William Weston was a civil engineer who worked in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and the United States of America.

Career

William Weston is first noticed with his work on Trent Bridge, Gainsborough

Trent Bridge, Gainsborough

Trent Bridge, Gainsborough is a road bridge crossing of the River Trent at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.-History:The bridge was built by the civil engineer, William Weston between 1787 and 1791. It is a handsome and substantial three span bridge in ashlar masonry...

 between 1787 and 1791.

In 1792 he sailed from Falmouth

Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

 to the United States of America to start a five year engagement as Engineer to the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

.

Among others, Weston trained (in 1794) Benjamin Wright

Benjamin Wright

Benjamin Wright was an American civil engineer who served as Chief Engineer of both the Erie Canal and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In 1969 he was declared the "Father of American Civil Engineering" by the American Society of Civil Engineers.Wright was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut to Ebenezer...

 later chief engineer of the Erie Canal

Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...

 and Loammi Baldwin

Loammi Baldwin

Colonel Loammi Baldwin was a noted American engineer, politician, and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War....

 chief engineer of the Middlesex Canal

Middlesex Canal

The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet long and between 10 and 11 feet wide...

.

He returned to England in 1801, but retained his connection with the United States and was a consultant to the Erie Canal Commissioners.

Summary of works

• 1791 Trent Bridge, Gainsborough
  Trent Bridge, Gainsborough
  Trent Bridge, Gainsborough is a road bridge crossing of the River Trent at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.-History:The bridge was built by the civil engineer, William Weston between 1787 and 1791. It is a handsome and substantial three span bridge in ashlar masonry...
  
  
• 1795 Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company
• 1798 Delaware and Schuylkill Canal
• 1793 Conewago Canal
  Conewago Canal
  The Conewago Canal, on the west bank of the Susquehanna River below York Haven, Pennsylvania, south of Harrisburg in York County, enabled late 18th and early 19th century rivercraft to safely bypass rapids at Conewago Falls. Work on the canal of less than began in 1793 and was completed in 1797...
  
  , Pennsylvania
  Pennsylvania
  The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
  
  
• 1796 Middlesex Canal
  Middlesex Canal
  The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet wide, and 3 feet deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet long and between 10 and 11 feet wide...
  
  , Massachusetts
• 1796 Potomac River Locks
• 1798 Western Inland Lock Navigation, New York
  New York
  New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
  
  
• 1796 James River Canal
• 1801 Schuylkill River
  Schuylkill River
  The Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...
  
  Bridge

External links

• An Historical Review of Waterways and Canal Construction in New York State by Henry Wayland Hill, published 1908 by the Buffalo Historical Society.
• Report of the directors of the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation‎ by Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, Philip John Schuyler, William Weston, Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company, published 1796, 20 pages.
• Transactions, Volume 16 by Newcomen Society (Great Britain) Published 1937, William Weston and his Contribution to Early American Engineering.
• The Water-Supply of the City of New York 1658-1895 By Edward Wegmann, published 1896, 310 pages, page 9 mentions William Weston.
• Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers : 32 Profiles of Inspiration and Achievement by Richard Weingardt, William Weston pages 4-8. Published 2005, 165 pages.