Agustín Edwards Ossandón

José Agustín de Dios Edwards Ossandón (May 20, 1815 – September 1878) was a Chilean politician and businessman, and one of the main forces behind the early railroad construction in South America.

[1] At the age of 19, he started to manage the silver smelting operations owned by his father in the cities of Vallenar and Freirina.

In 1837, by the age of 22, he became independent and moved to the city of Copiapó, with a small capital he had managed to save.

He worked in the construction of the Copiapó-Caldera railway, the first Chilean railroad (and one of the first in Latin America) that was inaugurated on December 25, 1851.

He became president of the Nitrate Company, and began the studies for a railroad between Antofagasta and Bolivia.