F. B. (Fayette Bartholomew) Tower

Born in Waterville, New York, in 1817, Fayette Bartholomew Tower was trained as a civil engineer and joined the engineering staff working on the Croton Aqueduct in 1837. He remained connected with that landmark project until its completion, and his name is now most closely linked with Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct (1843), a detailed account of the enterprise.

Tower’s writing stands out because it comes from someone who knew the work firsthand. Rather than treating the aqueduct as a dry technical subject, he presented it as a major civic accomplishment, helping later readers see how closely engineering, public health, and city life were tied together in the growth of New York.

Sources also note that Tower later served as mayor of Waterville. He died in 1857, still relatively young, but his book remains a useful window into American engineering in the early nineteenth century.