{{Short description|American civil engineer and inventor}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = James Buchanan Eads | image = James Buchanan Eads (3x4 cropped).jpg | image_size = | caption = Eads {{circa}} 1865–1880 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1820|5|23}} | birth_place = [[Lawrenceburg, Indiana]], US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1887|3|8|1820|5|23}} | death_place = [[Nassau, Bahamas]] | death_cause = | resting_place = [[Bellefontaine Cemetery]], <br /> [[St Louis, Missouri]] <br /> U.S. | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | known_for = | awards = [[Albert Medal (Royal Society of Arts)|Albert Medal]] {{small|(1884)}} | education = | employer = | occupation = Civil engineer | title = | networth = | height = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Martha Nash Dillon |1845|1852}} * {{marriage|Eunice Hagerman Eads |1854|1887}} }} | partner = | children = One son, three step-daughters | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''James Buchanan Eads''' (May 23, 1820 – March 8, 1887) was an American civil engineer and inventor. He held more than 50 [[patents]]<ref>[[#HOW1900|How 1900]]: pp. 118–119.</ref> and was known internationally.<ref>[[James Buchanan Eads#HOW1900|How 1900]]: p. 105. "His reputation was world-wide."</ref> He designed and built the [[Eads Bridge]] over the [[Mississippi River]] in [[St. Louis]], which was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]].
==Early life and education== Eads was born in [[Lawrenceburg, Indiana]],<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eads-james-eads-timeline/|title= Secrets of A Master Builder|publisher= PBS|access-date= September 26, 2012}}</ref> and named for his mother's cousin, future President of the United States [[James Buchanan]]. Eads' father, Thomas C. Eads, pursued a fortune to no avail and the family moved several times.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Movers and Shakers, Scalawags and Suffragettes: Tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery|last=Shepley|first=Carol Ferring|publisher=Missouri History Museum|year=2008|location=St. Louis, Missouri}}</ref> Eads grew up in [[St. Louis, Missouri]]. The family lost all of their possessions in a steamboat fire as they landed in St. Louis in 1833.<ref name=":0" /> Thomas Eads' business ventures in St. Louis failed, and he abandoned his family and moved upriver.<ref name=":0" />
James Eads was largely [[self-educated]]; at the age of 13, he left school to take up work to help support the family. He sold apples on the streets of St. Louis to help support his sisters and mother, who ran a boardinghouse.<ref name=":0" /> One of his first jobs was at the Williams & Duhring [[Dry goods|dry-goods store]] run by Barrett Williams. Williams allowed the young Eads to spend time in his library, located above the store. In Eads's spare time, he read books on [[physical science]], [[mechanics]], [[machinery]], and civil engineering. When Eads became successful later in life and Williams suffered hardship, Eads reciprocated Williams' generosity by providing money for Williams' comfort in his old age.<ref name=":0" />
==Family== [[File:Martha Dillon Eads, 1821 - 1852. (First wife of James B. Eads).jpg|thumb|Photograph portrait of Martha Dillon Eads, wife of James B. Eads]] Around 1842, Eads fell in love with Martha Dillon, a woman related to him by marriage. Martha's father was Patrick Dillon, a prominent St. Louis businessman. Patrick did not approve of the couple, as he wanted Martha to marry someone with money and influence. In October 1845, James and Martha wed without her father's consent.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eads-james-buchanan-eads-1820-1887/|title=People & Events: James Buchanan Eads, 1820 —1887|last=PBS|website=PBS American Experience|publisher=PBS|access-date=June 10, 2016}}</ref>
Martha moved in with Eads' parents in LeClaire, Iowa while Eads stayed behind in St. Louis to set up a glass works. Although their living arrangement was supposed to be temporary, the failure of his glass business made it permanent. Eads had many debts to pay off from the failed business and he went back to working in salvage.<ref name=":1" />
Martha died in October 1852 of cholera. She did not live to see Eads become successful. Five years after her death, when Eads retired from working on the river, he had amassed a fortune of $500,000.<ref name=":1" />
Nine years after Martha's death, in 1861, Eads remarried.<ref name=":1" />
==Fortune== When he was twenty-two, Eads designed a salvage boat and showed the drawings to two shipbuilders, Calvin Case and William Nelson. Although Eads had no previous experience and no capital for the project, Case and Nelson were impressed with him and the three became partners.<ref name=":0" />
At that time, salvaging wrecks from the [[Mississippi River]] was nearly impossible because of strong currents.<ref name=":0" /> Eads made his initial fortune in [[Marine salvage|salvage]] by creating a [[diving bell]], using a {{convert|40|USgal|Impgal l|lk=on|abbr=on}} wine barrel to retrieve goods sunk in [[riverboat]] disasters.<ref name=":0" /> He also devised special boats for raising the remains of sunken ships from the river bed. Eads did much of the diving himself because the work was so dangerous. His work gave Eads an intimate knowledge of the river, as he explored its depths from the Gulf of Mexico to Iowa.<ref name=":0" /> Because of his detailed knowledge of the Mississippi (the equal of any professional river pilot), his exceptional ability at navigating the most treacherous parts of the river system, and his personal fleet of snag-boats and salvage craft, he was afforded the much prized [[courtesy title]] of "Captain" by the rivermen of the Mississippi and was addressed as Captain Eads throughout his life.<ref>[[#HOW1900|How 1900]]: p. 12.</ref>
==Civil War== In 1861, after the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]], Eads was called to Washington at the prompting of his friend, Attorney General [[Edward Bates]], to consult on the defense of the Mississippi River.<ref>[[#HOW1900|How 1900]]: pp. 25-26. Eads received "a telegram calling him to Washington for consultation on the best method of defending and occupying the Western rivers."</ref> Soon afterward, he was contracted to construct the [[City-class ironclad]]s for the [[United States Navy]], and produced seven such ships within five months:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061231152914/http://www.nps.gov/archive/vick/visctr/sitebltn/gunboats.htm Gunboats on the Mississippi]</ref> ''[[USS Baron DeKalb (1861)|St. Louis]]'', ''[[USS Cairo (1861)|Cairo]]'', ''[[USS Carondelet (1861)|Carondelet]]'', {{USS|Cincinnati|1861|2}}, ''[[USS Louisville (1862)|Louisville]]'', ''[[USS Mound City (1862)|Mound City]]'', and ''[[USS Pittsburgh (1861)|Pittsburgh]]''.<ref>[[#HOW1900|How 1900]]: pp. 32-33.</ref> He also converted the river steamer ''New Era'' into the ironclad ''[[USS Essex (1856)|Essex]]''. The river ironclads were a vital element in the highly successful Federal offensive into Tennessee, Kentucky and upper Mississippi (February–June, 1862). Eads corresponded frequently with Navy officers of the Western Flotilla, and used their "combat lessons learned" to improve vessels during post-combat repairs, and incorporate improvements into succeeding generations of gunboats. By the end of the war he would build more than 30 river ironclads.
The last were so hardy that the Navy sent them into service in the [[Gulf of Mexico]], where they supported the successful Federal attack on the Confederate port city of Mobile. All senior officers in the Western Theater, including Grant and Sherman, agreed that Eads and his vessels had been vital to early victory in the West. The first four gunboats were built at the Eads' Union Marine Works in [[Carondelet, Missouri]]. The next three were built under Eads' contract at the [[Mound City, Illinois|Mound City (Illinois)]] Marine Railway and Shipyard.<ref>[http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/1ironclads.htm "Ironclads"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204055558/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/1ironclads.htm |date=2011-02-04 }}, St. Louis County, Missouri, US GenNet</ref> Eads' vessels were the first United States ironclads to enter combat. On January 11, 1862 the Eads-built ironclads ''[[USS Baron DeKalb (1861)|St. Louis]]'' and ''[[USS Essex (1856)|Essex]]'' fought the Confederate gunboats ''[[CSS General Polk]]'', ''[[CSS Ivy]]'', and ''[[CSS Jackson]]'' at Lucas Bend, on the Mississippi River. Subsequently, on February 6, 1862, Eads' ironclads captured [[Battle of Fort Henry|Fort Henry]] on the [[Tennessee River]].<ref name=nie>{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Eads, James Buchanan|year=1905}}</ref> This was over a month before the combat actions of the ironclads ''[[CSS Virginia]]'' and ''[[USS Monitor]]'' during the March 8–9, 1862 [[Battle of Hampton Roads]].
During the war, Eads wrote a check to the War Department for $1,000 to help homeless Confederates and Union sympathizers. After the war, he held a fair to raise money for the thousands of homeless refugees in St. Louis.<ref name=":0" />
==Mississippi River bridge== [[File:Eads Bridge panorama 20090119.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Eads Bridge]], St. Louis]] {{main|Eads Bridge}}
Eads designed and built the first road and rail bridge to cross the Mississippi River at [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]]. The Eads Bridge, constructed from 1867 through 1874, was the first bridge of a significant size with steel as its primary material, and it was the longest [[arch bridge]] in the world when completed. Eads was the first bridge builder to employ the [[cantilever]] method,{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} which allowed [[steam boat]] traffic to continue using the river during construction. The bridge is still in use today, carrying both automobile and [[light rail]] traffic over the river.
==Mississippi River designs== {{See also|Port Eads, Louisiana}} The Mississippi in the 100-mile-plus stretch between the port of [[New Orleans]], Louisiana and the [[Gulf of Mexico]] frequently suffered from silting up of its outlets, stranding ships or making parts of the river unnavigable for a period of time. Eads solved the problem with a wooden [[jetty]] system that narrowed the main outlet of the river, causing the river to speed up and cut its channel deeper, allowing year-round navigation. Eads offered to build the jetties first, and charge the government later.<ref>Eads Jetties Plaque, Fort Jackson, LA.</ref> If he was successful, and the jetties caused the river to cut a channel 30 feet deep for 20 years, the government agreed to pay him $8 million. The jetty system was installed in 1876 and the channel was cleared in February 1877.<ref>{{cite news|title = The Mississippi Jetties.; Operation of the System Shown in the Recent Flood from the Ohio River| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F05E5DA103AE63BBC4D53DFB466838C669FDE| format = pdf| work = New York Times| page = 1| date = February 5, 1877| access-date = January 10, 2009}}</ref> Journalist [[Joseph Pulitzer]], who had known Eads for five years, invested $20,000 in this project.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power|author=James McGrath Morris|publisher=[[HarperCollins Publishers]]|year=2010|pages=103 and 112}}</ref> In 1879 the Eads design of jettys at the mouth of the Mississippi River proved to be successful.<ref>Pabis, George S. “Delaying the Deluge: The Engineering Debate over Flood Control on the Lower Mississippi River, 1846-1861.” ''The Journal of Southern History'', vol. 64, no. 3, 1998, pp. 421–54. [https://doi.org/10.2307/2587789 JSTOR website] Retrieved 5 May 2025.</ref> A flood in 1890 brought calls for a similar system for the entire Mississippi Valley. A jetty system would prevent the floods by deepening the main channel. However, there were concerns about the ability of water moving through a jetty system to cut out the rock and clay on the river bottom.<ref>{{cite news| title = Fighting Against Nature; How to Prevent the Recurring (sic) Mississippi Floods. The Jetty Plan of No Practical Benefit in Solving this Important Problem for the Country.| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E01E6DF123BE533A2575BC2A9629C94619ED7CF| format = pdf| work = New York Times| page = 1| date = 1890-04-28| access-date = January 10, 2009}}</ref> The development of navigable channels at the mouth of the Mississippi River made Eads famous.
In 1982, the [[American Society of Civil Engineers]] designated the south pass jetties as a [[List_of_Historic_Civil_Engineering_Landmarks|National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Anon. |title=EADS SOUTH PASS NAVIGATION WORKS |url=https://www.asce.org/project/eads-south-pass-navigation-works/ |website=American Society of Civil Engineers |publisher=ASCE |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-date=23 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423055112/https://www.asce.org/Project/Eads-South-Pass-Navigation-Works/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Other work== [[File:Mining and Scientific Press - March 28 1885 - Interoceanic Ship Railway (206).png|thumb|Contemporary illustration of Eads' proposal for an Interoceanic Ship Railway]] Eads designed a gigantic railway system intended for construction at the [[Isthmus of Tehuantepec]], which would carry ocean-going ships across the isthmus from the [[Gulf of Mexico]] to the Pacific Ocean; this attracted some interest but was never constructed.
In 1884 he became the first U.S. citizen awarded the [[Albert Medal (RSA)|Albert Medal of the Royal Society of the Arts]].
==Later life and death== [[File:Grave of James Buchanan Eads (1820–1887) at Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Eads' grave at Bellefontaine Cemetery]]
Although he came from a humble background, Eads' accomplishments throughout his life earned him wealth and renown. He was so revered that Scientific American proposed that he run for president of the United States.<ref name=":0" />
Eads died while on vacation in [[Nassau, Bahamas]], aged 66. Eads and his second wife, Eunice, had moved to New York four years before his death. However, his funeral took place in St. Louis and he was buried in [[Bellefontaine Cemetery]] in [[St. Louis, Missouri]] in the family vault.<ref name=":0" />
==Legacy== [[File:J. B. Eads, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes MET DP838823.jpg|thumb|1888 color lithograph of J. B. Eads, made for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes]] The towns of [[Eads, Tennessee]]; [[Eads, Colorado]]; and [[Port Eads, Louisiana]] are named for him.
[[U.S. Route 50 in Indiana|U.S. Route 50]] through Lawrenceburg, his hometown, is called Eads Parkway in his honor.
Eads Street is a street running parallel to U.S. Route 1/Richmond Highway in Crystal City, Arlington Virginia.
In 1920, Eads was added to the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]] colonnade, located on the grounds of the [[Bronx Community College]] in New York.
Eads is memorialized at Washington University in St. Louis by James B. Eads Hall, a 19th-century building long associated with science and technology. Eads Hall was the site of [[Arthur Compton|Professor Arthur Holly Compton]]'s Nobel Prize–winning experiments in electromagnetic radiation. Today Eads Hall continues to serve [[Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University]] as the site of a number of facilities including the Arts and Sciences Computing Center. Eads Hall was the gift of Captain Eads's daughter Mrs. James Finney How.<ref>{{cite web |title=James B. Eads Hall |work=Washington University in St. Louis |url=https://wustl.edu/about/campuses/danforth-campus/james-b-eads-hall/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |date=16 July 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716192138/https://wustl.edu/about/campuses/danforth-campus/james-b-eads-hall/ |archive-date=16 July 2024 }}</ref>
Each year the [[Academy of Science, St. Louis|Academy of Science of St. Louis]] awards the James B. Eads Award recognizing a distinguished individual for outstanding achievement in science and technology.
Eads is recognized with a star on the [[St. Louis Walk of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/?view=achievement|title=St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees|last=St. Louis Walk of Fame|publisher=stlouiswalkoffame.org|access-date=25 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031162946/http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/?view=achievement|archive-date=31 October 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 1927, the deans of America's engineering colleges vote Eads one of the top five engineers of all time, an accolade he shared with [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[James Watt]], [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]], and [[Thomas A. Edison]].<ref name=":0" />
Eads Bridge was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]] by the Department of the Interior in 1964 and on October 21, 1974 was listed as a [[List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks|National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark]] by the [[American Society of Civil Engineers]]. It was also awarded a Special Award of Recognition by the [[American Institute of Steel Construction]] in 1974 on the 100th anniversary of its entry into service. Eads also designed the jetties of the south pass of the Mississippi River, which were designated as [[National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark|National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks]] in 1982.
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *{{cite book |last1= How |first1= Louis |title= James B. Eads |via= [[Internet Archive]] |url= https://archive.org/details/jamesbeads01howgoog|edition= First |series= The Riverside Biographical Series |year= 1900|publisher= Houghton, Mifflin and Company |location= Boston |isbn= 0-8369-5333-9|pages= [https://archive.org/details/jamesbeads01howgoog/page/n56 1]–120|quote= Testing.|ref= HOW1900}} *{{cite journal| last = Weingardt| first = Richard G.|date=July 2005| title = James Buchanan Eads| journal = Leadership and Management in Engineering| volume = 5| issue = 3| pages = 70–74| publisher = American Society of Civil Engineers| location = Washington| issn = 1532-6748| doi= 10.1061/(ASCE)1532-6748(2005)5:3(70) | doi-access = free}} *{{cite book | title = Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America | last = Barry | first = John M. | author-link = John M. Barry | isbn = 0-684-84002-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/risingtidegreatm00barr | year = 1997 }} *{{cite book | title = Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America | url = https://archive.org/details/engineersofdream00petr | url-access = registration | last = Petroski |first = Henry | date = 1995 | isbn = 978-0-679-43939-4 | author-link = Henry Petroski}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} {{Wikisource}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=James Buchanan Eads}} *{{Structurae person|id=d000008|name=James Buchanan Eads}} *[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/eads/ PBS – Secrets of a Master Builder] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20061231152914/http://www.nps.gov/archive/vick/visctr/sitebltn/gunboats.htm National Park Service, Vicksburg National Military Park website on City class ironclads] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20130705122542/https://www.createspace.com/351587 Building the City Class Ironclads Documentary] *{{Wikisource-inline|list= **{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Eads, James Buchanan|year=1900 |short=x |noicon=x}} **{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Eads, James Buchanan|year=1905|short=x |noicon=x}} **{{Cite Nuttall|title=Eads, James Buchanan|short=x |noicon=x}} **{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Eads, James Buchanan|short=x |noicon=x}} **{{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Eads, James Buchanan|short=x |noicon=x}} **{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Eads, James Buchanan|year=1920 |short=x |noicon=x}} **{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Eads, James Buchanan|year=1921|short=x |noicon=x}} *[http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/eads-james-b.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir] }} {{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eads, James Buchanan}} [[Category:1820 births]] [[Category:1887 deaths]] [[Category:American civil engineers]] [[Category:American Civil War industrialists]] [[Category:19th-century American inventors]] [[Category:American bridge engineers]] [[Category:Burials at Bellefontaine Cemetery]] [[Category:American marine engineers]] [[Category:People from Lawrenceburg, Indiana]] [[Category:Engineers from St. Louis]] [[Category:People of Missouri in the American Civil War]] [[Category:American structural engineers]] [[Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees]] [[Category:19th-century American engineers]]