James Warren was a British engineer who, in 1848 (along with Willoughby Monzoni), patented the Warren-style truss bridge and girder design. This bridge design is mainly constructed by equilateral triangles which can carry both tension and compression. The first suspension bridge to use a Warren Truss was the Manhattan Bridge in New York City.
The Warren Truss design was also used in aviation when biplanes were dominant, the alternating diagonal truss being used for the Interplane struts in aircraft such as the Handley Page H.P.42 airliner and the Fiat CR.42 fighter.