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Benjamin Wright.

Benjamin Hall Wright (October 10, 1770 – August 24, 1842) was an American civil engineer who served as Chief Engineer of both the Erie Canal and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

Quotes

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Report of the Survey of the Route of the New-York and Erie Railroad (1834)

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  • Relative to the Survey of the New York and Erie Railroad
To John A. Dix, Esquire, Secretary of State:
Sir — His Excellency the Governor having been pleased to appoint me to execute the survey, and make an estimate of the expense of a Railroad from "at or near the city of New York to Lake Erie" under the act of May 6th 1834, which said act requires me to file the report, maps, profiles and estimates in the office of the Secretary of State : —
In conformity to said act I now present my report, maps, profiles 8m, to be filed in your office, as the law directs, and beg leave hereby
TO REPORT :
That in undertaking the important and responsible duty of surveying the route of a railway communication from the Hudson river, near the city of New York, to Lake Erie, I deem it essential to keep in view the great public objects sought to be attained by the proposed work. It was obvious that the road was to be constructed, not only for the accommodation of the inhabitants of the district immediately adjacent to the route, but also in order to furnish the means of a regular, rapid and uninterrupted intercourse, at nearly all seasons of the year, between the city of New York and the extensive and populous communities upon the Western lakes and waters.
The vast and acknowledged benefits which had been experienced throughout a great part of the State, and especially by its commercial emporium, from the construction of the Erie Canal, as well in the increase of population and wealth, as in the progress of agriculture and trade, the augmented value of lands, and the rapid and unexampled growth and creation of cities, towns and villages, along the route, had plainly proved that a thoroughfare running through the southern tier of counties, and properly suited to their topographical character could not fail to impart similar advantages to that important and valuable section of country, while the pressing necessity of establishing a channel of communication within this State which should be open during nearly, or quite the whole of the winter months, and thereby; remedy the evils occasioned by its high northern latitude, had not only been fel sensibly by the inhabitants of the metropolis, but had excited public attention throughout a great portion of the fertile and extensive regions upon the upper Lakes, and in the valley of the Mississippi.
The long line of counties in our own State, through which the road would pass favored as they are with a healthful climate and an enterprising population abounding in natural resources which the proposed work could not fail to develops, also possessed an additional importance in their peculiar topography, being intersected in numerous directions by important streams, leading into that section of the country from other parts of the State, and thereby furnishing striking facilities for connecting the proposed road with lateral branches, capable of accommodating large masses of our population.
Keeping therefore steadily in mind these general considerations, I deemed it an incumbent duty in selecting the line of location for the proposed road, to obtain a route which as far as should be practical might combine:
lst. Reasonable economy in its construction.
2d. Rapidity and regularity of communication for passengers,-light merchandize of value, and the public mail.
3d. Cheapness of transportation for bulky commodities.
4th. Facilities of connection with lateral branches.
5th. The general accommodation of the inhabitants, and the development of the resources, of the country along the route.
And I considered it also necessary to take into view, not only the present, but the prospective advantages of the route, and to arrange the graduation of the whole work, in reference to such further additions and improvements as might hereafter become necessary in order to accommodate a great increase of trade and transportation.
  • p. 1
Map of the proposed route of New York & Erie Railroad, 1834.
  • Being guided by these general outlines, I commenced the survey of the route on the 23d of May last, under the appointment which I received from his Excellency the Governor on the 21st of that month.
The work was divided into two grand divisions: of which the Eastern extending from the Hudson river to Binghampton, was under the direction of James Seymour, and the Western from Binghampton to Lake Erie, was placed under Charles Ellet, Jr., both acting as my assistants and subject to my supervision.
Those gentlemen, with my advice and approbation, each had sometimes two, and often three and four parties employed in explorations through the season. From each of them I have received separate reports, with their views of plans and description of country through which each had passed.
I take great pleasure in stating, that the surveys thus committed to their care, have been executed to my entire satisfaction, and I refer to their reports and estimates of quantities, as exhibiting the industry and skill with which their duties have been discharged.
I have personally inspected the lines surveyed nearly their whole length, and have particularly considered and examined every part of the route, at which there could be any reasonable doubt or difficulty, and we have fully advised and compared opinions, as to all prices estimated for the graduation of the work.
It is possible, and I may say probable, that the shortness of time allowed for the completion of so long a line of survey, in some instances not noticed by me, may have prevented our ascertaining the very best and cheapest route, of which some portions of the country may have been capable; but I have become perfectly satisfied from the lines already run, and minutely measured, that a feasible route has been obtained, free from formidable difficulties, and capable of being completed with economy end despatch.
A more minute and careful exploration, over some particular parts of the country, will enable the engineer to adopt very considerable alterations and improvements at many points,both as to graduation, and also the cost of the work.
The great object of securing rapidity and regularity of communication between the city of New York and the Lake, being one of paramount importance, I have studiously sought to avoid the use of stationary steam power on inclined planes, as being productive of delay, danger, expense and difficulty; and in this respect, have been so successful, that, with the exception of one single plane near Lake Eric, I have brought the whole line within the power of Locomotive Engines, drawing passenger cars, light merchandize and the public mail.
The steepest acclivity encountered on the whole line, with the exception beforementioned, will be only one hundred feet per mile 3 and having been furnished with satisfactory evidence that by recent improvements in the locomotive steam engines, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, they have been enabled to ascend an acclivity of one hundred and seventy-six feet to the mile, drawing between five and ten tons weight, I rely upon that fact in stating, that locomotive steam engines may be advantageously used on the whole of the proposed route, from the Hudson river to the head of the plane near Lake Erie : that they will be able to pass its steepest grades, drawing at least '70 or 80 passengers with their baggage; while upon at least nine-tenths of the whole route, they will be able to propel very great burthens at a great rate of speed.
In order, however, to obtain these easy grades of acclivity, I have been compelled to pursue, by a serpentine line, the valleys of streams, and thereby to lengthen very considerably, the linear extent of the route.
The general face of the country is undulating and marked by bold and prominent features ; but, nevertheless, it is intersected by numerous rivers and their branches, which have a gentle descent, and fortunately pursue the general direction necessary for the route, in much of the distance.
It is this all-important and cardinal feature in the topography of the country, and the facilities which the valleys of those streams thus present, for obtaining gentle ascents and descents, and moderate graduation, which will explain the reason why I have been able to find a cheap and easy route, without the aid of stationary steam power, through portions of the State which, to the eye of the passing traveller, crossing as he does the numerous hills which are traversed by the ordinary stage roads, would seem to present insuperable obstacles to the accomplishment of the proposed work.
  • An examination of the plans and profiles returned with this report, will show that the route instead of passing directly over, goes around the hills ; and that it has not been necessary to surmount any considerable acclivities, except in three or four instances, in which the line crosses the natural boundaries of the great valleys into which the route is topographically divided...
    • p. 3

Quotes about Wright

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  • In May, 1834, his Excellency Governor Marcy appointed Benjamin Wright, of this State, to conduct the survey. He entered on his duties immediately after receiving the appointment, and previous arrangements having secured the speedy assemblage of an active corps of assistant engineers, the work was prosecuted with such assiduity, energy, and talent, that the survey of the whole line, 483 miles in length, was finished by the 15th of December in that year, and complete maps and profiles, with the Report and estimates of Judge Wright and his two principal assistants, were deposited early in January, 1835, in the office of the Secretary of State.

From A historical review of the New York and Erie Railroad by Eleazar Lord (1855)

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The possibility of a railroad, in 1826 mentioned by Wright and later by others
  • In a series of articles, signed Hercules, — entitled, "An exposition of the practicability of constructing a great Central Canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson, through the Southern tier of counties;" originally published in the Western Star, at Westfield, Chatauque county, New York, and afterwards issued in a closely-printed pamphlet of near forty pages,—the writer exhibited a mass of evidence, founded, in part, on actual surveys, to show that the entire route, from the Lake through the valleys of the Alleghany, Chemung, and Susquehanna rivers, to the neighborhood of Deposit, and thence along the East side of the Delaware to the Lackawaxen, and then by the Hudson and Delaware Canal to the Hudson River, was feasible, and, with few exceptions, remarkably adapted to the construction of a canal.
    There is, in an appendix to this pamphlet, a letter from Judge Wright to "Hercules," dated, Deposit, Delaware county, October 21, 1826, at which time he was executing for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company a survey of the Delaware, from the junction of the Lackawaxen to Deposit; in which he states that he had, with a view to the question of a continuous canal Westward to the Lake, examined the valleys of the Susquehanna and Tioga Rivers, and extended his inquiries as far west as Hornellsville. From the Lake, Eastward, surveys had been made by order of the Canal Commissioners, to Jamestown, and by authorized engineers from the latter place to the Alleghany, and a reconnaissance up that river to Olean. Judge Wright, without expressing any opinion touching the summit between the Tioga and Genesee valleys, which he had not then examined, observes, with respect to that between the Delaware and Susquehanna, that for a distance of twelve miles, it presents great obstacles to the construction of a canal, but if found impracticable, "then a railway will be substituted."
These notices indicate but partially the degree of attention which was at that period bestowed upon the subject of a great public avenue on the route in question, and which the success of the Erie Canal, the proposition of public thoroughfares in every part of the country, and the progress of information and events, powerfully tended to augment.
The subject of railways was rapidly gaining favor, and inspiring confidence, both in this and foreign countries. The railway from Albany to Schenectady was chartered in 1826, and that from Baltimore to the Ohio River, in 1827. Others, in different directions, were chartered or projected in that and each succeeding year.
It was, therefore, without reluctance, or any decline of zeal or confidence, that the friends of the State Road abandoned that project in 1828. Their views were turned to the subject of a railway as a substitute. But though the theories and experiments then extant were familiar enough to those who studied them to sustain their hopes and encourage their perseverance, and though they had attained information enough to satisfy them as to the practicability of the route for such a work, they were of opinion that an immediate proposition of an undertaking of such magnitude, would neither be sustained by the Legislature nor by the public, and would excite prejudice rather than confidence and favor.
In 1829, a pamphlet was published by Mr. William C. Redfield, of New York, purporting to sketch the geographical route of a railway through the Southern tier of counties of this State to Lake Erie, and thence to the junction of Rock River with the Mississippi. This tract added nothing to the topographical information concerning the route from the Hudson to the Lake, which had been attained by the friends' of the State Road; and instead of being adapted to aid their views respecting a railway, was rather of a contrary tendency, as being at that time scarcely less visionary and premature than if his sketch had extended the line to the Pacific or to the Arctic Ocean. This route, as traced on his map, commenced at Nyack, and followed the State Road survey generally, to a point near the Lake, and thence near its South-Western border, and that of Michigan, to the point assumed for the Western Terminus. The pamphlet, however, contained some gleanings from the current publications of the day, which, no doubt, suggested some ideas to those to whom the subject was entirely new.
Practical men and the public were, in the meantime, daily becoming more and more familiar with the subject of railways; and in 1831, the late Colonel DeWitt Clinton, of the United States Engineer corps, inheriting the sentiments of his father and grandfather, concerning an avenue through the southern tier of counties, solicited and obtained authority from the department to make a reconnaissance of the route from the Hudson, West; which he duly executed, traversing the valleys which had previously been surveyed or explored by Judge Wright and others, and taking barometrical observations of the transverse ridges and principal acclivities to be surmounted by a railway. His report was rendered to the department in February 1832.
  • p. 12-15
Survey by Wright, 1834-35
  • In the summer of 1833, meetings of citizens were held in several of the counties on the route; and in November, a convention of delegates from thirteen counties met in the city of New York, for the furtherance of the objects of the Company. At the session of 1834, petitions were presented to the Legislature from the Company, from the convention above mentioned, and from the interior counties, for aid, by a subscription to the stock, or by a loan, and for an appropriation for a survey. A general election of State Officers and Representatives in Congress, was to take place in November of that year, and it was proper to do something for the voters in the Southern tier of counties. Happily, the petitions were so far successful, that an appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars was made for a survey of the entire route of the railroad.
    The appointment of an engineer was vested in the Governor; but the sum granted was deemed so inadequate, that several to whom he offered the service declined it.The President of the Company, aware that Judge Wright had the entire confidence of the public, owing to his original and successful survey and superintendence of the Eastern half of the Erie Canal, and of other public works, and that he had already surveyed some portions, and was familiar with the greater part of the destined route of the railway, urged, and at length induced him to accept the appointment, with the understanding that, so far as the Company or the public were then concerned, the points of chief importance were to obtain an instrumental survey of the entire route, exhibiting its characteristics, and all its chief difficulties, and to have it accomplished within the current year, whether the best line for final location Were in every instance ascertained or not. With these views, Judge Wright undertook, and accomplished, the survey within the year 1834, and perfected his maps, profiles, and estimates, and made his report to the Legislature, in January, 1835.
    • p. 24-25

See also

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