For over 125 years the John A. Roebling's Sons Company was a key force in the shaping of Trenton, an early industrial city and the Capital of New Jersey. "Roebling's" manufactured wire rope for suspension bridges and technological innovations such as elevators, telegraphs and telephones, electrification, cable cars, deep mines, and airplanes. The founder, John A. Roebling, was a brilliant engineer who designed the Brooklyn Bridge, and three generations of his decendants carried on his work. They built three factories in Trenton and the steel mill and town of Roebling, N.J., and erected cables for the George Washington, Golden Gate, and other great suspension bridges.

Generations of Trentonians worked at Roebling's, played on its athletic teams, and participated in social activities with their co-workers. Several times a day the Chambersburg neighborhoods heard the factory whistle, and the streets were filled with Roebling workers going to and from work and with Roebling trucks making their daily rounds among the plants. Children grew up swimming in the Delaware & Raritan Canal on the western edge of the factory, and brought hot lunches to their fathers at the mills. In 1953 the Roeblings sold the company to Colorado Fuel and Iron which operated it until 1974 when the mills fell silent. The Invention Factory and the Trenton Roebling Community Development Corporation are dedicated to revitalizing the Roebling Complex with a mixture of new uses. To help interpret the site for its residents and visitors, a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities was obtained to record oral histories of former Roebling workers . In the summer of 1993, over 250 former workers were contacted, seventy-five completed a survey about their work and lives, and several participated in a focus group. Thirteen employees representing various skills and ethnic and racial groups shared their recollections oon over 18 hours of videotape. Their collective experience extends from the 1920's through the closure in 1974.

As the interviews demonstrate, oral history brings to life the experiences of common people that are normally lost. They vividly capture important information obtainable in no other way, such as the sights, sounds, and smells of the mills; the pride of engineers and skilled workers; the "family" atmosphere of the company; the different conditions experienced by office and mill workers; the nature of union-management relations; the tapestry of working class social life in the neighborhoods; how the post-war decline affected the workers and the community; and poignant stories of the last day.

As the United States deindustrializes, oral history can help preserve the collective memory of the a rapidly vanishing way of life, one that is already unfathomable to many, especially the young. The booklet, and now this online archive, are supplements to the Roebling video presenting these recollections to visitors, community groups, and school children. The full transcripts are available for review at the Trenton Free Public Library.