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"A Man for All Bridges" George Shattuck Morison
[source]
Designer of the Portage High Bridge
Among the features of Letchworth State Park that attract attention and stand
out in the memory bank of visitors of all ages is not part of the Park at all
but is the Erie High Bridge. This railroad bridge is still in active use today,
and is the same bridge, with some renovations to allow heavier trains, that was
built after the equally famous wooden structure burned. The origin of this
bridge leads us to study a very interesting man -- the engineer who designed the
bridge, George Shattuck Morison. My reason for use of this title will become
more clear as you read of his accomplishments.
If you have known any engineers you know they are an intelligent breed and
usually quite proud of their profession. One that I worked with at Letchworth
Park was James E. M. Stewart. He was Senior Park Engineer at Letchworth and like
many of us retains his interest in the park even after going on to a career as a
Consultant Engineer in the Scottsville area. He was kind enough to provide us
with copy of a published Memoir that is our main source for this article.
Morison was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, December 19, 1842. He grew up
near Boston and early on developed a faculty for surveying and architecture. He
attended a prep school called Philips Exeter Academy, received a BS from Harvard
in 1863 and was best in his class in math. He received a Bachelor of Laws from
Harvard in 1866 and was admitted to the bar that year. A year later he was
working as a Civil Engineer for which he had no special education or training.
His engineering work began in October 1867 on the bridge over the Missouri
River at Kansas City with Octave Chanute who was in charge. He worked in Detroit
until 1873 when he again worked with Chanute who was Chief Engineer of the Erie
Railroad. At that time the Erie was replacing many of its wooden bridges.
Morison was Principal Assistant Engineer in 1875 when the wooden Portage bridge
burned and he designed and built the iron structure in six weeks from the date
of the fire. His experience with the Erie launched him as a bridge builder.
He is credited with building bridges at Plattsmouth,
Bismarck, Sioux City, Blair, Omaha, Rulo, Nebraska City, Atchison,
Leavenworth, and Bellefontaine Bluffs. All of which were over the Missouri
river, which was considered the most treacherous stream in the country. Those
over the Mississippi were at Winona, Burlington, Alton, St Louis, and Memphis.
He bridged the Ohio at Cairo, the Snake River at Ainsworth, Washington, the
Columbia near Belknap, Montana, one over the Willamette at Portland Oregon, one
over the St John's at Jacksonville, Florida and many smaller bridges in all
parts of the United States.
He was elected a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1875
and in 1895 was President of the Society which is the highest professional honor
for an Engineer. He was a Member and Telford Medalist of the Institution of
Civil Engineers. Member of Western Society of Civil Engineers and a trustee for
three years. Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; the
American Institute of Mining Engineers; and of the Mexican Society of Engineers
and Architects; and Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences; a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and
other learned and scientific societies. A further renown came for his service on
the Isthmian Canal Commission from 1899 to 1903 to determine the route for the
Panama canal.
He was Chairman of a Commission to report on the plans of the Manhattan
Bridge over the East River and signed the report on June 29th of 1903. Two days
later he died.
It is not necessary to state that such work required a master mind, and when
it is considered that Mr. Morison had no special technical training in
engineering, but entered the field when he was nearly 25 years of age it is
indeed marvelous. Nature endowed him with a strong intellect and a strong will,
and he made the most of them. The whole grand success may be summed up in the
word "work". In his work he was original and not merely an imitator or developer
of existing ideas. He had a powerful intelligence, which would have
distinguished him in any calling, and added to that he had in large measure
those special gifts which make a man an engineer in spite of accidents of
education.
In a report by Clayton B. Fraser of Fraserdesign of Loveland Colorado made
for the Historic American Engineering Record (part of the Library of Congress)
in 1986 the author states: "With his long-span railroad bridges over the
navigable Midwestern rivers, civil engineer George S. Morison(1842 - 1903) was
instrumental in the development of the steel bridge industry in the 1880sand
1890s. The first to standardize bridge design for the Missouri River, he
facilitated the American railroad expansion and was distinguished as one of the
country's most prolific and influential bridge engineers."
Tom Breslin October 2002
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