Everything about J Edgar Thomson totally explained
John Edgar Thomson (
February 10 1808 –
May 27 1874) was an
American civil engineer, railroad executive and
industrialist. He was President of the
Pennsylvania Railroad from
1852 to
1874. He oversaw the railroad's conversion from
wood to
coal as a fuel for its
steam locomotives.
Childhood, early experience
Born in
Springfield, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, near
Philadelphia, he began his railroad career at age 19 as a rodman working in a survey crew locating the
Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. Thomson later worked for
Camden and Amboy Railroad. He also worked canals, watching his father,
John Thomson, supervise the building of the
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
Developing Georgia's railroads
At the age of 26 in
1834, he became the chief engineer of the newly chartered
Georgia Railroad. He located the road, negotiated and oversaw construction contracts, operated portions as they opened, and promoted possible connections to the north and west. By
1845, he'd completed the railroad from
Augusta to
Marthasville (present day Atlanta, Georgia). At 173
miles (278.4
km), it was the longest railroad in the world at the time. Thomson later bought control of the
Montgomery and West Point Railroad and helped finance and locate the
Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad.
Also in 1845, he surveyed and designed the
Augusta Canal for lawyer
Henry Cumming which was completed two years later.
Pennsylvania Railroad
After the
Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was formed in
1846, it entered into an operating arrangement with the state-owned
Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, the road Thomson had first worked on. Thomson was named chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and went to work locating the railway from
Harrisburg to
Pittsburgh. In
1852, he became the Pennsylvania Railroad's president, a post he continued until his death in 1874.
Thomson's major projects included completing the road across the
Allegheny Mountains, double tracking its main line, the railroad's conversion from
wood to
coal as a fuel for its
steam locomotives, and reorganizing the company's management structure.
After the
American Civil War, Thomson led the PRR on an unprecedented expansion program, controlling over 6,000 miles (9,656 km) of railroad by
1873. Thomson also invested in
transcontinental railroad lines,
coal companies,
iron and
steel works,
lumber operations, and land companies.
The city of
Thomson in
McDuffie County, Georgia was named for him. Industrialist
Andrew Carnegie named the
Edgar Thomson Steel Works in
Braddock, Pennsylvania after him.
Further Information
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