James Laurie (1811-1875), the first President of the American Society of Civil Engineers, was born near Edinburgh, Scotland. He came to the United States in 1833, quickly becoming engineer or chief engineer on many early railroad projects in the Northeast. Among his earliest professional engagements were appointments as an Associate Engineer on the Norwich and Worchester Railroad, and as a Consulting Engineer for railway location and surveys, dams, bridges and wharves (circa 1848). Living in Boston, in July 1848, he helped to found the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, the oldest existing engineering society in this country. This initial experience with setting up an professional engineering society proved beneficial years later in the establishment of ASCE.

James Laurie, Society Founder and First PresidentPerhaps Laurie's greatest work was the design of the bridge across the Connecticut River at Warehouse Point on the line of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad. As the Chief Engineer for the railroad, he had the iron work for the bridge's structure imported from England, creating a notable American example of riveted bridge work whose span was more than 177-feet-long. The bridge remained in use to the early part of the 20th century.

By 1852, when the meeting to establish ASCE was called, Laurie had an office on Broadway in New York City. His participation was instrumental in the development of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects (later ASCE), of which he was President 1853-1867, reconvening the society
after a twelve-year hiatus that included the Civil War. At the end of his presidential tenure, the following resolution was made:

"Resolved, that we tender our thanks to Mr. James Laurie for his faithful services as our President, for his efforts to re-establish and reorganize this society on a basis which gives promise of a successful and useful continuance, and particularly for his care of our funds, to which we are greatly indebted for our present unencumbered and hopeful condition."

Source: William H. Wisely, The American Civil Engineer, 1852-1974, ASCE, New York, NY, 1974.

 

In Tribute:

"I have always felt the deepest respect and gratitude for the great benefit I derived from my experience, short as it was, under him. I learned a great many lessons at that time which have been of incalculable benefit to me since, especially in his exactitude of office methods and the sterling excellence of his designs in engineering practice. Had he lived in this epoch, instead of half a century earlier, he would have assuredly been found in the forefront of our present heaviest and most important engineering enterprises."

---Walter Katie, M.ASCE, Laurie's personal clerk and draftsman during the extension of the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1850-52