William Rich Hutton

William Rich Hutton attained through a striking variety of work his reputation as an accomplished civil engineer. He was born in Washington, D. C., in 1826, and was descended from an old Maryland family, the seat of which was Clopper in Montgomery County. His earliest experience was on the Pacific coast in the days of military exploration, and his conversation in later years was often enriched with the most interesting and occasionally exciting memories of life among the Spanish-Americans and the Indians. In the course of his professional career he was connected with railroads in several parts of the country; with the design and construction of the Washington Aqueduct, of which he was chief engineer in 1862–63; with the construction of the water-works at Annapolis and other places; and with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, of which he was for several years the chief engineer. He designed for the Government the movable dam on the Kanawha River, was engaged on a portion of the new Capitol, built the Washington bridge across the Harlem River in New York, and for a number of years was in charge of the tunnel under the Hudson River. It was in connection with these later works that he took up his residence in this city, his family remaining in Maryland, and became a familiar and always welcome frequenter of The Century. He presented a combination of qualities peculiar perhaps to the southern part of our country, and not very frequent even there, of capacity for sustained and independent intellectual labor, with an earnest zest for the occupations of refined leisure, a taste for many varieties of literature,—foreign as well as English,—and an unfailing gentleness and sympathy and modesty of manner. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, for many years one of its Board of Direction, and at one time its Vice-President. He was also a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers of England, and of a number of technical societies in this country.

Edward Cary
1902 Century Association Yearbook