About: Roswell Gardinier Benedict

Roswell Gardinier Benedict (9 December 1815 – 5 February 1859) was a civil engineer. In his career in both Canada and the United States, he worked on numerous American and Canadian railway projects, as well as the construction of the Second Welland Canal. Ultimately, he came to serve as the chief engineer on the Great Western Railway of Canada. He was notable for his association with Samuel Zimmerman, construction contractor for the railway, with whom he had worked on the Welland Canal. Together and with others, they formed part of a tight-knit group of American engineers and contractors who exerted a strong degree of operational control over the Great Western after supplanting the original Hamilton-based promoter of the railway, Sir Allan MacNab, who was a rival of Zimmerman.