John C. Trautwine

John Cresson Trautwine (March 30, 1810, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – September 14, 1883, Philadelphia) was an American civil engineer, architect, and engineering writer.

A consultant on numerous canal projects in North and South America, he was later remembered for reporting in 1852 that a canal through Panama would be impossible.

Career

Trautwine began studying civil engineering in the office of William Strickland, an architect and early railroad civil engineer, and helped erect the second building of the United States Mint in Philadelphia.[1]

In 1831, he became a civil engineer with the Columbia Railway. In 1835, under Strickland's direction, he drew one of the earliest maps of Maryland: a proposed route for the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad from Wilmington, Delaware, to North East, Maryland.[2] In 1836, he became an engineer with the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad. From 1836 to 1842, he was an engineer with the Hiawassee Railway, which connected Georgia and Tennessee.[1][3]

In 1835, Trautwine designed Pennsylvania Hall, the first building erected for Gettysburg College. A "temple-style edifice with four columns in the portico", it was, as of 1958, the only building he was known to have designed.[4]

In 1838, Trautwine once again worked under Strickland, as assistant engineer for the W&S, which had merged with three other railroads to create the first rail link from Philadelphia to Baltimore. (This main line survives today as part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.) His service is noted on the 1839 Newkirk Viaduct Monument in Philadelphia.[5]

He later executed surveys for the Panama Railway in 1850, for the Lackawanna and Lanesborough Railway in Susquehanna County, Pa., in 1856,[6] and for a railway route across Honduras in 1857.[1]

With George Totten, he built the Canal del Dique between the Bay of Cartagena and the Magdalena River in Colombia. He also planned a system of docks for the city of Montreal.[1]

Writings

Trautwine wrote several engineering texts that became standards in the field. His Civil Engineer's Pocket Book was long known as the "engineer's bible"; it passed through many editions under the later editorship of John Cresson Trautwine, Jr. (1850–1924) and J.C. Trautwine 3rd (1878-1949).[7]

Three of Trautwine's books were among the 16 recommended for students in George Vose's 1872 classic Manual for Railroad Engineers and Engineering Students:[8]

References
  1. Gilman, Daniel Coit Gilman; Harry Thurston Peck; Frank Moore Colby (1904). The New International Encyclopaedia, Volume 16. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 885.
  2. "The Huntingfield Map Collection, Title Index, M". Special Collections. The Maryland State Archives. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  3. Note: The New International Encyclopedia says he was appointed principal assistant engineer with the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad in 1835, which is three years before the company was founded.
  4. Gilchrist, Agnes Addison (1958). "A Trautwine Building Identified". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 17 (3): 32–33. JSTOR 987995.
  5. Wilson, William Bender (1895). History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company with Plan of Organization, Portraits of Officials and Biographical Sketches. 1. Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Company. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  6. "Contributions to the History of the Lackawanna Valley" by Horace Hollister (1857)
  7. "John C. Trautwine, III". Find A Grave Memorial 119788408. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  8. Vose, George L (1873). Manual for Railroad Engineers (first ed.). Boston, MA: Lee and Shepard. p. vii. Retrieved 4 October 2018.

Sources: Huntingfield Map Collection, Maryland State Archive, MSA SC 1399 -1-658

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