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Reginald Heber Thomson (usually R.H. Thomson; 1856 – January 7, 1949) was a self-taught American civil engineer. He worked in Washington state, mainly in Seattle, where he became city engineer in 1892〔Ross Anderson, "Earthmovers", ''Seattle Metropolitan'' magazine, May 2006, p. 63〕 and held the position for two decades. Alan J. Stein wrote that Thomson "probably did more than any other individual to change the face of Seattle" and was responsible for "virtually all of Seattle's infrastructure".〔Alan J. Stein, (Thomson, Reginald Heber (1856-1949) ), HistoryLink essay 2074, January 18, 2000. Accessed online April 14, 2007. ''(contains errors)''〕 Despite the scope of his work, no major portion of Seattle's infrastructure has ever carried Thomson's name. He was supposed to have been memorialized by the R.H. Thomson Expressway, proposed in 1960 but never built.〔〔David Wilma, (Seattle City Council cancels R. H. Thomson Expressway on June 1, 1970 ), HistoryLink essay 2446, May 22, 2000. Accessed online April 14, 2007.〕 Among his achievements were the railway route through Snoqualmie Pass, the Lake Washington Ship Canal, much of the paving of Seattle's roads and sidewalks, numerous bridges over rivers and valleys, and major improvements to Seattle's sewer system, as well as straightening and deepening the Duwamish River and developing the Cedar River watershed, now one of Seattle's major sources of drinking water. He was also responsible for much of the regrading of Seattle, taking down hills and filling in the mudflats,〔 and played a major role in the creation of Seattle City Light (the public electric utility), the Port of Seattle, and the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. Elsewhere, he consulted on projects such as the Rogue River Valley Irrigation Canal, water development for Bellingham, Washington, and power plants in Southeastern Alaska.〔 ==Early life== Born and raised in a "Scottish colony" in Hanover, Indiana, Thomson received three degrees from Hanover College: a Bachelors in 1877, a Master of Arts in 1901 and an honorary Ph.D., also in 1901.〔(''That Man Thomson'' ) R. H. Thomson (autobiography), University of Washington Press (1950), p.3〕 After his baccalaureate, he worked as a surveyor, then followed his father to Healdsburg Institute in Healdsburg, California, where his father served as principal and Thomson as a mathematics teacher.〔 Thomson accompanied T.B. Morris to what was then the Washington Territory, now Washington State, where Morris planned to start a coal mine. He arrived September 25, 1881, 30 years to the day after the Denny Party, usually considered the city's founders. The day of his arrival, he met pioneer David Denny at a memorial service for the recently assassinated U.S. president, James Garfield.〔 As an assistant to city and county surveyor F.H. Whitworth, Thompson was involved in the initial surveying and dredging of what would, years later, become the Montlake Cut of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. In 1884 he became the city surveyor, in which capacity he oversaw the building of Seattle's first sewers and the Grant Street bridge across the Duwamish River tideflats.〔 In 1886 he resigned to work for the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern railroad, for whom he plotted the route from the northern end of Lake Washington (now Kenmore) east through Snoqualmie Pass to Lake Keechelus. Before returning to become a consulting engineer in Seattle, he spent some time in Spokane, near the state's eastern border, where he was responsible for several railway terminals and two bridges.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Reginald H. Thomson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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