John B. JervisBorn 14 Dec 1795; died 12 Jan 1885 at age 89. John Bloomfield Jervis was an American civil engineer who made outstanding contributions in construction of canals, railroads, and water-supply systems for the expanding United States. Jervis began his career in Rome as an Axeman for an Erie Canal survey party in 1817. By 1823 he was superintendent of a 50-mile section of the Erie Canal. After appointment in 1827 as its Chief Engineer, he won approval of his idea that a railroad be incorporated into the Delaware and Hudson Canal project, at a time there were no railroads in America. Jervis even designed its locomotive, the Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run in America. He designed and built the 41-mile Croton Aqueduct (New York City's water supply for fifty years: 1842-91), and the Boston Aqueduct. |
