John J. Endres was a civil engineer known for designing the

Monongahela Incline The Monongahela Incline is a funicular located near the Smithfield Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Designed and built by Prussian-born engineer John Endres in 1870, it is the oldest continuously operating funicular in the United Sta ...

, the first passenger incline in the United States, in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The incline was originally

steam power A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

ed and ran on wooden tracks. Born in

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

and educated in Europe, Endres had immigrated to the United States and settled in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. His daughter,

Caroline Endres Caroline Endres Diescher (February 1846 – February 7, 1930), also known as Caroline Endres, was notable as one of the first female engineers in the United States. With her father John Endres, who was born and educated in Prussia, she designed ...

, born and educated in the US, became one of the first women engineers in the country. She assisted him on the Monongahela Incline. While the two were working in Pittsburgh, they met fellow engineer

Samuel Diescher Samuel Diescher (June 25, 1839 – December 24, 1915) was a prominent Hungarian-American civil and mechanical engineer who had his career in the United States. After being educated at universities in Karlsruhe and Zurich in Europe, he immigrated ...

, who was born in Hungary and had immigrated to the US in 1866. Diescher and John Endres became friends and business partners. Samuel and Caroline married in 1872, and resided in Pittsburgh. They had six children together, including three sons who became engineers and went into business with their father. Endres returned to Cincinnati after constructing the Monongahela Incline. He returned to Pittsburgh in 1883 to help Diescher design the

Monongahela Freight Incline The Monongahela Freight Incline was a funicular railway that scaled Mount Washington in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by Samuel Diescher and John Endres, both immigrants from Europe, the incline was built beside the smaller, ...

, completed the following year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Endres, John American civil engineers Railway inclines in Pittsburgh People from Cincinnati People from the Kingdom of Prussia 19th-century American engineers Engineers from Ohio