Joseph Baermann Strauss was born in 1870 at Cincinnati, Ohio. He was an German-American structural engineer, and designer.
He was born to an artistic family of German origin. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1892. Strauss worked at the Office of Ralph Modjeski, where he began to innovate the design of bascule bridges.
He was Chief Engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
He died in 1938 in Los Angeles, California, just one year after the Golden Gate's completion.
His statue can be seen on the San Francisco side.

Important works

Golden Gate Bridge
Burnside Bridge
Chicago and North Western Railway Kinzie Street railroad bridge
Lewis and Clark Bridge
Skansen Bridge