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Canadian Civil Engineering History & Heritage










  Samuel KeeferSamuel Keefer

Born in Thorold, Ontario on January 22, 1811. Father was W.H. Merritt’s partner in the Welland Canal. Older half-brother of Thomas Coltrin Keefer, Samuel was appointed Secretary of the Board of Works for Lower Canada in 1839. He became Chief Engineer in1841 and in 1843 built Canada’s first suspension bridge over the Chaudiere Falls in Ottawa. In 1853 he resigned to become Resident Engineer on the Montreal and Kingston section of the Grand Trunk Railway. He became Government Inspector of Railways in 1857 and shortly thereafter Comissioner of Public Works. In 1859 he supervised the construction of the new Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. In 1869 he designed and supervised the construction of a suspension bridge at Niagara Falls which was at that time the longest single span bridge in the world. In June, 1880, he was appointed a member of a royal commission to inquire into the conduct and prosecution of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He died in Brockville, Ontario on Jan. 7, 1890.
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