George Law (financier)
| George Law | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
October 25, 1806 Jackson, Washington County, New York |
| Died | November 18, 1881 (aged 75) New York City, New York |
| Nationality | American |
George Law (October 25, 1806 – November 18, 1881) was an American financier from New York.
His only early education while attending winter night school. At age of eighteen he left his father's farm and after walking to Troy, he learned the trades of masonry and stonemasonry in Hoosic. He employed with the Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1825, then superintended the making of canal-locks at High Falls. Afterward he went to the mountains of Pennsylvania to quarry stone for locks, and was employed as a mechanic on canals. In June, 1829, he was awarded a contract for a small lock and aqueduct on the Delaware and Hudson Canal. Self-taught he studied and made himself a good engineer and draughtsman and became a large contractor for the construction of railroads and canals.
In August, 1837, one of his brothers was engaged in the construction of the Croton waterworks. He went to New York city, where he was awarded contracts for sections of the aqueduct. In 1839 he was awarded the contract for the High Bridge, by which it crosses Harlem River. In 1842 he took on the management of the Dry Dock bank. Later he purchased and extended the New York and Harlem Railroad and Mohawk Railroad. He bought the steamer SS Neptune in 1843, then built the SS Oregon in 1845. With Marshall O. Roberts and Bowes R. McIlvaine he formed the U.S. Mail Steamship Company and assumed the contract to carry the US mails to California. The company built the SS Ohio and the SS Georgia and with the purchased SS Falcon in early 1849 carried the first passengers by steamship to Chagres, on the east coast of the Isthmus of Panama. Soon the rapid transit time the steamship lines and the trans isthumus passage made possible when the California Gold Rush began made it a very profitable company. That same year Law completed the High Bridge.
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