The historic Roebling Wire Rope Workshop in Saxonburg's Roebling Park is tilting and its foundation crumbling. The Friends of the Saxonburg Museum have raised $50,000 toward the $250,000 needed to save it. Submitted Photo

There’s the Acropolis in Athens and the Colosseum in Rome and John Roebling’s wire rope workshop in Saxonburg.

How about the Brooklyn Bridge?

Sure the scale isn’t the same, but they have at least one thing in common: historic structures are expensive to maintain.

The Saxonburg landmark is the birthplace of wire rope — the material which made possible the Brooklyn Bridge and countless other suspension bridges all over the world. John Roebling, who founded the borough, perfected the wire rope at his workshop in Saxonburg. It was patented in 1842.

The modest wooden structure has been slowly sinking into the ground for six years, and Saxonburg Museum curator Fred Caesar and his team have been trying to raise funds to save the structure.

“While I can’t go into details, I can assure you that there is an interest in helping preserve the wire rope workshop,” Caesar told a meeting of the borough council on Dec. 19. “I’m looking forward to some fruition during 2024.”

Grants and donations have been scraped together in an effort to raise the $250,000 necessary to stabilize the building. So far, they have raised $52,000.

It’s an interesting bit of American history: the Brooklyn Bridge wouldn’t be standing as it does today were it not for the work of Saxonburg’s founder in that building.

This building is a bridge to historical and cultural events, both locally and wherever wire ropes have been used to provide support for a structure.

This structure needs some support. And we applaud the efforts the Saxonburg Museum to make it happen.

The group has started a GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/f/save-the-john-roebling-wirerope-workshop.

—RJ