Joseph Gardner Swift (1783-1865) was a civil engineer and officer in the U.S. Army. He was one of two students of the first graduating class in 1802 of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. By the age of twenty-eight he was a colonel and Chief...
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Joseph Gardner Swift (1783-1865) was a civil engineer and officer in the U.S. Army. He was one of two students of the first graduating class in 1802 of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. By the age of twenty-eight he was a colonel and Chief Engineer of the Army. His projects included the completion of Fort Clinton (New York City) and during the War of 1812 the fortifications of western Long Island harbors and New York City. He resigned his commission in 1818 and served as Surveyor of the Port of New York until 1826, then as chief engineer for several railroads, and in 1829 he directed harbor improvements on the Great Lakes. Swift also was involved in a variety of business activities and was a friend and mentor to younger engineers including George Washington Whistler and William Gibbs McNeill (both of them were his brothers-in-law). Collection consists entirely of correspondence of Swift and members of his family. Most of the letters, 1825-1857, were written to Swift from his brother, William Henry Swift, and from his brother-in-law, George Washington Whistler. Whistler's letters include several written from Russia while he was working on construction of the Moscow/St. Petersburg railroad. Also, correspondence of Swift and Whistler, 1809-1862, with various correspondents, and letters exchanged among members of the Swift, Whistler and McNeill families.
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