Joseph Gardner Swift - 1818-1832

1818-1832

The day after his resignation, Swift accepted the surveyorship of the Port of New York. As a civil engineer, he soon became involved in various important projects. In 1819, he was consulted on the feasibility of banking and draining the Newark Flats. In 1820 he was appointed by the Legislature of New Jersey to superintend the plan to open the Morris Canal improvement. In 1822 he was one of the three Commissioners to regulate the streets and drainage of the eastern part of the City of New York. In 1825, he was appointed as a commissioner to determine the capacity of the Bronx and Croton Rivers to supply New York City with pure water.

Unfortunately, Swift’s office duties and other interests did not prevent him from venturing into the business dealings of Wall Street. In 1825, he was elected vice president of a life and trust insurance company. The company failed, and all of its members were indicted for a conspiracy to defraud the state. Swift was acquitted but suffered the loss of all of his property. Deprived of the means to support his family, Swift decided to move to a small farm belonging to his wife in Haywood County, Tennessee, where he built a small cabin and began growing cotton. Finding the title to his plantation defective and his children suffering from the weather, Swift returned to New York. He returned to civil engineering and the following year took charge of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad in Maryland.

In March 1829, he became the superintendent of the harbor improvements on Lake Ontario and held this position for sixteen years. While the lake works were suspended in the winter of 1829, Swift took charge of the construction of the railroad from New Orleans to Lake Pontchartrain, five miles long through a dense swamp considered impassable, which could neither be drained nor piled. This was one of the pioneer railroads of the south, and it is believed the first in America upon which iron edge rails were used.

In 1832, Swift succeeded Benjamin Wright as Chief Engineer of the New York and Harlem Railroad, but interference from the Board of Directors caused him to resign.