SPECIAL REPORT: Happy 231st Birthday Claudius Crozet
Happy 231st Birthday Claudius Crozet
It has just been a month since the Blue Ridge Tunnel, first constructed in 1859 by Claudius Crozet, reopened as a walking/bicycle trail. A pleasant ramble underground has stirred a renewed interest in Virginia’s ‘Reckless Engineer.’ Claudius Crozet, engineer and educator, was born in Villefranche, France on December 31, 1789. Following his graduation from the Ecole Polytechnique, he entered the French Army as an artilleryman, and served until 1816. He was a prisoner of war in Russia from 1814-1816. In 1816 he married Agathe DeCamp, and the couple immigrated to the United States. Crozet accepted an appointment as a professor of engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he taught until 1823 and published A Treatise of Descriptive Geometry for the Use of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy. Subsequent to his career at West Point, he served as the State Engineer of Virginia (1823-1832), State Engineer of Louisiana (1832-1834), President of Jefferson College, Louisiana (1834-1836), President of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors (1837-1845), Principal Engineer of Virginia (1837-1843), and as Principal of the Richmond Academy (1845-1849). In 1849 he was appointed Chief Engineer on a project to build a tunnel through the Blue Ridge, and from 1857-1859 he worked on constructing an aqueduct for Washington, DC. Crozet died in Richmond, Virginia on January 29, 1864.
The restored Blue Ridge Tunnel stands as a monument to the man and his accomplishments. He is buried at Virginia Military Institute and has a building there named for him.
This bench at the Yancy Building in Waynesboro, Virginia was designed by Rory May of Dragon Forge, Colorado. It was fabricated by Waynesboro’s own Virginia Institute of Blacksmithing in 2018. May’s design is inspired by the Western Portal of Claudius Crozet’s Blue Ridge Tunnel.
Claudius Crozet surveys the opening of the Blue Ridge Tunnel in a mural by Bob Kirchman and John Pembroke, restored by Kristina Elaine Greer and Meg West in 2012.
Personal effects of Claudius Crozet and his portrait in the Virginia Military Institute Museum.
The Richmond home of Claudius Crozet. Photos by Bob Kirchman.
Happy 231st Birthday Claudius Crozet!
