Why “civil” engineer?

The term engineer has long been applied in Italy, France and England, to the builders of war machines and fortifications. This custom can ever be traced back to the middle Ages, to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In Germany too as late as the 18^th century, the German word “Ingenieur” still meant a designer and constructor of military engineering works.

The word may have originated in the fact that the technical aids of warfare and defense used to be known under the joint term “ingenia”.

Today the members of the branch of the army that builds roads and bridges are called “engineers”.

The direct ancestors of the modern civil engineer however were the French “genie” officers who, apart from their military tasks, were also entrusted with public works of a civilian character.

The non-military builders and architects came from artisan trades and artist professions such as painting, learnt by practical experience. The French “genie” officers on the other hand had a scientific education at state colleges and institutions with special emphasis on mathematics.

The “School of Bridges and Highways” in Paris was the only one of its kind in Europe. At this college a great number of excellent engineers received a training which secured for French bridge and road building supremacy throughout the Continent for a long time to come. Engineers who left the army and in civil life continued to be mainly concerned with public works called themselves “civil engineers”. Soon the term “civil engineer” meant any professional man who tackled problems of what we now call “civil engineering”.

The first man who advertised himself as a civil engineer was John Smeaton (1724–1792) an Englishman who in 1761 designed and built the famous Eddystone lighthouse.

In actual fact, the foundations of this profession were laid by a soldier Sebastien le Prestre Vauban (1633–1707) who built numerous fortresses and brought the system of polygonal and star-shaped fortifications to perfection. In 1678 he was appointed Inspector-General of the French Fortresses, and became a Marshal of France in 1703.

One of Vauban’s greatest achievements was conversion of Dunkirk into a coastal fortress. Apart from the construction of several forts there were extensive harbor basins, the construction of two long jetties, flanking the entrance channel, the erection of storehouses and workshops. However the fortress was demolished barely 30 years later after the Spanish War of Succession which ended badly for France. As a military man Vauban took part in more than a hundred battles. Yet he also took every possible opportunity of carrying out important public works serving peaceful purposes. Thus he planned the water supply system of the Park of Versailles, and was concerned in the completion of the Canal Du Languedoc.

Vauban’s projects are noteworthy for the careful methods he applied. Each project was accompanied by a memorandum in four sections:

1) general background of the scheme,

2) detailed descriptions with references to drawings,

3) estimate of cost,

4) notable features of the work.

Today the scope of civil engineering has become very broad and we subdivide it into structural engineering (all kinds of buildings), highway and railway engineering, hydraulic engineering (canals, dams, drainage and irrigation systems) and municipal engineering (city planning, traffic regulation, water supply and sewerage).