The Portland Observatory was built in 1807 by Captain Lemuel Moody to serve as a communication station for Portland Harbor. Portland Observatory was one of the earliest marine signal stations in the United States, and it is the last known to survive. The Observatory's location on Munjoy Hill gave it a clear view of vessels approaching Portland Harbor. The Observatory contributed to the prosperity of Portland Harbor as a vital center of maritime commerce during the "Golden Age of Sail."
1800-1829
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Econrad (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Portland ObservatoryEra_date_from: 1807
2006
After an initial difficulty in attracting customers (who were used to getting their water from public pumps and private wells and cisterns), Philadelphia's waterworks soon couldn't keep up with demand. John Davis and Frederick Graff designed a complete remodeling of the system in 1811 so that it could supply the city's growing needs.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service)Image Caption: Philadelphia Municipal Water SupplyEra_date_from: 1801
1974
The National Road was the first interstate highway in the United States, and the first roadway to be financed with federal money. Authorized by Congress during the administration of Thomas Jefferson in 1806, the road was built over time and in sections from Cumberland, Maryland, westward through the states of Pennsylvania, Virginia (now West Virginia), Ohio, and Indiana, before terminating at the state capital of Vidalia, Illinois.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Citynoise (CC BY-SA 2.5)Image Caption: National RoadEra_date_from: 1811
1976
This furnace was the focal point of a pre-Industrial Revolution industry town, one of hundreds of furnaces that thrived and failed in the 19th century. The Maryland Iron Company (incorporated 1828) built this furnace along the Nassawango Creek roughly four miles northwest of the Pocomoke River to produce pig iron by the cold-blast process. In 1836-37 the furnace changed ownership several times, until Thomas Spence of Worcester County purchased it and began producing pig iron at a rate of 700 tons a year. Spence is credited with the installation of the hot-blast stove.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service)Image Caption: Nassawango Iron FurnaceEra_date_from: 1828
1991
In 1794, Congress authorized and President Thomas Jefferson signed into law the raising of a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers (now the United States Army Corps of Engineers) to be educated and stationed at the newly created United States Military Academy. The U.S. Military Academy was the first school of engineering in America to offer formal instruction in civil engineering.
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Image Credit: Original Image: Public Domain (US Army)Image Caption: United States Military AcademyEra_date_from: 1813
1978
While the Erie Canal has become well-known in the annals of American history, the Middlesex Canal, built two decades earlier and a model for canal engineers throughout young America, has only recently become recognized for its important achievements. Extending 27 miles northeast from Boston harbor to the Merrimack River near present-day Lowell, Masachusetts, the Middlesex Canal provided low-cost and efficient freight transport for almost five decades, helping to establish the canal in the U.S. as a viable means of economic development.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Daderot (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Middlesex CanalEra_date_from: 1803
1967
This facility was typical of others in the country that made small spherical lead shot for the fowling pieces of frontier settlers. Smelted lead from the nearby Austinville mines was melted at the top of the tower and poured through a sizing sieve to produce small droplets. Surface tension caused the molted lead to assume a spherical shape that solidified during its 150-foot fall. The shot was then collected in a water-filled kettle at the bottom of the shaft. The "drop process" was patented in England in 1769 by William Watts, a craftsman of Bristol, England.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Dr00bie (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Jackson Ferry Shot TowerEra_date_from: 1807
1981
The precise system of measurements provided today by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey originated with an act of Congress under the administration of Thomas Jefferson in 1807 that funded work on "an accurate chart" of America's coastal waters. Intended to aid sea-going commerce, the first work on this project, carried out in 1816 and 1817, helped establish a complex grid of geodetic reference points on which much of our land- and sea-based navigation now depends.
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Image Credit: Source: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/theodolites/hasslers_first_sketch.html (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)Image Caption: Cranetown Triangulation SiteEra_date_from: 1817
1986
AleNGothenburgState: Västra Götaland CountyCountry: SwedenWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Gota-Canal/Creator: von Platen, Baltzer, Telford, Thomas
The Gota Canal is the biggest infrastructure project ever built in Sweden. The canal was dug by hand with shovels made of wood. It took over 22 years of 12-hour days - an estimated 12 million man-days of labor - to complete the project.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Patrick Strandberg (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: Gota CanalEra_date_from: 1810 to 1832
1998
At a time when steam power was finding its first uses in America, Philadelphia opened two steam pumping stations, January 1801, to lift water from the Schuylkill River and distribute it through the city's wooden pipes and mains. By 1811 a new water power works was begun on the river near Morris Hill, and the Fairmount Water Works opened September 7, 1815. These water works represented the first large-scale application of steam pumping to water service in the country.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service)Image Caption: Fairmount Waterworks, East bank of Schuylkill River, Aquarium Drive, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA View looking northeast at waterworks from across Schuylkill River. Photo taken December, 1984.1977
Era_date_from: 1815
Innovations
After an initial difficulty in attracting customers (who were used to getting their water from public pumps and private wells and cisterns), Philadelphia's waterworks soon couldn't keep up with demand. John Davis and Frederick Graff designed a complete remodeling of the system in 1811 so that it…
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The Portland Observatory was built in 1807 by Captain Lemuel Moody to serve as a communication station for Portland Harbor. Portland Observatory was one of the earliest marine signal stations in the United States, and it is the last known to survive. The Observatory's location on Munjoy Hill…
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This silver mine preserves two features of bygone practice. One is the reversible waterwheel of the ore-hoist, which originally was installed in 1565 and currently dates back to 1824. The present wheel is 9 meters in diameter and reaches a depth of 700 meters.
Second, the man engine of…
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Traversing the Great Glen of the Scottish Highlands for 60 miles the Caledonian Canal connects the North Sea by Beauly and Moray Firth on the east coast with the Irish Sea by Lochs Linnhe and Eil on the west. Thirty eight miles of the canal pass through freshwater lochs Douchfour, Ness, Oich…
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Built between 1819 and 1826, the Menai Bridge was the major structure on Britain's strategically important Holyhead Road connecting London with Holyhead and by sea to Ireland. Designed by Thomas Telford, the bridge's main span was 579 feet from tower to tower, the longest that had ever been…
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According to oral history, George Washington visited the canal diggings in 1792, and then again in 1794, while he was accompanying troops to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania.
The Union Canal Tunnel was a crucial structure allowing the connection of the eastern and…
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The Wilkinson Mill, situated on the west bank of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, was built between 1810 and 1811 by machinist Oziel Wilkinson. Constructed in stone rubble, three and one-half stories high, the mill played a critical role in the history of textile technology, in steam power…
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The Wilkinson Mill, situated on the west bank of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, was built between 1810 and 1811 by machinist Oziel Wilkinson. Constructed in stone rubble, three and one-half stories high, the mill played a critical role in the history of textile technology, in steam power…
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Between 1825 and 1847 the State of Ohio constructed 1,000 miles of canals and feeder canals, 33,000 acres of reservoir surface area, 29 dams across streams, 294 lift locks, 44 aqueducts and many smaller structures at a cost of about 16 million dollars. The network of navigable canals provided a…
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The Granite Railway Company of Quincy was the first commercial railway in the United States. Incorporated in 1826 and designed by Gridley Bryant, the railway relied on horses, rather than steam locomotives, to draw the cars along the tracks. Its primary purpose was to transport granite from…
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Morris Canal was built to transport coal from the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania to industrial markets in Newark and New York. The total length of the canal was 106 miles. The canal climbed an astonishing 914 feet from Newark Bay to the summit at Lake Hopatcong, and then dropped 760 feet to the…
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Amos Eaton and Stephen Van Rensselaer founded the Rensselaer School for "the application of science to the common purposes of life" in 1824. Eaton had practiced surveying as a teenager building his own compass and chain and wrote an early book on surveying. Later he studied law before becoming…
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