He received his engineering education at a Polytechnikum in Zürich, Switzerland. Within 1904, he emigrated to the United States, spending his career working mostly in New York City. Inside 1924, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He began retired working for Gustav Lindenthal but by 1925 had been appointed bridge engineer to the New York Port Authority and his design for a bridge across the Hudson River had been accepted in preference to a single developed by Lindenthal. At long last, this became a George Inland northwest Bridge. Under Ammann's counsel, it was completed sise months ahead of schedule for to a lesser degree a original $60 million budget.