George Washington Whistler was a prominent American railroad engineer in the first half of the 19th century. He was born on May 19, 1800 in Fort Wayne, Indiana and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1819. He got a job with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which sent him to England to learn more about railroad technology. He was involved in the construction of several U.S. railroads, including the Baltimore and Susquehanna, Stonington, and the Western (Massachusetts) railroads. In 1842 Whistler was employed by Engineer Melnikov as a Consultant on the building of Russia's first major railroad, the Moscow - St. Petersburg line. While working on this project, he contracted cholera and died in St. Petersburg on April 7, 1849, two years before the line was completed. He is credited with selecting the five-foot rail gauge still used in Russia and neighboring countries.

Whistlers first wife, Mary R. Swift, died in 1827, after they had had three children, a girl and two boys. He later married Anna Matilda McNeill, with whom he had five sons. A portrait of Anna by their first son, James McNeill Whistler, is among the most famous paintings in art.

Stone arch railroad bridges built by George Washington Whistler in 1841 are still in freight and passenger service on the CSX mainline in western Massachusetts.

External links

• Bigraphical sketch at Center for Whistler Studies (http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/biog/Whis_Gwa.htm)
• George W. Whistler's Stone Arch Bridges (http://home.att.net/~rlgroves/arch_br.htm)