TRAUTWINE J.C.

TRAUTWINE J.C. 30.03. 1810 Philadelphia PA/USA 14.09. 1883 Philadelphia PA/USA John Cresson Trautwine entered at age of eighteen the office of William Strickland (1787-1854), the most prominent civil engineer then of Philadelphia. While receiving his technical training, Trautwine was engaged with the Delaware Breakwater and the erection of public buildings. In 1831, he secured a position with the Columbia Railroad, was appointed assistant engineer of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad in 1835. In 1844 he sailed to New Granada in today’s Columbia, being engaged for five years in the construction of Canal del Dique connecting the Magdalena River with the harbour of Cartagena on the Caribbean. Upon return to Philadelphia, he prepared for a stay in the Isthmus, where he made surveys for the Panama Railroad. A copy of his Isthmus map was published in 1871 in the Journal of the Franklin Institute. From 1851 he was asked to seek an inter-oceanic canal route. Crossing the Continental Divide, he descended San Juan River to the Pacific. He finally decided upon a canal route from the Atrato River to Cupica Bay as ‘the least inadvisable’. However, he also stated ‘I cannot entertain the slightest hope that a ship-canal will ever be found practicable across any part of the Isthmus’. In these times, the causes of malaria and yellow fever were unknown, and his work was therefore one of the most difficult and dangerous undertakings upon which an engineer could venture. In the years to follow, Trautwine was engaged again in railroad design in Pennsylvania, he surveyed a route for an inter-oceanic railway in Honduras, planned a system of docks for Montreal, and a harbour for Big Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. After 1864, he took his life less strenuously, his health having undoubtedly been affected by previous works. In 1872 he published the first edition of his famous Civil engineer’s pocket-book, a work that was immediately received with great favour by the profession. This book was later re-edited by his son John C., Jr. (1850-1924), with a total of 21 editions until 1937. Anonymous (1883). John C. Trautwine. Journal of the Franklin Institute 116(2): 390-396. Anonymous (1883). John C. Trautwine, C.E. Engineering News 10(Sep.22): 450-453. P Anonymous (1936). Trautwine, John Cresson. Dictionary of American biography 18: 628-629. Scribner’s: New York. Anonymous (1965). John C. Trautwine. Civil Engineering 35(11): 102. P Trautwine, J.C. (1872). Civil engineer’s pocket book. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger: Philadelphia.