George Washington appointed the first engineer officers of the Army on June 16, 1775, during the American Revolution, and engineers have served in combat in all subsequent American wars. The Army established the Corps of Engineers as a separate, permanent branch on March 16, 1802, and gave the engineers responsibility for founding and operating the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Since then the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has responded to changing defense requirements and played an integral part in the development of the country. Throughout the 19th century, the Corps built coastal fortifications, surveyed roads and canals, eliminated navigational hazards, explored and mapped the Western frontier, and constructed buildings and monuments in the Nation’s capital.

From the beginning, many politicians wanted the Corps to contribute to both military construction and works "of a civil nature." Throughout the 19th century, the Corps supervised the construction of coastal fortifications and mapped much of the American West with the Corps of Topographical Engineers, which enjoyed a separate existence for 25 years (1838-1863). The Corps of Engineers also constructed lighthouses, helped develop jetties and piers for harbors, and carefully mapped the navigation channels.

In the 20th century, the Corps became the lead federal flood control agency and significantly expanded its civil works activities, becoming among other things a major provider of hydroelectric energy and the country’s leading provider of recreation. Its role in responding to natural disasters also grew dramatically.

Assigned the military construction mission in 1941, the Corps built facilities at home and abroad to support the U.S. Army and Air Force. During the Cold War, Army engineers managed construction programs for America’s allies, including a massive effort in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the Corps of Engineers also completed large construction programs for federal agencies such as NASA and the postal service.. The Corps also maintains a rigorous research and development program in support of its water resources, construction, and military activities.

In the late 1960s, the Corps became a leading environmental preservation and restoration agency. It now carries out natural and cultural resource management programs at its water resources projects and regulates activities in the Nation’s wetlands. In addition, the Corps assists the military services in environmental management and restoration at former and current military installations.

When the Cold War ended, the Corps was poised to support the Army and the Nation in the new era. Army engineers supported 9/11 recovery efforts and currently play an important international role in the rapidly evolving Global War on Terrorism, including reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stands ready to support the country’s military and water resources needs in the 21st century as it has done during its more than two centuries of service.

The Beginnings to 1815

The history of United States Army Corps of Engineers can be traced back to June 16, 1775, when the Continental Congress organized an army with a chief engineer and two assistants. Colonel Richard Gridley became General George Washington's first chief engineer; however, it was not until 1779 that Congress created a separate Corps of Engineers. Army engineers, including several French officers, were instrumental in some of the hard-fought battles of the Revolutionary War including Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and the final victory at Yorktown.

At the end of the Revolutionary War, the engineers mustered out of service. In 1794, Congress organized a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers, but it was not until 1802 that it reestablished a separate Corps of Engineers. The Corps' continuous existence dates from this year. At the same time, Congress established a new military academy at West Point, New York. Until 1866, the superintendent of the academy was always an engineer officer. The first superintendent, Jonathan Williams, also became the chief engineer of the Corps. During the first half of the 19th century, West Point was the major and for a while, the only engineering school in the country.

From the beginning, many politicians wanted the Corps to contribute to both military construction and works "of a civil nature." Throughout the 19th century, the Corps supervised the construction of coastal fortifications and mapped much of the American West with the Corps of Topographical Engineers, which enjoyed a separate existence for 25 years (1838-1863). The Corps of Engineers also constructed lighthouses, helped develop jetties and piers for harbors, and carefully mapped the navigation channels.

Once reestablished, the Corps of Engineers began constructing and repairing fortifications, first in Norfolk and then in New Orleans. The Corps' fortifications assignments proliferated during the 5 years of diplomatic tension that preceded the War of 1812. The chief engineer, Colonel Jonathan Williams, substantially expanded the system of fortifications protecting New York Harbor. The works, which Williams and his successor Joseph Swift erected around that harbor including the 11-pointed fort that now serves as the base of the Statute of Liberty, convinced the commanders of the British navy to avoid attacking that strategic location during the War of 1812.

Responding to the success of its fortifications during the War of 1812, the United States soon developed an expanded system of modern, casemated, masonry fortifications to provide the first line of land defense against the threat of attack from European powers.

While Congress reduced the size of the country's infantry and artillery forces after the war, it retained the increased number of officers that it had authorized for the Corps of Engineers in 1812. Pleas from several secretaries of war for more engineers to work on fortifications led Congress to double the size of the Corps again in 1838. The fortifications, which the Army engineers built on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and after 1848 on the Pacific coast, securely defended the nation until the second half of the 19th century when the development of rifled artillery ended the earlier impregnability of the massive structures.
 

Improving Transportation

Although its work on fortifications was important, perhaps the greatest legacy the early Corps of Engineers bestowed to future generations was its work on canals, rivers, and roads. America was a young nation, and rivers were its paths of commerce. They provided routes from western farms to eastern markets and for settlers seeking new homes beyond the Appalachian frontier. The rivers beckoned and enticed, but then could treacherously destroy the dreams of unwary travelers and shippers whose boats were punctured by snags and sawyers or stranded by sandbars. Both commercial development and national defense, as shown during the War of 1812, required more reliable transportation arteries. Out of those unruly streams, engineers carved navigation passages and harbors for a growing nation.

Still, federal assistance for "internal improvements" evolved slowly and haphazardly—the product of contentious congressional factions and an executive branch generally concerned with avoiding unconstitutional federal intrusions into state affairs. In 1824, however, the Supreme Court ruled in Gibbons v. Ogden that federal authority covered interstate commerce including riverine navigation. Shortly thereafter, Congress passed two important laws that, together, marked the beginning of the Corps' continuous involvement in civil works. The General Survey Act authorized the president to have surveys made of routes for roads and canals "of national importance, in a commercial or military point of view, or necessary for the transportation of public mail." The president assigned responsibility for the surveys to the Corps of Engineers. The second act, passed a month later, appropriated $75,000 to improve navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers by removing sandbars, snags, and other obstacles. Subsequently, the act was amended to include other rivers such as the Missouri. This work, too, was given to the Corps of Engineers—the only formally trained body of engineers in the new republic and, as part of the nation's small army, available to serve the wishes of Congress and the executive branch.

The work was important. At first a Board of Internal Improvements, headed by an engineer officer, planned surveys and the development of canals, roads, and railroads. The board, the Engineer Department, and the War Department, agreed that national defense and inland transportation were complementary and interdependent. This idea governed earliest activities. In some cases various modes of transportation were considered in relationship to each other, thus, an 1826 investigation considered whether it was practical to unite the Kanawha River with the James and Roanoke rivers by canals, railroads, or both. By the mid 1830s, however, local political considerations outweighed any overall plan in determining which projects received attention.

Much of the work was done by the topographical engineers or "Topogs," who reported to a separate Topographical Bureau in the Engineer Department. In 1838, the topographical engineers became a separate corps and remained that way until 1863 when they were reunited with the Corps of Engineers. As surveyors, explorers, cartographers, and construction managers, the topographical engineers helped open the nation's interior to commercial development and settlement.

Congress expanded the Army engineers' workload in 1826. New legislation, authorized the president to have river surveys made to clean out and deepen selected waterways and to make various other river and harbor improvements. Although the 1824 act to improve the Mississippi and Ohio rivers is often called the first rivers and harbors legislation, the 1826 act was the first to combine authorizations for both surveys and projects, thereby establishing a pattern that continues to the present day.

An early project that reflected engineer innovation was the removal of sandbars in the Ohio River. By September 1825, topographical engineer Major Stephen H. Long, working on the Ohio River just below Henderson, Kentucky, had constructed a wing dam consisting of two rows of more than 600 wooden piles, driven to a depth of 16 feet. He experimented with the proper angle, width, and length to achieve the greatest velocity of current. Theory and empirical data agreed that the increased velocity should reduce the sandbar and increase the height of the river. Long finally figured out an angle and length for the dam that seemed to work, and the dam served as the prototype for many others along the Ohio River. It required no significant repair until 1872.

Long, however, was not completely satisfied with his work. He realized that the dam would not prevent the formation of sandbars. From year to year, the Ohio would continue to push and carry sediment downstream, forming bars at many different points, including the dams themselves. Long's misgivings led to further innovation. He convinced Colonel Alexander Macomb, the chief engineer, to sponsor a contest to find a machine that could eliminate navigation obstructions. The winner would receive a prize of $1,000 and, potentially of more value, a contract to open up the Ohio River. However, the winner, John Bruce, designed a boat of limited use; moreover, he argued with Macomb over the terms of the contract. Long suggested someone to replace Bruce. He was Henry M. Shreve, a man known for has navigation skill on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and for his pioneering efforts to bring trade and commerce to the Mississippi Valley.

Shreve cared little for hydraulic theory. His attitude was to design whatever it took to get the job done, and he constructed a revolutionary new steam-powered snag boat. Put into service in 1829, it became the model for steam snag boats on the Ohio, Mississippi, and elsewhere. Shreve's boat ran full steam into the snags, jarring them loose. The limbs were then hoisted and broken apart on the vessel's deck. "Uncle Sam's tooth pullers," Shreve's snag boats came to be called. They were unlike anything known elsewhere in the world, and their impact was dramatic. Insurance and shipping rates dropped, and the number of steamboats on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers increased significantly.

The innovative work to clear the nation's rivers of navigation obstacles continued after the Civil War. In 1871, engineer Major Quincy A. Gillmore chartered a steamer and converted it for suction dredging. Named the Henry Burden, the converted boat was the Corps' first hydraulic dredge, and one of the first in the country. Within 3 years, the government purchased another propeller-driven steamer, the Woodbury, and converted it into a suction dredge to deepen the Cape Fear River below Wilmington, North Carolina. More than half a dozen hydraulic hopper dredges were constructed for the Corps just before the turn of the century.

After the Civil War, a special Army Engineer Board concluded that a system of locks and dams on the Ohio River was preferable either to continued dependence on wing dams and dredging or to the construction of a system of canals to by-pass the Ohio's obstacles. Major William E. Merrill, who was in charge of Ohio River improvements, needed to develop a system of river regulation dams that would easily allow passage of coal barges. He concluded that the wicket dam design developed by Jacques Chanoine in France in 1852 would be best, and in 1874 he formally proposed that a series of movable dams, employing Chanoine wickets, be constructed on the Ohio. After Congress approved Merrill's plan in 1877, the Corps began constructing the Davis Island project, just south of Pittsburgh. Completed in 7 years, the 110 by 600-foot lock and 1,223-foot dam were the largest in the world at that time. The Davis Island Lock also was one of the first in the country to use concrete in place of stone masonry. The Corps' success at Davis Island led Congress to authorize extension of the project down the Ohio. Later, the Corps increased the initial 6-foot channel to 9 feet. The project was completed in 1929 at a cost of about $125 million.

Throughout the 19th century, engineer officers were involved in the construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation of canals and river navigation features. They surveyed the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Muscle Shoals canal routes in the 1820s. Several prominent Army engineers launched their careers at the revived Muscle Shoals after the Civil War. These included Major William Rice King and Lieutenants William Louis Marshall later chief of engineers, and George W. Goethals. Goethals designed the Riverton Lock with a low-water lift of 26 feet, the largest yet attempted in the United States when the Muscle Shoals Canal opened in 1911. Successes like these assured that engineers like Goethals would be called on again, as he was for the Panama Canal.

The Corps' canal-building efforts continued in the 20th century. After the federal government purchased the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in 1919, the Corps' Wilmington (Delaware) District directed a reconstruction effort to deepen the channel to 12 feet and add several bridges. Traffic soon increased, and as an immediate result, demands were made to enlarge it. The C&D Ship Canal became part of an intercoastal waterway envisioned to connect existing bodies of water in a line roughly paralleling the coast from Boston, south to Key West, and then west to the Rio Grande. Today, the Corps retains responsibility for this canal and the entire intracoastal waterway of which it is a part.

Aside from the actual construction and maintenance of canals, locks, and other navigation features, Army engineers performed important survey work. Two important surveys were of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Delta. The necessity for a good survey of the Great Lakes had long been recognized, for the uncharted lakes posed significant navigation hazards. Army topographers had surveyed some of the Great Lakes as early as 1823, but Congress did not appropriate funds for a systematic survey until 1841. Captain William G. Williams, who had been the general superintendent of harbor improvements on Lake Erie, headed the survey.

Despite the modest and belated support given to the Great Lakes survey, the subsequent years revealed a rare congressional consensus that the work was, indeed, important. From 1841 to 1860, Congress appropriated a total of $640,000 for the survey; funds were provided in 10 of those 20 years. The survey itself was daunting. Some 6,000 miles of shoreline needed to be surveyed. The surveyors determined latitude and longitude; measured the discharge of rivers into the Great Lakes; surveyed rivers, narrows, and shoals; develop charts and maps; and marked points of danger. A special iron-hulled steamer was constructed for the work. The Corps continued this survey work until 1970, when many of the survey office's functions were transferred to the newly established National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Detroit District of the Corps of Engineers assumed the responsibility for forecasting lake levels.

The scientific conclusions of the Mississippi Delta survey gave it an importance in the history of hydraulic engineering out of proportion to the funds invested in it. In September 1850, responding to the pleas of southern congressmen seeking federal assistance to fight the periodic disastrous flooding that struck New Orleans and other lower Mississippi River communities, Congress appropriated $50,000 for a topographical and hydrographical survey of the Mississippi Delta, including a study of the best means of securing a 20-foot navigation channel at the Mississippi's mouth.

Topographical engineer Captain Andrew A. Humphreys initiated the survey and maintained overall supervision of the project, but beginning in 1857 he received the assistance of a young engineer, Second Lieutenant Henry L. Abbot. Abbot's field work proved so indispensable that when the final report was published in 1861, Humphreys named Abbot as its coauthor. Officially called the Report Upon The Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River, the survey is often simply referred to as the Humphreys Abbot report.

The two Army engineers submitted a report full of new details about the lower Mississippi Basin. From just south of the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to where the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico, they obtained data on river flow, channel cross sections, and general topographical and geological features. After examining some 15 different formulas and finding each lacking, they began to develop their own formula to measure the flow of water in rivers, one that subsequently also proved faulty. Most important, it failed to take into account the degree of roughness of the slopes of a river channel. Still, their work stimulated other hydraulic engineers, and further research led to important theoretical discoveries. The report obtained the respect of engineers around the world.

The conclusions of Humphreys and Abbot decidedly influenced the development of river engineering and the evolution of the Corps of Engineers. The authors believed that "levees only" could control flooding along the lower Mississippi. Neither costly reservoirs nor cutoffs were needed. The Corps of Engineers accepted these conclusions for nearly 60 years, not just for the lower Mississippi but for other large rivers as well. The "levees only" policy profoundly affected the manner in which the United States developed its water resources. Indeed, the influence of the Humphreys Abbot report extended past World War II, despite the fact that by then Congress had authorized hundreds of reservoir projects.

In the 19th century the Corps of Engineers also constructed roads. The most famous project was the Cumberland or National Road that was constructed between 1811 and 1841. The road extended from Cumberland, Maryland, across the Appalachian ridges of western Pennsylvania to Wheeling and then across the midsections of Ohio and Indiana to Vandalia, Illinois. The Corps' involvement on the road occurred in large part because civilian superintendents failed. Congress authorized the Treasury Department to build the road in 1806, but in the following years the Treasury Department was accused of inefficient, costly, and unsatisfactory progress on the project. In 1825, President John Quincy Adams turned the responsibility over to the War Department.

In constructing the National Road, the Corps applied the techniques developed in England by John McAdam, and it engaged in some innovative bridge building. At Brownsville, Pennsylvania, Captain Richard Delafield, a future chief engineer, built the first bridge in the United States with a cast-iron superstructure, an 80-foot span that remains in use today. By 1840 engineer officers had overseen construction of 268 miles of macadamized surface with bridges across all but the widest rivers.

Engineer officers also superintended railroad work after 1824. They surveyed railroad routes and, once construction commenced, the War Department loaned engineers to various railroad companies. Thus, with the permission of the chief engineer, Captain William G. McNeill entered the service of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828 to supervise the surveying and construction of a railroad line. In October 1829, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began laying track under the supervision of Lieutenant George W. Whistler. By 1830 many officers were being granted furloughs to work on railroads, in either construction or surveying activities. Finally, in 1838, Congress passed legislation that prohibited granting leave to Army officers to allow them temporary employment with private companies.

In the 1850s', westward expansion generated interest in a rail link from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast, and topographical engineer officers surveyed and evaluated four alternative routes for the road, gathering a great deal of scientific information at the same time. The Corps of Engineers sponsored two more surveys after the Civil War in an effort to gather knowledge about the American West. One survey, led by a civilian, Clarence King, explored the 40th parallel route across the "Great Basin" that extended from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada to the western fringes of Wyoming and Colorado, while Major George M. Wheeler led another scientific expedition into the Southwest. Both expeditions produced a wealth of data on the natural history of the West.

The Mexican and Civil Wars

U.S. Army engineers played significant roles in the Mexican and Civil Wars, providing both mapping and construction services and troop leaders in theaters of operations while largely suspending work on navigational improvements. Engineers of all ranks gained renown for their military efforts during their service in Mexico in 1846-48. Chief Engineer Joseph Totten directed the successful siege of the port city of Veracruz, from which General Winfield Scott launched his decisive assault on the interior of the country. Captain William Williams, who had directed the Great Lakes survey, served as chief topographical engineer for General Zachary Taylor until his death at the battle of Monterey.

During the Civil War, Army engineers built ponton and railroad bridges, constructed forts and batteries, demolished enemy supply lines, and conducted siege warfare. In December 1862 they laid six ponton bridges across the Rappahannock River, under devastating fire from Confederate sharpshooters, in support of the Union attack on Fredericksburg, Virginia. The 2,170-foot ponton bridge, which Union engineer troops laid across the James River in June 1864 as the Army of the Potomac approached Petersburg, Virginia, was the longest floating bridge erected before World War II. Drawn largely from the top of their West Point classes, the engineers in the Corps before the Civil War included many excellent military strategists who rose to leadership roles during the war. Among them were Union generals George McClellan, Henry Halleck, George Meade, and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, and P. G. T. Beauregard.
 

The Growing Nation

In the early 19th century, the Corps constructed many projects in support of the Department of the Treasury. For instance, the Corps built three customs houses and more than half a dozen marine hospitals (to treat merchant seamen). These hospitals were built at such places as Napoleon, Arkansas; Paducah and Louisville, Kentucky; and Natchez, Mississippi. Also for the Department of Treasury, the Corps built a number of lighthouses. Between 1831 and 1851, engineer officers were regularly engaged in this duty, which often involved extraordinarily difficult and perilous construction challenges. In 1852 Congress established a Lighthouse Board, which included engineer officers, to superintend lighthouse construction. Eventually, Corps officers supervised the construction of dozens of lighthouses along the nation's coasts, including the Great Lakes.

The Corps also contributed substantially to the construction of many public buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C. This work began as early as 1822, when Isaac Roberdeau, a topographical engineer, supervised installation of cast iron pipes to bring spring water to the White House and surrounding executive offices. In 1853 responsibility for constructing permanent water supply facilities for Washington fell upon Lieutenant Montgomery C. Meigs. His project included two bridges later to carry traffic as well as water pipes over Cabin John and Rock creeks. Both bridges were engineering feats in their day. The Cabin John Bridge, built between 1857 and 1864, remained the world's longest masonry arch for more than 40 years and is still in use.

In 1867 Congress gave control of public parks and monuments to the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds under the chief of engineers and in 1878 replaced Washington's elected government with a three-man commission. An Army engineer holding the title of engineer commissioner for the District of Columbia served on that board and had responsibility for the city's physical plant until Congress approved the district's current home rule charter in 1967. During the last half of the 19th century, the Corps improved navigation on the Potomac River and its tributaries; expanded the local water supply system; completed the Washington Monument; helped design and construct numerous structures including the Executive Office Building, the Lincoln Memorial, the Library of Congress, and the Government Printing Office; undertook swamp reclamation which resulted in the Tidal Basin; and developed Rock Creek Park as a major urban recreation area.

Despite continuing congressional reservations about federal involvement, the Corps became involved in flood control after the Civil War. Particularly on large rivers such as the Mississippi, floods impaired commerce, destroyed property, and cost lives. In 1879 Congress created the Mississippi River Commission, composed of seven people: three from the Corps including the commission president, three from civilian life including at least two civil engineers, and one from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Congress created the commission to insure that the best advice from both the military and civilian communities was heard on the subject of improving the Mississippi River for navigation and flood control.

After much debate, the commission decided to rely principally on levees to protect the lower Mississippi Valley. Cooperating with local levee districts, the Mississippi River Commission oversaw the construction of many levees along the river. Later, this levee construction was supplemented with considerable dredging on the river. The commission also attempted to stop the erosion of banks by constructing willow mattresses. In the early 20th century, the Mississippi River Commission experimented with concrete mattresses. Learning both from the successes and failures of these experiments, the Corps developed the articulated concrete revetment that has been used for several decades to protect the banks of the lower Mississippi River.

Beginning in 1893, another important activity of the Corps of Engineers was the California Debris Commission, a three-member body of Army engineers charged to regulate the streams of California that had been devastated by the sediment washed into them from mining operations. Given substantial power by Congress, the California Debris Commission significantly reduced the stream damage caused by hydraulic mining. The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 eliminated this commission. Its work is now the responsibility of the Corps' South Pacific Division.

In 1917, as the United States prepared to enter World War I, the Corps could look back with satisfaction. The versatility, dedication, and intelligence of engineer officers were truly impressive. For instance, Chief of Engineers Henry M. Robert, who is best known as the author of Robert's Rules of Order, oversaw the planning of the Galveston Seawall, a major engineering project. As an engineer officer, Hiram M. Chittenden supervised the construction of roads, bridges, and aqueducts in Yellowstone National Park. He wrote a report on his survey of reservoir sites in Wyoming and Colorado that contributed to the establishment of what came to be called the Bureau of Reclamation, wrote several important works dealing with the early exploration of the Missouri River Basin by white men, and became a recognized expert on flood control. Finally, George W. Goethals' early work at Davis Island and Muscle Shoals gave him valuable engineering skills and management expertise to successfully finish the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal was built by the Panama Canal Commission, not as is commonly thought by the Corps of Engineers. However, through the efforts of engineer officers such as Goethals, who were detailed to the commission, some of the most difficult construction obstacles were overcome. The canal was opened in August 1914.

World War I

The British and French governments made the arrival of American engineers their top priority after the United States joined "The Great War" in April 1917. The Americans responded quickly. By the end of August 1917, nine newly organized engineer railway regiments, recruited largely from workers on the nation's private railroads, together with the engineer regiment of the 1st Division, had crossed the Atlantic and arrived in France. Several of the railway regiments were assigned initially to British or French military formations. It was while serving with the British southwest of Cambrai, France, on September 5, 1917, that Sergeant Matthew Calderwood and Private William Branigan of the 11th Engineers were wounded by artillery fire, thus becoming the first casualties in any U.S. Army unit serving at the front in Europe.

The thousands of engineer troops that served in France in 1917 and 1918 contributed both to front-line and rear-support efforts. The combat engineers constructed bridges, roads, and narrow-gauge railroads at or immediately behind the front. The forestry troops of the 20th Engineers produced roughly 200 million feet of lumber in France. Other engineer troops enlarged French port facilities, constructed more than 20 million square feet of storage space, and built 800 miles of standard-gauge rail lines, plus an equal distance in yards and storage tracks. The technically trained engineers organized the first U.S. Army tank units and developed chemical warfare munitions and defensive equipment. So important were these pursuits that in 1918 the War Department created a separate Tank Corps and a Chemical Warfare Service, the latter headed initially by an engineer officer.
 

Multipurpose Waterway Development

Neglected waterways, demands for hydropower throughout the country, and calls for irrigation projects in the West drew attention to the nation's water resources at the beginning of the 20th century. Multipurpose partisans advocated the application of scientific management to ensure efficient water use. This meant a program of basinwide development that would address all potential applications of the resource.

Unlike the West, where irrigation became the focus of attention, the East was more concerned over hydropower development. Beginning in the early 1880s, when a plant in Appleton, Wisconsin, first used falling water to produce electricity, the construction of hydroelectric dams on the nation's waterways proliferated. These private dams threatened navigation and forced Congress, acting through the Corps of Engineers, to regulate dam construction. The Rivers and Harbors Acts of 1890 and 1899 required that dam sites and plans be approved by the secretary of war and the Corps of Engineers before construction. The General Dam Act of 1906 empowered the federal government to compel dam owners to construct, operate, and maintain navigation facilities without compensation whenever necessary at hydroelectric power sites.

Private interests developed most power projects before World War I. The Corps of Engineers did install a power station substructure at Lock and Dam #1 on the upper Mississippi River. The government later leased the power facility to the Ford Motor Company. In 1919, the Corps began construction of Dam #2 later renamed Wilson Dam as a hydroelectric facility at Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River. Support for the facility, which was intended to supply power for nitrate production, declined with the end of World War I, and its completion was threatened. However, by 1925 that project was substantially finished.

President Franklin Roosevelt favored the development of federal hydropower projects to provide consumers with low-cost energy. During the New Deal, the Corps participated in three major hydroelectric power projects: Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project in Maine, Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, and Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River. In 1937, Congress created the Bonneville Power Administration to dispose of the power and set the rates for the power generated at Bonneville Dam.

Meanwhile, concern over flood control intensified. In 1912 13, two terrifying floods had devastated the lower Mississippi Valley and showed the inadequacy of the levee system. Another flood came in 1916, and the first flood control act was passed the following year; it applied only to the Mississippi and Sacramento rivers. Still, the Mississippi River Commission and the Corps continued to depend on levees. That policy was finally changed in 1927, when one of the worst disasters in the nation's history hit the lower Mississippi. The flood was the result of high waters from throughout the Mississippi River's drainage area 41 percent of the continental United States coming together and inundating the lower Mississippi Valley. Between 250 and 500 people were killed, over 16 million acres were flooded, and over 500,000 people were forced from their homes to refugee camps.

Clearly, depending on levees was not the answer. The chief of engineers, Major General Edgar Jadwin drew up a new plan requiring that the water be dispersed through controlled outlets and floodways as well as confined between levees. After lengthy debate, Congress approved this plan in the 1928 Flood Control Act and placed its implementation under the control of the Corps of Engineers. This act launched what today is called the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project. The project has prevented over $100 billion worth of damages since 1928.

Floods continued elsewhere, especially on the Ohio River. Additionally, during the 1930s, there was the misery caused by the Great Depression. Responding to the twin needs for flood protection and work relief, Congress passed the 1936 Flood Control Act, one of the most important events in the history of the Corps of Engineers. For the first time, Congress declared that flood control was a proper activity of the federal government. The act put the Corps firmly into the reservoir construction business, despite earlier Corps' reservations about the effectiveness of reservoirs. It also established that a potential project's economic benefits must exceed its costs. Furthermore, the act specified the obligations that would have to be assumed by local interests before the Corps could begin certain projects.

The 1944 Flood Control Act signaled the victory of the multipurpose approach. It empowered the secretary of the interior to sell power produced at Corps and other federal projects. The act also authorized the gigantic multipurpose civil works project for the Missouri Basin commonly called the Pick-Sloan Plan. It amalgamated the plans for developing the Missouri Basin proposed by Major General Lewis Pick, formerly Missouri River Division engineer, and W. Glenn Sloan, the assistant regional director for the Bureau of Reclamation. In the ensuing years, the Corps built several huge dams on the main stem of the Missouri River. These dams were all multipurpose. They provided flood control, irrigation, navigation, water supply, hydropower, and recreation.

Following World II, federal multipurpose projects expanded considerably. Congress authorized major systems involving hydroelectric power on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest, and the Missouri and the Arkansas rivers. The Eisenhower administration challenged some of these ambitious projects as costly federal burdens. However, overall federal power development continued to increase. By 1975, Corps projects the largest on the Columbia and Snake rivers were producing 27 percent of the total U.S. hydropower and 4.4 percent of all electrical energy output.
 

Combat and Military Construction

Shortly before the United States entered World War II, Congress and the War Department approved the transfer of military construction responsibilities from an overtaxed Quartermaster Corps to the Corps of Engineers. The shift was implemented piecemeal. After the Destroyers for Bases Agreement of September 1940, the chief of staff, General George Marshall, assigned the Corps the job of constructing air bases in the string of British Atlantic territories from Newfoundland to British Guiana, thereby initiating a program of overseas base construction by the Corps of Engineers that long remained one of its most important functions.

In November 1940, Marshall ordered the transfer to the Corps of Engineers of all air base construction in the United States, excluding the Canal Zone. Finally, in December 1941, Congress transferred to the Corps the responsibility for real estate acquisition, construction, and maintenance for Army facilities, including training camps, government-owned munitions plants, air bases, depots, and hospitals.

Domestic base construction peaked in 1942, as the nation geared for war. U.S. military construction expenditures in July of that year alone exceeded those spent during the entire period of 1920 1938. By the end of 1942, the Army could house 4.37 million soldiers and provide hospital beds for 180,000 more. It had built 149 munitions and aircraft manufacturing plants and constructed depots with 205 million square feet of storage space. Domestic military construction has remained an important function of the Corps of Engineers since 1942, but never again did it reach the level of that year.

During World War II, Army engineers placed floating and later fixed bridges across the rivers of Italy, France, and Germany, supporting hotly contested crossings of the Rapido, Roer, and Rhine rivers. Engineer troops prepared and developed beaches for assault landings, both in Europe and the Pacific. On the beaches of Normandy, engineer troops, operating under heavy enemy fire, cleared lanes for landing craft by destroying the mine-bearing steel structures that the Germans had implanted in the intertidal zone and bulldozed roads up the narrow draws through the cliffs lining the beaches. During the Battle of the Bulge, quick engineer actions destroyed critical bridges in the path of advancing German forces, slowing and diverting them while Allied forces regrouped. The engineers also opened road connections traversing the long wilderness reaches between the southern Canadian road net and interior Alaska and between British-ruled Assam Province in India and Yunnan Province in southwestern China.

Outstanding Army engineer support continued in the Korean War. Army engineers destroyed bridges over the Naktong River and built fortifications that helped American and South Korean forces hold the Pusan perimeter in the southeastern corner of the peninsula while General Douglas MacArthur prepared his assault landing at Inchon near Seoul. When Chinese forces entered the war and forced the Americans to retreat, the engineers built lateral roads behind new defensive lines that permitted the rapid movement of forces and equipment to areas subject to heaviest attack. This helped American commanders stabilize the front.

In Vietnam the engineers helped provide access to enemy strongholds in support of concerted U.S. search and destroy missions. To assist in these efforts and to reduce enemy attacks on military convoys, the engineers introduced the Rome plow, a military tractor equipped with a protective cab and a special tree-cutting blade. Engineer troops also constructed 900 miles of modern, paved highways connecting the major population centers of the Republic of Vietnam and monitored the construction by private American contractors of an additional 550 miles of Vietnamese highways.

Responding to Natural Disasters

The Corps' role in responding to natural disasters has evolved since just after the Civil War. Direct federal participation in disaster relief began in 1865 when the federal government helped Freedmen cope with flooding along the Mississippi. The Corps' first formal disaster relief mission was during the Mississippi Flood of 1882, when it supported Army Quartermaster Corps' efforts to rescue people and property. Army engineers played a critical role in responding to the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood of 1889 and the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

In 1917, the Army reorganized its disaster relief responsibilities and assigned command and control during disaster situations to department or Corps area commanders. Following major flooding in 1937, the chief of engineers ordered all engineer districts to develop flood emergency plans.

In 1947, the Corps responded to an explosion of 2,400 tons of ammonium nitrate on board a ship docked in Texas City, Texas. Two years later, it handled its first major snow removal emergency a massive blizzard on the Great Plains. By 1950, the Corps had established a reputation for responding quickly and effectively to disaster relief missions. Under the Federal Disaster Relief Act of 1950 the Corps continued to be the lead federal agency during flood disasters. Five years later, Congress passed Public Law 84 99 which improved the Corps' ability to fight floods. The law authorized an emergency fund of $15 million annually for flood emergency preparation, flood fighting and rescue operations, and repair or restoration of a flood control work.

During the 1960s the Corps responded to two powerful natural disasters: the Alaskan earthquake of 1964 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. The extensive damage caused by these events and Tropical Storm Agnes (1972) prompted Congress in 1974 to broaden federal responsibility for disaster assistance and assigning responsibility to federal agencies.

By the 1980s the Corps' mission had expanded from flood fighting to other hazards. Consequently, the Corps established an emergency management program. In 1988 the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide for all disasters, regardless of cause. The Corps works closely with FEMA in many natural disasters including floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Between 1989 and 1992, the Corps responded to the largest and most destructive oil spill in U.S. history in Prince William Sound in Alaska. It also responded to Hurricane Hugo, which caused major damage in the Virgin Islands and coast of the Carolinas, and to the Loma Prieta Earthquake in California. The 1990s brought even costlier natural disasters. Between 1992 and 1995 the Corps performed major repair and rehabilitation work in the wake of Hurricanes Andrew and Iniki, record flooding on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and the Northridge earthquake in California.

Research and Development

Although the Corps is primarily an engineering and construction organization, historically it has been committed to research and development. Some early Corps' research and development activities have already been mentioned: Long's work on wing dams, Gillmore's design of early dredge boats, Merrill's use of concrete, and Humphreys' and Abbot's hydraulic theories. The inventive Stephen Long also developed a new design for railroad bridges in the mid 1830s. Although it was a private venture, he sold 20 copies of his design to his chief in Washington, Colonel John J. Abert, but it reflects the capability and industry of the engineer officer. The Long truss was widely used and played a role in the transition from wooden to iron bridges.

Another important Corps innovator was William Gunn Price, a civilian working with the Mississippi River Commission. Beginning in the early 1880s, Price developed current meters that were significantly more accurate than earlier ones. Under his supervision and using his new meter, teams measured discharges up and down the Mississippi River. Within a short time, the newly created Geological Survey adopted Price's meters to measure current in many of the nation's rivers.

The Corps' military research burgeoned during World War II, expanding rapidly even before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Engineer Board, centered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, led the Corps' efforts. Conducting tests at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and on the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona, the board perfected a new steel treadway bridge that could be quickly laid on pneumatic floats as American forces crossed the rivers of Europe. The Engineer Board also developed improved equipment for the Army's road-construction, mapping, demolition, and mechanical needs. With the help of cooperative private firms, the board in 1943 procured a new hybrid vehicle, the tank dozer, which proved its substantial worth in breaching the hedgerows of Normandy after the D-day landings. During this time, too, the Waterways Experiment Station (WES), established by the Corps as a hydraulics laboratory in 1929 at Vicksburg, Mississippi, helped develop the pierced-steel plank and prefabricated bituminous surface used for the rapid construction of airfield runways in theaters of operations.

The Corps of Engineers continued its research and development work during the Cold War. Responding to increased Army emphasis on arctic defenses, the Corps established laboratories at Wilmette, Illinois, and Boston, Massachusetts, to study the impact of cold climates on military construction. These efforts aided in developing the distant early warning (DEW) line radar system in Greenland, northern Canada, and Alaska and building American airfields and bases in that region. The two laboratories consolidated in 1961 to form the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory at Hanover, New Hampshire.

The Corps of Engineers in 1962 created the Engineer Geodesy, Intelligence, and Mapping Research and Development Agency. The agency was renamed the Engineer Topographic Laboratories in 1967. Located at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, this facility during the 1960s and 1970s developed automated equipment to produce topographic maps from aerial photographs and improved systems for producing Army field maps. In 1975 the topographic laboratories created the Terrain Analysis Center to provide the Army with state-of-the-art engineer intelligence data. The center made significant contributions during the Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

In 1968, the Corps established the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory to study construction materials and design, energy and utility systems, and housing habitability and maintenance. Located at Champaign, Illinois, this laboratory developed a fibrous reinforced concrete used both in airfield runways and in some civil works projects, a portable instrument to test welding quality, and a centralized facility to control pollutants where Army vehicles are washed.

Since World War II, the Corps has also made major research contributions to civil works. Studies at the Hydraulics Laboratory at WES provided new information about sedimentation, turbulence, and river meandering. While remaining a leader in three-dimensional river modeling, the laboratory additionally developed new computer-generated mathematical models. Its work contributed to engineering design improvements for numerous hydraulic structures, including dams, levees, and locks. A Geotechnical Laboratory at WES continues to study the basic materials of the earth's crust. This research has allowed the Corps to, among other things, protect groundwater sources, abate contamination, and provide more protection for buildings in earthquake-prone regions of the world. The Coastal Engineering Research Center, once located at Fort Belvoir and now at WES, has significantly contributed to improvements in shoreline and jetty protection and the prevention of beach erosion. The WES Structures Laboratory evaluates, maintains, and rehabilitates aging hydraulic structures; and the Environmental Laboratory at WES works on wetlands protection, water quality, environmental cleanup, and the protection of threatened or endangered species.

The Topographic Engineering Center at Fort Belvoir pioneered the use of geospatial positioning through the early use of the Global Positioning System. The technology will revolutionize hydrologic activities throughout the world. The Corps' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory has become a leader in scientific and engineering research dealing with ice cover and ice jams on inland waterways. Finally, in Davis, California, the Hydrologic Engineering Center developed computer software packages used worldwide by water resources professionals inside and outside the Corps. These packages compute flood runoff in all types of watersheds, water surface profiles for both natural rivers and constructed waterways, annual flood damage and flood damage reduction benefits for projects in the design stage, and flood frequency profiles.
 

Responding to New Needs

After World War II, the Corps developed and maintained new navigation systems such as the McClellan-Kerr and Tennessee-Tombigbee waterways and the American portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway. At the same time, modernization of existing waterways became a growing concern. Heavier tows, barges, and other vessels plied the nation's major rivers. Locks such as those on the upper Mississippi, built mainly in the 1930s, were no longer adequate to handle the traffic. Lock and Dam 26 near Alton, Illinois, was the principal bottleneck on the upper Mississippi system until a new lock was constructed in the 1980s.

Some of the Corps' construction activities since World War II have been a bit unusual. The Corps built Veterans Administration hospitals; Nike, Atlas, Titan, and Minuteman missile sites; NASA facilities, including the massive vehicle assembly building at Cape Kennedy; post offices and bulk mail facilities; and armed forces recruiting centers. It also experimented with various kinds of shore protection.

Successes at home were matched by the Corps' accomplishments abroad. Through its Grecian District established in 1947, the Corps restored Greece's severely damaged transportation and communication network. Army engineers cleared the Corinth Canal, restored the port of Piraeus, and built or repaired over 3,000 kilometers of roads. The Corps established some major precedents in Greece. For the first time, it organized an engineer district to administer and supervise large-scale civil works in a foreign country. The Corps provided technical assistance in conjunction with economic aid an approach that came to typify many American foreign assistant programs. Finally, the practice of training indigenous contractors and artisans to perform as much of the actual work as possible began in Greece.

Since the 1950s, the Corps has engaged in major engineering studies and projects in many countries. The projects included roads in Afghanistan, Iran, and other mid eastern countries; and, pursuant to the Camp David accords, the Israeli air force bases in Ovda and Ramon. Surveys dealt with transportation networks and entire public works programs. From 1959 to 1964, Army engineers examined port and highway projects and built airports, highway systems, and ports in eight countries: Afghanistan, Burma, British Guiana, Iran, Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the Somali Republic. These efforts cost approximately $109.5 million.

Under terms of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Corps began work in reimbursable programs through the State Department's Agency for International Development (AID). Beginning in 1963, the Corps undertook several large-scale construction projects in Saudi Arabia. Between 1976 and 1986, this effort exceeded $14 billion, the largest construction program in the Corps' history. The Corps also did reimbursable work in Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, and Libya. Almost all of these projects involved work on transportation networks such as road or airport construction.
 

Military Contingencies and Humanitarian Assistance

As the Cold War waned, the Corps became involved in a number of military contingencies and humanitarian assistance operations. The Corps' Mobile District supported efforts to restore democracy to Panama in Operation Just Cause. In 1990 and 1991, the Corps' Middle East/Africa Projects Office (later called the Transatlantic Programs Center) executed design, contracting, construction, and real estate services for U.S. forces during the Persian Gulf War. The Corps also played a key role in reconstructing Kuwait after the war ended.

Army engineers developed and managed the Army's Logistical Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP), to provide support to U.S. forces during contingencies. Under LOGCAP the Corps awarded a cost-plus-award-fee contract to Brown and Root Services Corporation of Houston, Texas, in August 1992. The contract provided for a broad range of support supply, service, transportation, maintenance, and facilities to U.S. forces. The value of this use of private contractors was evident during Operation Restore Hope, a 1992 United Nations peace keeping operation in Somalia, and in Operation Support Hope, a 1994 U.S. effort to provide humanitarian relief to displaced Rwandans. In the latter effort, Brown and Root constructed much of the water distribution facilities for the U.S. military.

In late 1994 and early 1995, the Corps supported U.S. forces involved in peacekeeping operations in Haiti (Operation Uphold Democracy). Through the LOGCAP contract, the Corps established base camps and provided a full range of logistics and engineering services for U.S. and multinational forces in Haiti. Towards the end of 1995, the Corps used the LOGCAP contract to support U.S. troops in Operation Joint Endeavor, an international peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

Environmental Activities

The Corps' role in protecting the country's water resources has evolved over the last century. In the 1880s and 1890s, Congress directed the Corps to prevent dumping and filling in the nation's harbors, a program that was vigorously enforced by the engineers. At the port of Pittsburgh in 1892, for instance, the Corps took a grand jury on a boat tour of the harbor and obtained some 50 indictments of firms dumping debris into the harbor. In 1893 the Corps forced one Ohio community to build an incinerator and burn refuse rather than dump the garbage into the river where, the Corps insisted, it obstructed navigation.

In the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, Congress gave the Corps the authority to regulate most kinds of obstructions to navigation, including hazards resulting from effluents (under the so-called Refuse Act really Section 13 of the 1899 legislation). In 1910, the Corps used the act to object to a proposed sewer in New York City, but the judge ruled that pollution control was a matter left to the states alone. Generally, Corps officers were disappointed that they were not given police powers to deal with polluters. Many Corps employees lived on the waterways, and water quality was a personal as well as civic concern. In 1911, Brigadier General William H. Bixby, the chief of engineers, suggested to the National Rivers and Harbors Congress that modern treatment facilities and prohibitions on dumping "should either be made compulsory or at least encouraged everywhere in the United States." The Corps' own role grew marginally when the Oil Pollution Act of 1924 authorized the agency to apprehend those who discharged oil into tidal waters. With limited manpower and authority, the Corps enforced the statute poorly. By then, many Corps officers had accepted the view that pollution should generally be considered a state or local problem and that the Corps should be involved only when there was a clear threat to navigation. The Corps reported in 1926 that domestic sewage and industrial waste polluted most of the nation's rivers but did not seriously interfere with navigation. However, the agency conceded that pollution endangered fish in some areas.

Within its current regulatory program, the Corps of Engineers has authority over work on structures in navigable waterways under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and over the discharge of dredged or fill material under Section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (P.L. 92-500). This latter requirement applies to wetlands and other valuable aquatic areas throughout the United States. The Corps' current regulatory mission is a natural product of historical evolution, for the Corps has been exercising regulatory responsibilities for over a hundred years.

The creation of the Defense Environmental Restoration Program, first funded by a 1983 act, enlarged the Corps' environmental work relating to military installations. The three services had earlier initiated efforts to remove hazardous materials from their active installations. The new program added hazardous waste disposal from former military sites and the removal of unsafe buildings, ordnance, and other debris from both active and former military sites. The Corps of Engineers, which had already begun providing engineering assistance to the Environmental Protection Agency for its civilian toxic waste removal under the Superfund program enacted in 1980, assumed program management in 1984 of the environmental restoration program for all former military sites, regardless of service.

Water Resources Development

In the last 30 years, changing values, political shifts, and economic constraints have resulted in major alterations in the Corps' water resources program. Beginning in the 1960s, an increasingly urbanized, educated society focused more on recreation, environmental preservation, and water quality than on irrigation, navigation, or flood control. Passage of the Wilderness Act (1964), the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968), and the National Environmental Policy Act (1969) testified to the strength of these new interests.

The focus on the environmental consequences of natural resource exploitation contributed to rising opposition to water projects. The Corps of Engineers, the nation's largest water resources developer, received the brunt of the criticism. However, the public was suspicious not just about the Corps, but about government in general. According to one survey, the number of people who believed that "government is run by people who don't know what they're doing" climbed from 27 percent in the early 1960s to 63 percent in 1980. In short, both a lack of confidence in government and concerns about the environment generated opposition to water projects.

Another problem was the federal budget. Beginning with the post World War II construction boom, an increasing number of people questioned the amount of federal dollars spent on water resources projects. There were several reasons for this. First, operating and maintaining water projects had become at least as demanding as building them, and nonfederal interests could often make important contributions in this regard. Second, to some observers an increasing number of projects appeared to be strictly for local benefit, in which case it was entirely appropriate that the local beneficiaries pay for more of the cost. Finally, and most important, other demands on the federal budget made it necessary to search for ways to reduce federal expenditures. Discretionary programs, such as water resources, became one way of showing fiscal restraint in the face of demands for increased expenditures for the military (especially during Vietnam) and of legislative reluctance to tamper with entitlement programs.

However, the need for rehabilitating or replacing an aging water resources infrastructure was undeniable by the mid 1970s. There were approximately 3,000 unsafe dams in the country, and a number of locks on major navigable rivers were too old (about 40 years), deteriorated, and small to serve modern shipping. Both new locks and deeper ports were needed. With increasing demands on the federal budget and growing doubts about the wisdom of some expensive water projects, a way had to be found to eliminate doubtful projects while responding to legitimate water resource needs in an equitable and efficient manner. The situation required innovation and a willingness to challenge and, if necessary, change old ways of doing business.

The eventual result was passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, more simply called WRDA 86 (P.L. 99-662). This law signified a major and probably enduring shift in the nation's attitude towards water resources planning. The legislation reflected general agreement that nonfederal interests can, and should, shoulder more of the financial and management burdens, that environmental considerations were intrinsic to water resources planning, and that marginal projects must be weeded out. The law authorized about $16.23 billion in spending for water projects, of which the federal government will pay approximately $12 billion, and nonfederal interests, such as states, port authorities, commercial navigation companies, and communities, the remainder. Precisely 377 new Corps of Engineers' water projects were authorized for construction or study.

Though the number of projects and studies authorized in WRDA 86 was significant, of potentially more impact were the policy changes which the act introduced. Together, they substantially modified approaches to financing and planning water developments that had evolved over the last half century. Revisions in cost-sharing requirements, the imposition of ad valorem cargo taxes to maintain harbors, increases in fuel barge taxes to support inland lock and dam projects, and various other reforms will result in greater participation by ports, communities, waterway interests, and states in both financing and designing water projects. Many of these reforms were hardly revolutionary. Indeed, in putting more initiative into the hands of nonfederal interests, the act is profoundly conservative, for it restored a relationship that existed over a century ago.
 

As in its earliest days, the Corps of Engineers still thinks of itself as an organization ready to help build the nation's infrastructure. However, today "infrastructure" means something more than just internal improvements and transportation systems. Although maintaining the nation's public works remains an imperative, today environmental issues are the chief public works challenges.

Infrastructure development no longer automatically means large construction and maintenance operations. It means developing management techniques, new approaches, and new technology to use our resources more efficiently and to reduce resource depletion. It also means eliminating or reducing contaminants, such as radioactive wastes, toxic and solid wastes, and nonpoint source pollutants of our surface and groundwater. Finally, it involves working with other agencies and organizations to develop effective responses to ecological crises such as oil spills, drought, and fire. In all these areas, the Corps began developing expertise a century or more ago. Clearly, the Corps' historical strengths in program management, engineering design, research and development, and construction will prove invaluable as the agency readies to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

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Fowle, Barry W., ed. Builders and Fighters: U. S. Army Engineers in World War II, Fort Belvoir, Virginia: Office of History, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1992.

Giles, Janice Holt. The Damned Engineers, 2d ed., Fort Belvoir, Virginia: Historical Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1985.

Goetzmann, William H. Army Exploration in the American West, 1803-1863, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1959.

Hill, Forest G. Roads, Rails & Waterways: The Army Engineers and Early Transportation, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957.

Moore, Jamie W. and Dorothy P. Moore. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Evolution of Federal Flood Plain Management Policy, Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado Institute of Behavioral Science, 1989.

Schubert, Frank N., ed. The Nation Builders: A Sesquicentennial History of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, 1838-1863, Fort Belvoir, Virginia: Office of History, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1988.

Shallat, Todd. Structures in the Stream: Water, Science, and the Rise of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1994.

Walker, Paul K. Engineers of Independence: A Documentary History of the Army Engineers in the American Revolution, 1775-1783, Washington, D.C., Historical Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1981.