Benjamin Henry Latrobe II (December 19, 1806 – October 19, 1878) was an American civil engineer, best known for his railway bridges, and a railway executive.

Personal life

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 19, 1806, he was the youngest son of

Benjamin Henry Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, draw ...

who six years previously had married his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Hazlehurst (1771–1841) of Philadelphia. Three years earlier, President Thomas Jefferson hired his father as Surveyor of Public Buildings in the new national capitol, Washington, D.C. His father became best known as the second Architect of the Capitol, because he redesigned the rebuilt United States Capitol after the British Army burned Washington in August 1814 during the War of 1812. The senior Latrobe also designed and supervised construction of the first Roman Catholic cathedral built in the United States, the old Baltimore Cathedral (later named the Basilica of the Assumption of Mary), 1806–1821, as well as construction of the

Chesapeake & Delaware Canal The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) is a -long, -wide and -deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States. In the mid‑17th century, mapmaker Augus ...

. He and his eldest son Henry Sellon Boneval Latrobe (1792–1817) died of yellow fever while working in New Orleans, Louisiana. His elder full brother

John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe (May 4, 1803 – September 11, 1891) was an American lawyer and inventor. He invented the Latrobe Stove, also known as the "Baltimore Heater", a coal fired parlor heater made of cast iron and that fit into firepla ...

became a lawyer, painter and inventor of the ''Baltimore heater'' (an improvement upon the Franklin stove). The younger Benjamin H. Latrobe studied in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

, Maryland, and later at Georgetown College in Georgetown, just west of the new '' Federal City'', in the District of Columbia. He married Maria Eleanor "Ellen" Hazlehurst (1806–1872) of Altoona, Pennsylvania on March 12, 1833. They had four sons (two of whom survived childhood) and three daughters. Their eldest son, Charles Hazelhurst Latrobe (1833–1902), moved to Florida where he married and later joined the Confederate States Army. A civil engineer like his father and grandfather, Charles H. Latrobe later moved back to Baltimore where he served as the city's chief engineer for 25 years and continued to design public buildings and bridges noted for their beauty. His brother, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, III (1840–1901) became an Episcopal Church priest and rector of the Church of Our Savior in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Career

Around 1820, Latrobe worked with his father to establish a water supply for New Orleans, Louisiana, moving back north after his father's unexpected death of typhoid and to work with his brother John as a lawyer in Baltimore. The

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O) hired this Latrobe to work on a surveyor crew in the summer of 1830. In 1832, as assistant engineer, Latrobe surveyed and planned the route for the

Washington Branch Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. For this route between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., he designed the Thomas Viaduct, which became the largest bridge in the United States when completed in 1835. The viaduct spans the

Patapsco River The Patapsco River mainstem is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal port ...

between Relay and Elkridge, Maryland. As the project engineer, Latrobe worked closely with the railroad's construction chief, Caspar Wever. Nicknamed "Latrobe's Folly" by those who doubted the massive structure could support itself, the bridge remains in use today (as of 2019), carrying far heavier loads than ever envisioned. In 1835, Latrobe became the chief engineer for the

Baltimore and Port Deposit Railroad Company The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad that operated independently from 1836 to 1881. It was formed in 1836 by the merger of four state-chartered railroads in three Middle Atlantic states to create a ...

, which helped build the first rail link between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Latrobe returned to the B&O in 1836. Along with

Louis Wernwag Louis Wernag (December 4, 1769 in Alteburg, Württemberg, Germany – August 12, 1843 in Hapers Ferry, Virgnia) was a bridge builder in the United States in the early 19th century. Early life On leaving school, in order to evade military service ...

, he designed the railroad's first bridge across the Potomac River at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, which opened in 1837. In 1842, the B&O appointed him as Chief Engineer, succeeding his boss, Jonathan Knight. He served in the position for 22 years. He was appointed to the concurrent position of general superintendent of the B&O in 1847. He later became president of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad, part of the B&O's Pittsburgh District. In the 1860s, Latrobe became a consulting engineer for the

Troy and Greenfield Railroad The Troy and Greenfield Railroad, chartered in 1848, ran from Greenfield, Massachusetts, United States, to the Vermont state line. It was leased to the Troy and Boston Railroad in 1856, then consolidated into Fitchburg Railroad 1887 which in turn ...

, and worked on construction of the Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts, then the second-longest tunnel in the world.

Death and legacy

Benjamin H. Latrobe II died in

, on October 19, 1878, and was buried in Green Mount Cemetery, whose landscape architecture he had designed, beside his wife. His brother John H. B. Latrobe was on the cemetery's board of directors as well as helped found the

Maryland Historical Society The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC), formerly the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS), . founded on March 1, 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The organization "collects, preserves, and inte ...

, which maintains the family papers.

References

External links

*Family tree i
''Genealogisches Handbuch der baltischen Ritterschaften, Estland, Görlitz 1930''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latrobe, Benjamin Henry II 1806 births 1878 deaths 19th-century American railroad executives 19th-century American engineers Georgetown University alumni Businesspeople from Baltimore Businesspeople from Philadelphia American railway civil engineers Baltimore and Ohio Railroad people American railroad pioneers Burials in Louisiana Latrobe, Pennsylvania Engineers from Pennsylvania Latrobe family