Civil Engineering Legends

Author: Melinda Luna PE

June 2023

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When Covid required us to quarantine, several people sought to cope with it in several ways.  For many years Raymond Paul Giroux, Dist.M.ASCE, NAC has devoted some of his free time to research and prepare lectures for some of America’s most iconic civil engineering projects.  Paul’s lectures now include the Transcontinental Railroad, Eads Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Panama Canal, Hoover Dam, Golden Gate Bridge, Grand Coulee Dam, and the Mackinac Bridge.  Paul has now shared these lectures over 300 times at engineering schools and industry conferences, including the annual ASCE convention.

Covid quarantine meant less time commuting and traveling, and Giroux wondered what hobby project he could work on while in quarantine.  He came up with the idea of making civil engineering legends trading cards.  Paul has been posting CE Legend cards on social media for nearly three years each week.  Paul then decided to make a physical set of trading cards.   The first set produced was for the top 25 CE Legends of 2022.  Over 400 sets of Top 25 cards were distributed by the ASCE History and Heritage Committee at the 2022 ASCE Convention in Anaheim.  The trading cards hope to provide an accessible way to share information on notable civil engineers and inspire engineers to learn more about the remarkable engineers who laid the profession’s foundation. 

Notable civil engineers in this first set included John Smeaton, Thomas Telford, Benjamin Wright, Sylvanus Thayer, and Henry Darcy.    Paul went on to create more card series, such as geotechnical and construction engineers, and currently, he is working on a series about women in civil engineering.     Paul Giroux is now retired from Kiewit Corporation after 45 years of service and is teaching at Purdue University.  His course is titled Great Projects:  Essential Lessons from the Great Builders.  The system is an in-depth study of relevant lessons to modern engineering and management practices of the Transcontinental Railroad, Eads Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Panama Canal, Hoover Dam, Golden Gate Bridge, Grand Coulee Dam, and the Mackinac Bridge.