Elnathan Sweet

Elnathan Sweet (November 20, 1837 – January 26, 1903) was an American civil engineer and politician from New York. He was New York State Engineer and Surveyor from 1884 to 1887.[1][2] He is credited with constructing the first cantilever arch bridge.[3]

Elnathan Sweet
Born(1837-11-20)November 20, 1837
Cheshire, Massachusetts
DiedJanuary 26, 1903(1903-01-26) (aged 65)
Albany, New York
EducationUnion College (1859)
TitleNew York State Engineer and Surveyor
Term1884–1887

Biography

He was born on November 20, 1837 in Cheshire, Massachusetts. His family moved to Stephentown, New York in 1842.[1][2][4]

He graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Union College in 1859, and began work as Deputy Surveyor under Ward B. Burnet, Surveyor General of the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. He soon returned to New York and was employed as Assistant Engineer in various railway companies. From 1864 to 1868, he was at Franklin, Pennsylvania engaged in the engineering development of oil wells and coal mines. In 1869, he removed to Chicago, and became Chief Engineer of the Rock Island and Quincy Railroad, later a part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. In 1871, he became also Consulting Engineer for the Rockford Central Railroad and the Cairo and St. Louis Railroad, and engaged in railway construction with his partner James R. Young.

In 1875, he was a member of the Tilden Commission which investigated alleged canal frauds. He was appointed Division Engineer of the Eastern Division of the New York State Canals in 1876. He resigned in 1880, and resumed his railway construction business with his former partner, James R. Young.

He was New York State Engineer and Surveyor from 1884 to 1887, elected on the Democratic ticket in 1883 and 1885. Upon retiring from public office, he returned to private practice where, as president of the Hilton Bridge Construction Company, his company landed a State contract to design and construct what would become the Hawk Street Viaduct in Albany.[3] He was also, for a time, president of the Canton Bridge Company.

In 1897 he was appointed as receiver for the Lebanon Springs Railroad following the death of William V. V. Reynolds.[5]

In 1900, he was President of the Advisory Commission of Engineers, appointed by State Engineer Edward A. Bond to advise in the conduct of surveys for a thousand-ton barge canal. Later he was a member of the New York Water Storage Commission.

He died from heart disease at the Fort Orange Club in Albany, New York on January 26, 1903 at age 65.[6]

Legacy

Of those engineering projects with which Sweet was directly involved, the Hawk Street Viaduct may have had the most lasting and widespread impact. Sweet's novel design, likely the first cantilever arch bridge, was replicated across America and Europe.[3] In the years following its completion, major cantilever arch bridges were erected over the Seine and Viaur in France, the Elbe–Lübeck Canal at Mölln in Germany, and on railways in Alaska and Costa Rica. [7]

His principal contribution to engineering science was the determination of the laws that govern the propulsion of vessels in narrow channels, an account of which he published in 1880 in the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers of which organization he was elected a member in 1878.

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References
  1. "Elnathan Sweet". Appletons Cyclopedia.
  2. "Elnathan Sweet". Noted Living Albanians. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-10-10. Elnathan Sweet, the subject of this memoir, was about five years old when his parents removed to Stephentown, and there he grew up strong and healthy in the midst of a beautiful, bold and striking scenery. ...
  3. Pollak, Richard J.; Rezneck, Samuel (1969). "Historic American Engineering Record: Hawk Street Viaduct, Albany, New York". Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, National Park Service, U.S Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  4. "The Democratic Candidates" (PDF). The New York Times. September 26, 1885. Retrieved 2012-10-10. Elnathan Sweet, the candidate for State Engineer, was born in Cheshire, Mass., on Nov. 20, 1837. He removed to Stephentown, Rensselaer County, in 1842. ...
  5. "Elnathan Sweet, Receiver" (PDF). The New York Times. May 6, 1897. Retrieved 2012-10-10. Justice Fursman has appointed Elnathan Sweet receiver of the Lebanon Springs Railroad Company, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William V. V. Reynolds ...
  6. "Elnathan Sweet" (PDF). The New York Times. November 28, 1903. Retrieved 2012-10-10. Elnathan Sweet, a well known engineer ...
  7. Tyrrell, Henry G. (1911). A History of Bridge Engineering. Chicago: G.B. Williams Co., Printers. p. 325–326.
Political offices
Preceded by
Silas Seymour		 New York State Engineer and Surveyor
1884 – 1887		 Succeeded by
John Bogart
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