James B. Eads

This edition features
• portrait
• a linked Table of Contents

CONTENTS
I. Early Training
II. The Gunboats
III. The Bridge
IV. The Jetties
V. The Ship-Railway

"Captain James Buchanan Eads (1820 – 1887) was a world-renowned American civil engineer and inventor, holding more than 50 patents...
He was contracted to construct the City-class ironclads for the United States Navy, and produced seven such ships within five months: St. Louis, Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, and Pittsburgh. He also converted the river steamer New Era into the ironclad Essex. The river ironclads were a vital element in the highly successful Federal offensive into Tennessee, Kentucky and upper Mississippi (February–June, 1862)...
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." --Wikipedia