 He was trained in engineering at the University of Heidelberg and the École Centrale Paris.Link emigrated to the United States, arriving in St. Louis in 1873 to work for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad company.In 1875, St. Louis Surveyor Julius Pitzman recommended him to the job of superintendent of public parks for St. Louis, and after a four-year interim as a German-language newspaper publisher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Link returned to St. Louis as one of the architects for the 1904 World's Fair.