G. B. N. (George Bates Nichols) Tower

Born in 1834, George Bates Nichols Tower was an American civil and mechanical engineer who also served as a Union naval officer during the Civil War. Sources consistently describe him as chief engineer on the USS Canandaigua for at least part of his service, and later as Chandler Instructor in civil engineering at Dartmouth College.

He is remembered in print for Instructions on Modern American Bridge Building (1874), a technical work aimed at engineers and students entering the field. The book reflects a practical, working engineer's mindset, focusing on methods, materials, estimates, and examples rather than theory alone.

Tower died in 1889. While biographical details about his personal life are limited in the sources readily available online, his surviving work gives a clear sense of a writer shaped by hands-on engineering, teaching, and public service.