Thomas Curtis Clarke (September 16, 1827 – June 15, 1901) was a railway engineer, builder and
author best known for a series of
cast iron bridges in the
United States. While living and working in
Port Hope, Ontario, his firm won the contract to build the east and west blocks of the
Canadian Houses of Parliament.
Life
Clarke was born in
Newton, Massachusetts on September 16, 1827 and as a boy he attended the Boston Latin School. He enrolled at
Harvard University, graduating in 1848 with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in engineering, working under Captain John Child.[1][2]
Thomas Curtis Clarke died in New York City on June 15, 1901, and is buried in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada.[1]
The world of today differs from that of Napoleon Bonaparte more than his world differed from that of Julius Caesar, and this change has chiefly been made by engineering.
"Who Was T.C. Clarke, C.E.", SSAC Bulletin, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 1992, Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (article by Jim Leonard; this research provided the impetus, in 1993, for the Ontario Heritage Trust to erect a "blue and gold" provincial heritage plaque in downtown Port Hope.)