After gaining experience working on railways and bridges in Austria and Switzerland, Lindenthal immigrated to the United States (1871). He served as a construction engineer at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (1874–77) and then went to Pittsburgh as a consulting engineer in railway and bridge construction.

In 1890 he moved to New York City, where he became commissioner of bridges (1902–03). There he designed and acted as consulting engineer for the Hell Gate Railway bridge, which opened for traffic in March 1917. At that time Hell Gate was the longest (977 feet 【298 m】) steel arch in the world. Lindenthal designed the Queensboro (cantilever) Bridge, also over the East River, and was a consulting engineer for railroad tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers.