John Cresson Trautwine (March 30, 1810, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – September 14, 1883, Philadelphia) was an American

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

, 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. In 1831, he became a civil engineer with the

Columbia Railway The Columbia Railway was the third streetcar company to operate in Washington, D.C. It was incorporated and started operations in 1870, running from the Treasury Building along H Street NW/NE to the city boundary at 15th Street NE. It switched to ...

. In 1835, under Strickland's direction, he drew one of the earliest maps of Maryland: a proposed route for the

Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad Wilmington may refer to: Places Australia *Wilmington, South Australia, a town and locality **District Council of Wilmington, a former local government area ** Wilmington railway line, a former railway line United Kingdom * Wilmington, Devon * ...

from Wilmington, Delaware, to North East, Maryland. 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. 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. 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 The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, a ...

.) His service is noted on the 1839

Newkirk Viaduct Monument The Newkirk Viaduct Monument (also, Newkirk Monument) is a 15-foot white marble obelisk in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Installed in 1839, it is inscribed with the names of 51 railroad builders and executives, ...

in Philadelphia. In 1844, Trautwine was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. He later executed surveys for the Panama Railway in 1850, for the Lackawanna and Lanesborough Railway in Susquehanna County, Pa., in 1856, and for a railway route across

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

in 1857. With

George Totten George Muirson Totten (1808-1884) was an engineer who built several important canals and railroads, including the Canal del Dique, which joined the Magdalena River to the harbor at Cartagena. He was also the chief engineer of the Panama Railroad ...

, he built the

Canal del Dique The Canal del Dique ( Levee Channel) is a 118 km artificial canal connecting Cartagena Bay (at the corregimiento of Pasacaballos) to the Magdalena River in the Bolívar Department in northern Colombia. The canal is a bifurcation or artific ...

between the Bay of Cartagena and the Magdalena River in Colombia. He also planned a system of docks for the city of Montreal.

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). 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'': *
Method of Calculating the Cubic Contents of Excavations and Embankments
' (1851) *
Field Practice for Laying out Circular Curves for Railroads
' (1851) * ''Civil Engineer's Pocket-book'', 1871
1904 edition
prepared by J. C. Trautwine III)

References

Sources: ''Huntingfield Map Collection'', Maryland State Archive

External links

*
Bio at Philadelphia Buildings
* https://web.archive.org/web/20050221065816/http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/20642/g/1/mcms.html (photo) *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trautwine, John Architects from Philadelphia 1810 births 1883 deaths American civil engineers American engineering writers 19th-century American architects Engineers from Pennsylvania