Benjamin Wright

Benjamin Wright
Benjamin Wright
Born	October 10, 1770 Wethersfield, Connecticut
Died	August 24, 1842
Nationality	United States
Engineering career
Projects	Erie Canal Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

Benjamin Wright (October 10, 1770 – August 24, 1842) was an American civil engineer who was chief engineer of the Erie Canal and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In 1969, the American Society of Civil Engineers declared him the "Father of American Civil Engineering".

Wright was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, to Ebenezer Wright and Grace Butler. In 1789, at age 19, he moved with his family to Fort Stanwix (now Rome, New York), where he became a land surveyor.

In the next decennia he worked as land surveyor and engineer, especially on the construction of the Erie Canal and later on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In addition to his engineering work, Wright was also elected to the New York State Legislature in 1794, and was appointed a New York county judge.

Wright returned to New York in about 1833. He continued to work primarily as a consultant on a number of canal projects, but also began doing surveys for railroads, which were in the early stages of development at the time.

Wright married Philomela Waterman on September 27, 1798; they had nine children (five of whom became civil engineers). Wright is buried in the New York Marble Cemetery in Manhattan.

Wright began his career surveying the frontier areas of Oneida and Oswego counties. In 1794 Wright was hired as a surveyor and planner by the noted English canal designer William Weston. Working for Weston, he helped lay out canals and locks on the Mohawk River. After Weston returned to England in 1801, Wright was commissioned to survey the Mohawk River between Schenectady and Rome, and then to the Hudson River.

Wright initially surveyed of the Mohawk River from Rome to the Hudson River on behalf of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, but that company didn't have the resources to build the canal.

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