Skip to main content

1860-1869

Mullan Road
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Roads & Rails Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1862 Mullan Rd Walla Walla State: WA Zip: 99371 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Mullan-Road/ Creator: Mullan, John

The Mullan Road was designed to facilitate the movement of troops and supplies across the Rocky Mountains between the Missouri River basin in the Great Plains and the Columbia River Basin at the Columbia Plateau during times of Indian hostilities. But because peace was reached with the Northwest Indians early on, the road was used only once (in 1860) for military means. Instead, it became a popular thoroughfare for emigrants and fortune-seekers during the Montana and Idaho gold rushes of the 1860s. 

YearAdded:
1977
Image Credit: Originally Public Domain (Author's Choice) Image Caption: Mullan Road Era_date_from: 1862
Moseley Wrought Iron Arch Bridge
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1864 North Canal North Andover State: MA Zip: 01845 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Moseley-Wrought-Iron-Arch-Bridge/ Creator: Moseley Iron Building Works

Designed, patented, and built by Thomas W.H. Moseley, this arched 96-foot span bridge preceded by years the standard use of wrought iron for bridges. For the first time in the United States, Moseley incorporated the use of riveted wrought-iron plates for the triangular-shaped top chord.

YearAdded:
1998
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/Elizabeth Thomsen (CC BY-SA 3.0) Image Caption: Moseley Arch, Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts Era_date_from: 1864
The Tabernacle in December 2008
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Buildings Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1867 Mormon Tabernacle Salt Lake City State: UT Zip: 84150 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Mormon-Tabernacle/ Creator: Grow, Henry

Just 20 years after settling the uninhabited Salt Lake valley, Brigham Young and his Mormon followers completed one of the nation's most impressive public structures. The 9,000-seat Mormon Tabernacle boasts a clear span roof measuring 150 feet by 250 feet, its timber trusses joined with wooden pegs and lashed with green rawhide, which shrank and tightened as it dried.

YearAdded:
1971
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/Leon7 (CC BY-SA 3.0) Image Caption: The Tabernacle in December 2008. Era_date_from: 1867
Minot's Ledge Lighthouse
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Water Transportation Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1860 Minots Ledge Scituate State: MA Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Minot-s-Ledge-Lighthouse/ Creator: Totten, Joseph , Cook, John

Minot's Ledge is a wave-swept rock formation in a rocky area of ocean about a mile off the Cohasset shore near Boston. Numerous serious shipwrecks prompted the government to erect a beacon there, and construction began in the summer of 1847.  

The light, constructed on tall iron legs, was put into operation on January 1, 1850. Designers believed that the water would flow freely through the legs, leaving the lighthouse intact. But a terrible winter storm toppled it in 1851, killing the two assistant keepers.  

YearAdded:
1977
Image Credit: Public Domain (United States Coast Guard) Image Caption: Minot's Ledge Lighthouse Era_date_from: 1860
Hacienda La Esperanza Sugar Mill Steam Engine
Society: ASME Main Category: Mechanical Sub Category: Steam Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1861 Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico Manatí State: PR Zip: 00617 Country: USA Website: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/history/landmarks/topics-m-z/mechanical-power-production-steam/-35-hacienda-la-esperanza-sugar-mill-steam-engine, https://www.asme.org/getmedia/60f1d4d5-215e-4334-8267-a40a7372288a/35_Hacienda_La_Esperanza_Sugar_Mill_Steam_Engine.aspx Creator: Watt, James , Newcomen, Thomas

The La Esperanza sugar mill steam engine is one of the few remaining American links to the pioneer beam engines of the English inventors Thomas Newcomen (1712) and James Watt (1769). The engine was built in 1861 in Cold Spring, New York, by the West Point Foundry. The general arrangement and details, including the Gothic embellishment, are typical of machinery of the period. The straight-line motion of the piston rod is accommodated to the arc of the moving beam end by a parallel motion. Watt regarded this ingenious linkage as the invention of which he was most proud.

YearAdded:
1979
Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service) Image Caption: Hacienda La Esperanza Sugar Mill Steam Engine Era_date_from: 1861
John A. Roebling Bridge
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1866 Ohio River Cincinnati State: OH Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/John-A--Roebling-Bridge/ Creator: Roebling, John

In 1866, the Covington and Cincinnati Suspension Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world. Also called the Ohio Bridge, it was officially renamed the John A. Roebling Bridge in 1983. It was the first permanent bridge over the Ohio River and the only public project in America financed by private investors during the Civil War.

Renowned bridge designer John A. Roebling proposed the structure in 1846; but building the bridge would become a 20-year saga, with heated lobbying both for and against the crossing.

YearAdded:
1982
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Tom Hamilton (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: John A. Roebling Bridge Era_date_from: 1866
Cornish - Windsor Covered Bridge
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1866 Windsor Covered Bridge Cornish State: VT Zip: 03745 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/project/cornish-windsor-covered-bridge/ Creator: Town, Ithiel

The Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge is the longest wooden bridge in the United States and the longest two-span, covered bridge in the world. It is also a classic example of wooden bridge-building in 19th-century America. With copious supplies of timber at hand and a generous reserve of carpentry skills available, bridge builders in early America quickly discarded the masonry arches prevalent in the Old World. Instead, they opted for a revival of timber-truss designs dating from 14th century Europe.

YearAdded:
1970
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/aussiegtl (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Cornish - Windsor Covered Bridge Era_date_from: 1866
Cooper Steam Traction Engine Collection
Society: ASME Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Agriculture Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1860s Knox County Historical Society Mount Vernon State: OH Zip: 43050 Country: USA Website: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/history/landmarks/topics-a-l/agriculture/-201-cooper-steam-traction-engine-collection-%28late, https://www.asme.org/getmedia/4071fc96-7a0c-4d14-8f4e-5d9371c259b2/201-Cooper-Steam-Traction-Engine.aspx Creator: Cooper & Co.

These engines, built by Cooper & Co., of Mount Vernon are among the oldest surviving agricultural steam engines to show the evolution from the portable, skid-mounted engine (ca. 1860) to the horse-drawn engine (1875), through the self-propelled but horse-guided engine (1875) and finally to the self-propelled, self-steered traction engine (1883). Such engines powered the conversion to mechanized farming, which was a great hallmark of the Industrial Revolution.

YearAdded:
1998
Image Credit: Courtesy ASME Image Caption: Cooper Self-Propelled, Self-Steering Traction Engine Era_date_from: 1860s
Chandler Chemistry Laboratory
Society: ACS Main Category: Chemical Sub Category: Cradles of Chemistry Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1865 Chandler-Ullmann Hall Bethlehem State: PA Zip: 18015 Country: USA Website: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/chandlerlaboratory.html, https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/chandlerlaboratory/chandler-laboratory-at-lehigh-university-historical-resource.pdf Creator: Chandler, William Henry , Hutton, Addison

The William H. Chandler Chemistry Laboratory was conceived and planned by William Henry Chandler (1841-1906), professor, chairman, librarian, and acting president of Lehigh University. Designed by Philadelphia architect Addison Hutton and erected between 1884 and 1885 at a cost of $200,000, the building set the standard for laboratory construction for the next half century.

YearAdded:
1994
Image Credit: Public Domain; Produced prior to 1/1/1923 Image Caption: Chandler Chemistry Laboratory Era_date_from: 1865
Cabin John Aqueduct
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges, Transportation, Water Supply & Control Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1864 Cabin John State: MD Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Cabin-John-Aqueduct/ Creator: Meigs, Montgomery

Cabin John Aqueduct, designed by Montgomery C. Meigs, conveys drinking water from Great Falls, Maryland to Washington, D.C. It was the longest stone masonry arch in the world for nearly 40 years. The segmental arch of the bridge has a span of 220 feet and a rise of only 57 feet. The main arch ring is built of cut and dressed granite. The secondary arch ring is radially-laid sandstone, of which the rest of the bridge is also constructed. 

YearAdded:
1972
Image Credit: Public Domain (Author's Choice) Image Caption: Cabin John Aqueduct Era_date_from: 1864
Subscribe to 1860-1869
The discoveries of electricity in the latter half of the 18th Century, and its close connection with magnetism, were the products of earlier experiments, which in turn led to the invention of the electric telegraph. Telegraphy had connected the interior of the United States, and it also connected… Read More
Hunley submarine

In the context of naval warfare, H.L. Hunley changed the world.  Its builders' innovative use of materials, design and manufacturing techniques resulted in the world's first successful attack submarine.

Fall 1985 | Volume 1, Issue 2
Most great monuments of nineteenth-century American engineering, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, dominate the surrounding landscape. By contrast, the Hoosac Tunnel, dug through a mountain in western Massachusetts, is inconspicuous, as tunnels naturally are. Yet it stands in the front rank of the…

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support this 70-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.