Joseph Baermann Strauss (January 9, 1870 – May 16, 1938) was an American structural engineer, best known for being the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge.

He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an artistic family of German ancestry, having a mother who was a pianist and a father, Raphael Strauss, who was a writer and painter. His pianist mother had an unfortunate accident which ultimately ended her concert career. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1892. He served as both class poet and president. Strauss graduated with a degree in economics and business.

He was hospitalized while in college and his hospital room overlooked the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. This sparked his interest in bridges. Upon graduating from the University of Cincinnati, Strauss worked at the Office of Ralph Modjeski, a firm which specialized in building bridges. At that time, bascule bridges were built with expensive iron counterweights. He proposed using cheaper concrete counterweights in place of iron. When his ideas were rejected, he left the firm and started his own firm, the Strauss Bascule Bridge Company of Chicago, where he revolutionized the design of bascule bridges.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Strauss_(engineer)

Engineer. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he is most noted for being the man who built the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. During the Golden Gate's construction, as a chief engineer, he overcame many problems to find funding and support for the bridge from the citizens and the U.S. Military. He also built and designed the safety net installed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge during construction which saved a total of 19 lives. Strauss bridges are scattered over the world from Norway to Japan and from Russia to Panama. He built the famed bridge to the winter palace of the Czars across the Neva in Russia, the Almadares Bridge at Havana, Cuba, the $12,000,000 Montreal-South Shore span; the Columbia River Bridge in Longview, Washington and bridges for the Norwegian, Danish and Swedish railway systems. He designed the Gatun River Bridge in the Panama Canal Zone, the million dollar bascule span of the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Bridge at Washington D.C. and was consulting engineer on the George Washington and Kill Von Kull bridges over the Hudson River, New York. As far back as 1918 he conceived the idea of spanning the Golden Gate in the face of other engineers, who said it couldn't be done because of the deep channel and swift tidal currents, or the cost. Years of litigation, delay, and difficulties were to elapse before his dream came true, but it did on May 27, 1937. Had he lived 11 days longer, he would have celebrated the first anniversary of the gigantic span, longest suspension bridge in the world.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5175/joseph_baermann_strauss