Theodore Cooper

Theodore Cooper (January 13, 1839 – August 24, 1919) was an American civil engineer. He may be best known as consulting engineer on the Quebec Bridge when it collapsed in 1907.

Upon receiving a degree in civil engineering from Resselaer Institute (now Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) in 1858, Cooper accepted a position as Assistant Engineer on the Troy and Greenfield Railroad and Hoosac (Massachusetts) Tunnel. He entered the Navy in 1861; his military career lasted over a decade and included active duty aboard the gunboat Chocorua and the Nyack in the South Pacific, as well as assignments as an instructor and engineer at the Naval Academy. After resigning from the Navy in 1872 with the rank of First Assistant Engineer, he was appointed inspector at the Midvale Steel Works by James Eads, designer of the noteworthy Mississippi River steel arch bridge (Eads Bridge) at St. Louis; he succeeded Eads as Engineer of the Bridge and Tunnel Company from 1872-75. Cooper was also assistant engineer in charge of the construction of the first elevated railroads in New York City. He was one of the five expert engineers selected by the president to determine the Hudson River bridge span. Cooper was also the consulting engineer for the New York Public Library.

Cooper's designs included a broad variety of structures, ranging from the Laredo Shops of the Mexican National Railroad to the furnace plant of the Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company at Scranton, Pennsylvania, but his most memorable contributions were in the area of bridge design. His bridge-building career extended from his discharge from the Navy until his retirement in 1907. He designed the Junction Bridges over the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh (1876), the Seekonk Bridge at Providence, Rhode Island, the Second Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River at New York City, and the Newburyport (Massachusetts) Bridge over the Merrimack River. The third Sixth Street Bridge has been identified as the only surviving structure entirely designed by Cooper, whose involvement extended even to such details as the bridge's handrail, lamps, and fascia.

Between 1885 and 1902, Cooper published several important works on railroad and highway bridge design. His theories strongly influenced the adoption of wheel-load analysis for railroad bridges. Also during this period, he served as consultant to numerous commissions charged with the development of rapid transit systems in such cities as New York and Boston. The career of this distinguished and celebrated engineer (twice awarded the Norman Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers) ended in tragedy when the monumental Quebec Bridge, for which Cooper was consulting engineer, collapsed while under construction in 1907, resulting in 75 fatalities. Cooper was roundly criticized in post-accident reports for his poor judgement and lack of teamwork in the run-up to the disaster.

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