Sunday, September 16, 2012

Squire Whipple

This modest headstone of black granite on the South Ridge near the graves of Herman Melville's parents and the brownstone sarcophagus of Cortlandt Van Rensselaer marks the grave of Squire Whipple, a civil engineer known as "the father of iron bridge building"

Born in Massachusetts and educated at Union College in nearby Schenectady, Whipple is best remembered locally for the bowstring truss bridge preserved in the Normanskill Hollow between Albany and Delmar. 

Squire Whipple on Wikipedia

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1 comment:

  1. CarlSeptember 16, 2012 at 5:21 PM

    Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve in Clifton Park also has a Whipple Truss bridge, which I believe came from somewhere in Montgomery County. His bridges at one time were the standard for the "concession" bridges that allowed farmers to cross the Erie Canal, to get from one part of their land to the other where the canal bisected property.

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