Egbert Ludovicus Viele - West Point, New York
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 41° 23.979 W 073° 58.052
18T E 586306 N 4583637
Grave located in the West Point Cemetery of the designer/engineer of Prospect Park and Central Park in New York City.
Waymark Code: WM4DJC
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 08/09/2008
Views: 76
"Egbert Ludovicus Viele (June 17, 1825 – April 22, 1902) was a civil engineer and United States Representative from New York, as well as an officer in the Union army during the American Civil War.
Viele was born in Waterford, New York (Saratoga County), a son of Kathline Schuyler (Knickerbacker) and John L. Viele. He graduated with honors from The Albany Academy and studied law briefly before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated on July 1, 1847, and was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant in the Second United States Infantry.
He served in the Mexican-American War and was promoted to second lieutenant in the First United States Infantry on September 8, 1847. From 1848 to 1849 he was assigned to establish a military camp at Laredo, Texas, which was named "Camp Crawford." Viele married Teresa Griffin on June 3, 1850, and was promoted to first lieutenant on October 26 the same year. He resigned from the service in 1853 to become a civil and military engineer.
He received an appointment as State Engineer of New Jersey in 1855 with a commission to conduct a topographical survey of the state. He also surveyed the environs that would become Central Park and submitted a design proposal. A competition was held which was awarded to "the Greensward Plan" from Olmsted & Vaux). Viele was appointed engineer-in-chief of Central Park in 1856, and engineer of Prospect Park, Brooklyn in 1860.
Viele was a captain in the Engineer Corps of the Seventh New York Regiment in 1860, and brigadier general of United States Volunteers in 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War. He commanded forces on the Savannah River during the siege of Fort Pulaski and was appointed Military Governor of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1862. He resigned from service on October 20, 1863, to again engage in civil engineering.
Viele was author of a color map, a "Sanitary and Topographical Atlas of the City and Island of New York" first published in 1865, and now called the "Viele Map", which shows his survey of the original streams, marshes and coastline of New York City, superimposed over the street grid. The map is still used by modern structural engineers and planners to design the foundations of new buildings and structures in the city.[1] Two years later he worked as chief engineer on the Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Rochester Railroad. He and his wife were divorced in 1872, and he later married Juliette Dana. From 1883 to 1884 Viele was the commissioner of parks for New York City
He was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1885 – March 3, 1887) and an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1886 to the Fiftieth Congress; he resumed his former business pursuits and engaged in literary work. Viele died at the age of 77 in New York City, and was survived by his second wife and four children. Francis Viélé-Griffin, the symbolist poet, was one of his sons. He and his second wife are entombed in a pyramid shaped monument, guarded by a pair of sphinxes, in the Post Cemetery at West Point, New York. According to an official video about West Point, Viele had a buzzer installed in his coffin. This is on record with West Point's cemetery." ~ Wikipedia
Description:
Noted civil engineer and landscape designer
Date of birth: 06/17/1825
Date of death: 04/22/1902
Area of notoriety: Other
Marker Type: Tomb (above ground)
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Dawn to dusk
Fee required?: No
Web site: [Web Link]
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