Benjamin Wright | |
|---|---|
 Benjamin Wright | |
| Born | (1770-10-10)October 10, 1770 |
| Died | August 24, 1842(1842-08-24) (aged 71) |
| Engineering career | |
| Projects | Erie Canal Chesapeake and Ohio Canal |
Benjamin Wright (October 10, 1770 – August 24, 1842) was an American civil engineer who was chief engineer of theErie Canal and theChesapeake and Ohio Canal.[1] In 1969, theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers declared him the "Father of American Civil Engineering".[2]
Wright was born inWethersfield, Connecticut, to Ebenezer Wright and Grace Butler.
In 1789, at age 19, he moved with his family to Fort Stanwix, New York, which is nowRome, New York, where he became a land surveyor. Over the next decade, Wright worked as a land surveyor and engineer, especially on the construction of theErie Canal and later on theChesapeake and Ohio Canal. In addition to his engineering work, Wright was also elected to the New York State Legislature in 1794 and was appointed a New York county judge.
Wright returned to New York in about 1833. He continued to work primarily as a consultant on a number of canal projects, but also began doing surveys for railroads,[3] which were in the early stages of development at the time.
Wright began his career surveying the frontier areas ofOneida andOswego counties.[4] In 1794 Wright was hired as a surveyor and planner by the noted English canal designerWilliam Weston. Working for Weston, he helped lay out canals and locks on theMohawk River. After Weston returned to England in 1801, Wright was commissioned to survey the Mohawk River betweenSchenectady and Rome, and then to theHudson River.[2]
Wright initially surveyed the Mohawk River from Rome to the Hudson River on behalf of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, but that company lacked the resources to build the canal.[3]
Wright surveyed the same route of the Mohawk River from Rome to the Hudson River again for the New York State Canal Commission in 1811, and by 1816 funding for theErie Canal was in place. Its construction began in 1817. The ASCE (1996) explained:
The following year Wright was appointed senior engineer in charge of construction of the middle section of theErie Canal, and later, he was placed in charge of the eastern section as well.[3] He led thousands of unskilled laborers as they built the canal with wheelbarrows, hand tools, horses, and mules. In Wright's honor, the first boat to traverse the canal system was named theChief Engineer.[2]
In 1822 Wright was engaged by theChesapeake & Delaware Canal Company to be the canal's chief engineer. While holding that position, he causedJohn Randel Jr. – who had surveyed the route taken by the canal, and who had been hired as an engineer to build its difficult eastern section – to be fired by the company. Randel sued the company for breach of contract, and tried to sue Wright as well, but that case was thrown out. In 1834 a jury returned an award to Randel of $226,885.84 (equivalent to $7,146,148 in 2024), a tremendous amount for the time. The canal company's appeals went as high as theUnited States Supreme Court, which affirmed the award. The company attempted to avoid paying the judgment, but the state legislatures of both Maryland and Delaware passed bills requiring the canal company to pay off its debts within five years. The huge award almost bankrupted the company.[5][6]
Wright was approached in 1825 by theWurts brothers ofPhiladelphia to survey a possible route from the coalfields ofNortheastern Pennsylvania to the Hudson, whereanthracite could be shipped by boat downriver to New York City.[7] Wright consented, and served as chief engineer on theDelaware and Hudson Canal for about a year.[8] At that point, he stepped down and became a consulting engineer; the job of chief was taken byJohn B. Jervis, who had worked under Wright on the Erie Canal.[9]
In 1828, Wright was made Chief Engineer of the newly organizedChesapeake and Ohio Canal, which operated on a route along thePotomac River betweenWashington, D.C., andCumberland, Maryland. Within a year, Wright had let contracts for a massive construction effort that encompassed about 6,000 men and 700 horses.[2]
Wright married Philomela Waterman on September 27, 1798; they had nine children, five of whom became civil engineers. One of them, Benjamin Hall Wright (1801-1881), attended theUnited States Military Academy atWest Point, where he graduated as part of the Class of 1822. As a civil engineer, the younger Wright promoted the establishment of railroads inCuba, including the survey of the Havana-Guines railroad in 1834. He was also involved with the engineering of the Cardenas and Bemba Railroad in Cuba in 1836 and the Nuevitas and Puerto Principe Railroad, built between 1837 and 1842.[10]
The elder Benjamin Wright is buried in theNew York Marble Cemetery inManhattan.[9]
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