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Article: Engineering Education
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ENGINEERING EDUCATION
ENGINEERING EDUCATION.
Revolutionary America possessed no way to educate engineers. Mill-wrights and other craftsmen had solved most technical problems for colonists, but the continental army had to turn to Europeans for advice on fortifications and military engineering. After independence, early canal promoters and elected officials alike continued to rely on visiting civil engineers. The army found this situation intolerable and in 1802 established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to train artillery and engineering officers. Sylvanus Thayer, commandant after 1817, transformed West Point into the nation's first engineering school by copying the
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