dual personalities

Today is the birthday of James Buchanan Eads (May 23, 1820 – March 8, 1887) who was a world-renowned civil engineer and inventor, holding more than 50 patents.

Eads was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, but grew up in St. Louis. He was named for his mother’s cousin, future President James Buchanan. (I did not know that!)

Eads made his initial fortune in salvage by creating a diving bell, using a forty-gallon wine barrel to retrieve goods sunk in riverboat disasters, which at the time was a very dangerous thing and nearly impossible. He also devised special boats for raising the remains of sunken ships from the river bed. Eads did much of the diving himself because the work was so dangerous. His work gave Eads an intimate knowledge of the river, as he explored its depths from the Gulf of Mexico to Iowa. Because of his detailed knowledge of the Mississippi (the equal of any professional river pilot), his exceptional ability at navigating the most treacherous parts of the river system, and his personal fleet of snag-boats and salvage craft, he was afforded the much-prized courtesy title of “Captain” by the rivermen of the Mississippi and was addressed as Captain Eads throughout his life.

Eads designed and built the first road and rail bridge to cross the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The Eads Bridge, constructed from 1867 through 1874, was the first bridge of a significant size with steel as its primary material, and it was the longest arch bridge in the world when completed.

The bridge under construction in 1870

Eads was the first bridge builder to employ the cantilever method, which allowed steam boat traffic to continue using the river during construction. The bridge is still in use today, carrying both automobile and light rail traffic over the river. The Eads Bridge is the only bridge to be named for its engineer.

Eads’ accomplishments throughout his life earned him wealth and renown. Although he was living in New York at the time of his death, his funeral took place in St. Louis and he is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in the family vault. Eads is memorialized at my flyover university by James B. Eads Hall, erected in 1902-03, and long associated with science and technology.

In fact, Eads Hall was the site of Professor Arthur Holly Compton’s Nobel Prize–winning experiments in electromagnetic radiation. 

So a toast to James Buchanan Eads–an awesome fellow, indeed!

*Mark Twain