to the United States to work with George S. Morison, considered to be the “father of American bridge design”. He then opened his own design company, which still exists today as “Modjeski and Masters”, in 1983 in Chicago. He took over the design of the Quebec Bridge which is still the longest cantilever bridge today. He pioneered suspension bridge design and built almost 40 bridges spanning various North American rivers including the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Blue Bridge, which, at the time. He trained many great bridge designers, including Joseph B. Strauss. He received numerous awards including the John Fritz Medal. He died in 1940 in Los Angeles, California.