Andrew Onderdonk

Andrew Onderdonk (30 August 1848 – 21 June 1905) was an American construction contractor who worked on several major projects in the West, including the San Francisco seawall in California and the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. He was born on August 30, 1848 in New York to an established ethnic Dutch family. He received his education at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

He married Sarah Delia Hilman of Plainfield, New Jersey. After starting his career surveying townsites and roads in New Jersey, he headed west to work as a general manager for financier Darius Ogden Mills on several engineering contracts. He died in Oscawana-on-the Hudson, New York on June 21, 1905.

His first major project was the San Francisco seawall. This project took three years and involved constructing ferry slips and seawalls for the San Francisco Harbour. His son Andrew Jr. was born in San Francisco.

In 1879, Onderdonk won a series of contracts to build the western section of what is now the Canadian Pacific Railway. Working directly for the Canadian government, he built the 127 mile section from Port Moody at the coast eastward to Savona (near Kamloops). When those sections were complete, he continued building eastward under contract with the Canadian Pacific Railway, until he ran out of rail in Eagle Pass in 1885.

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