Scope and Content Note
The six bound volumes of the William J. McAlpine Letterbooks consist of handwritten transcripts of material related to civil engineering projects on which McAlpine served as chief engineer or as a consulting engineer. They appear to have served as journals documenting the day-to-day work involved in complex civil engineering projects in the mid-nineteenth century. Materials in this collection focus on McAlpine's work on bridge, aqueduct, dry dock, and canal projects, primarily in New York State and Chicago, Ill and include such projects as the Albany Water Works, Brooklyn Dry Dock, and the Harlem River Third Avenue Bridge, also known as Washington Bridge. The letterbooks include handwritten copies of correspondence, interim and final project reports, memoranda, construction diagrams, measurements and data sets, and expense tabulations.