Charles Conrad Schneider (German: Carl Conrad Schneider; April 24, 1843 – January 8, 1916), often referred to as C. C. Schneider, was an American
civil engineer and bridge designer. Schneider was also a member and president of the
American Society of Civil Engineers.
Biography
Schneider was born in
Apolda in the Grand Duchy of
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. He graduated from the Royal Technical School at
Chemnitz,
Germany, in 1864, after which he worked as a mechanical engineer.[1] He emigrated to the United States in 1867, where he worked for the Paterson Locomotive Works in New Jersey for four years before moving to Detroit to work for the Michigan Bridge and Construction Company. In 1875, he went to
New York City to help review proposals for the Blackwell's Island Bridge across the East River (which would eventually be completed in 1909 and later came to be known as the
Queensboro Bridge). While in New York, he met Charles Macdonald and worked with him for the next year at the Delaware Bridge Company.
He married Katharine Clyde Winters on January 8, 1880.[1]
In 1883 he started his own civil engineering business in New York City. In 1885 he submitted a proposal for a bridge across the
Harlem River north of High Bridge; his design was selected and opened in 1889 as the
Washington Bridge.[1]
He was one of the engineers that were involved in the erection of the
Statue of Liberty in 1886. Among the many bridges, he designed and built, are the cantilever
Fraser River bridge on the
Canadian Pacific Railway, and the
Niagara Cantilever Bridge. He was also involved in the 1906 construction of the
Longteng Bridge in
Taiwan, a development that was never finalized after its collapse from the
1935 Hsinchu earthquake. Schneider also was the head of the team investigating the first collapse of the
Quebec Bridge in 1907, and in 1911 became a member of the board of engineers for the bridge.
He was vice president of the
American Bridge Company from 1900 to 1903. In 1905 Schneider was named president of the
American Society of Civil Engineers. He was twice awarded the Norman Medal which "recognizes a paper that makes a definitive contribution to engineering science,"[2] in 1905 and in 1908.[3] About 1910 he ran an engineering office together with Frederick C. Kunz in
Philadelphia.
Charles Conrad Schneider died in Philadelphia on January 8, 1916.[4]
Griggs, Jr., Frank (January 2011).
"Charles Conrad Schneider". STRUCTURE. National Council of Structural Engineers Associations (NCSEA). Retrieved July 8, 2015.