James Laurie (May 9, 1811 – March 16, 1875) was a prominent American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and one of the founders of

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

(ASCE). He performed surveying, bridge design, and route design for a number of railroads in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

Engineering career

Laurie was born in

Bellsquarry Bellsquarry is a suburban area located in the south-west of Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. Bellsquarry is located to the west of the Murieston area of the town and to the south of the Dedridge area of the town. The Brucefield industrial esta ...

, Scotland in 1811; from the 1820s until 1832, he was apprenticed to an instrument maker in the town. In 1832, he and

James P. Kirkwood James Pugh Kirkwood (27 March 1807 – 22 April 1877) was a 19th-century American civil engineer, and general superintendent of the Erie Railroad in the year 1849–1850.Edward Harold Mott Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie'' Colli ...

moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

; Laurie then worked as an associate engineer under Kirkwood on the construction of the

Norwich and Worcester Railroad The Norwich and Worcester Railroad (N&W) was a railroad in the U.S. states of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Its north-south mainline ran between its namesake cities of Worcester, Massachusetts, and Norwich, Connecticut, (later extended to Gr ...

(N&W). Laurie became chief engineer in 1835. In 1837, the

Taft Tunnel Taft Tunnel is a railroad tunnel in the northeast United States, located in the southwest part of Lisbon, Connecticut. Completed in 1837, it was the first common carrier railroad tunnel built in the United States, though it was not used until 18 ...

Lisbon, Connecticut Lisbon is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States, by road northeast of Norwich. The population was 4,195 at the 2020 census. The town center is also known as the village of Newent. The town school is Lisbon Central School. Its on ...

(the oldest tunnel still in railroad use in its original form) was constructed during his tenure. After leaving the N&W, Laurie performed surveys for railroads, canals, bridges, tunnels, and wharves. From 1845–47, he performed surveys for the Providence and Plainfield Railroad. In 1848, he opened his own office in Boston. From 1849 to 1851 he was an engineer for the

New Jersey Central Railroad The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...

, which included planning the railroad's extension from

Whitehouse, New Jersey Whitehouse, also spelled White House, is an unincorporated community located within Readington Township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The community lies along the former Jersey Turnpike (now U.S. Route 22), just west of Mechanicsville. The W ...

, to

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river tha ...

. In 1852, he opened a second office in New York City. From 1853 until the early 1860s he was chief engineer of the

Nova Scotia Railway The Nova Scotia Railway is a historic Canadian railway. It was composed of two lines, one connecting Richmond (immediately north of Halifax) with Windsor, the other connecting Richmond with Pictou Landing via Truro. The railway was incorpora ...

. Under contract to the state of Massachusetts, he produced reports and surveys on the Troy & Greenfield Railroad and the unfinished

Hoosac Tunnel The Hoosac Tunnel (also called Hoosic or Hoosick Tunnel) is a active railroad tunnel in western Massachusetts that passes through the Hoosac Range, an extension of Vermont's Green Mountains. It runs in a straight line from its east portal, alo ...

in 1862. From 1861 to 1866, he was chief engineer of the

Hartford and New Haven Railroad The Hartford and New Haven Railroad (H&NH), chartered in 1833, was the first railroad built in the state of Connecticut and an important direct predecessor of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The company was formed to connect the ...

. During this time he oversaw the design and construction of the

Warehouse Point railroad bridge The Warehouse Point railroad bridge is a girder bridge with a truss main span crossing the Connecticut River between Enfield and Suffield, Connecticut. It carries Amtrak's New Haven–Springfield Line. The bridge has spaces for two tracks, but onl ...

– one of the first iron bridges in the country. In 1870, he examined two under-construction bridges: the

Lyman Viaduct The Lyman Viaduct is a buried railroad trestle built over Dickinson Creek in Colchester, Connecticut in 1873. Along with the nearby Rapallo Viaduct, it is one of the few surviving wrought iron railroad trestles from the first generation of such str ...

for the state of Connecticut, and the

Eads Bridge The Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois. It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and t ...

for its bond holders.

American Society of Civil Engineers

Laurie was an early attendee of

Boston Society of Civil Engineers The Boston Society of Civil Engineers, now the ''Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers'' was established in 1848. It claims to be the oldest engineering society in the United States by four years, and ...

meetings; when it was incorporated in 1848, he was appointed president for two years. He was the first to present a paper to the society. In 1852 Laurie opened an office in New York and began to build on the success of the Boston group. On November 5, 1852, Laurie was one of twelve engineers who met and formed the first national-level society of engineers in the United States- the

American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. He soon was elected president. At a meeting on January 5, 1853 he presented the group's first paper, advocating an

elevated railroad An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train for short) is a rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bric ...

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

to get around horse traffic congestion – 15 years before the city's first elevated line was built. The group was inactive from 1855 to 1867, partially due to Laurie's absence from the city. In 1867, he held a meeting to reinvigorate the society, and uncovered funding to establish a permanent office for the group. When Kirkwood succeeded Laurie as president in 1868, he gave credit to Laurie for his contributions. Laurie had an interest in engineering ethics, and intended for the ASCE to represent the public interest and not merely those of its members. Although largely taught through experience rather than schooling, Laurie believed that proper education was essential for engineers and mandated that only college graduates could join the society. Never married, Laurie died in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, on March 16, 1875. The James Laurie Prize was established by ASCE on October 1, 1912. It is awarded annually to "a member of the Society who has made a definite contribution to the advancement of transportation engineering, either in research, planning, design, or construction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurie, James 1811 births 1875 deaths People from West Lothian American engineers