In 1817, Governor DeWitt Clinton decided that work on the 365-mile Erie Canal would first begin on a 94-mile middle section from Utica west to the Seneca River. Three Oneida County residents were to play a vital part in the construction of the canal and lead the way for engineering in this country.  The undertakings were "pioneering" ventures. The projects were filled with "first" and "untried" engineering principles, and as such, were "schools" for a generation of American civil engineers.

Benjamin Wright

Benjamin Wright of Rome was named chief engineer of the Erie Canal in 1817. Wright's engineering experience was practically non-existent but, at the time few Americans had any knowledge of civil engineering. Under Wright’s direction the construction of the canal became "the first practical school of engineering in the United States."  Upon the completion of the Erie, Wright went on to other canal works such as the Delaware and Hudson and Chesapeake and Ohio. He served as New York City Street Commissioner in the 1830s.

Benjamin Wright was born in Connecticut in 1770. He had little formal education, but learned the rudiments of surveying and law from an uncle. He came to Fort Stanwix (Rome) in 1789 to join his family where they had migrated right after the Revolutionary War.
   
Benjamin’s reputation for accuracy and honesty spread, his services were in demand. He surveyed thousands of acres of land in the Oneida Lake area. When he was 24 years old Wright assisted the famous English engineer William Weston in canal surveys for what would become the Erie Canal. Wright also served as a New York State Assemblyman and a judge.

With the help of such "students of engineering" as John B. Jervis, Canvass White, Nathan Roberts and David Bates, Wright overcame both technical and political difficulties, and completed the greatest engineering feat in history to the time. When the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, Wright was 55 years old.  He died in New York City in 1842. On October 17, 1970, the bicentennial of his birth, Benjamin Wright was declared the Father of Civil Engineering by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Canvass White

Another Oneida County resident who gained prominence on the Erie Canal was one of Wright's assistants, Canvass White. Son of Hugh White, the founder of Whitestown, Canvass White was responsible for the introduction of the use of hydraulic cement in the United States. White was engaged in several canal projects prior to his untimely death in 1834.

Canvass White was born in Whitestown, New York on September 8, 1790. Even at an early age he displayed a talent for invention, and constructed many things needed in his hometown. In 1813, he established himself as a student in the Fairfield Academy, where he studied Mathematics, Science, and Surveying.

Governor DeWitt Clinton realized the need for civil engineers, and in 1817 sent White to England to inspect and report on the materials and tools used to build bridges, canals, aqueducts, and culverts. One of his first goals was to find a better material means to waterproof canal locks, constructed of wood or brick which rotted after a few brief years. English canals used a limestone mix, but it was too costly to import.

White eventually produced a waterproof hydraulic cement that was both cheaper and of better quality than that used in England. At first his cement met with much reluctance and caution, but after proving its success in numerous applications was not only universally used for the face work of canal locks and arches in New York, but was also exported from the state in immense qualities.

John B. Jervis

The most prominent civil engineer from Oneida County was John B. Jervis. A Rome native like Wright, Jervis began his career in Rome as an Axeman for an Erie Canal survey party in 1817.  By 1823 he was superintendent of a fifty-mile section of the Erie Canal. He learned engineering as a pupil of Wright and other Erie engineers.

During his 89 very productive years he was responsi­ble for directing the construction of several transportation projects. These included three New York canals, New York's first railroad plus two additional railroads in the state and several railroads in the mid-West. Jervis also engineered the Croton Aque­duct, constructed to provide New York City with an adequate supply of fresh water. Perhaps Jervis most valuable contribution to transportation was the introduction of the 34 forward moveable truck on railroad locomotives. This device acted as a guide to enable locomotives to negotiate curves without jumping the track.  Jervis helped found a local industry, the Rome Iron Mills; and, of course, is the founder of Rome's public library.

Jervis returned home to Rome in 1864. He spent the remainder of his life writing and in 1877 published a book on economics, The Question of Labor and Capital.