Captain James Buchanan Eads (May 23, 1820 – March 8, 1887) was a world-renowned[1] American civil engineer and inventor, holding more than 50 patents.

Eads was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana,[3] and named for his mother's cousin, future President of the United States James Buchanan.

In Eads's spare time, he read books on physical science, mechanics, machinery, and civil engineering.

[5] When he was twenty-two, Eads designed a salvage boat and showed the drawings to two shipbuilders, Calvin Case and William Nelson.

His work gave Eads an intimate knowledge of the river, as he explored its depths from the Gulf of Mexico to Iowa.

[4] Because of his detailed knowledge of the Mississippi (the equal of any professional river pilot), his exceptional ability at navigating the most treacherous parts of the river system, and his personal fleet of snag-boats and salvage craft, he was afforded the much prized courtesy title of "Captain" by the rivermen of the Mississippi and was addressed as Captain Eads throughout his life.

[6] In 1861, after the outbreak of the American Civil War, Eads was called to Washington at the prompting of his friend, Attorney General Edward Bates, to consult on the defense of the Mississippi River.

[7] Soon afterward, he was contracted to construct the City-class ironclads for the United States Navy, and produced seven such ships within five months:[8] St. Louis, Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, and Pittsburgh.

The river ironclads were a vital element in the highly successful Federal offensive into Tennessee, Kentucky and upper Mississippi (February–June, 1862).

The last were so hardy that the Navy sent them into service in the Gulf of Mexico, where they supported the successful Federal attack on the Confederate port city of Mobile.

All senior officers in the Western Theater, including Grant and Sherman, agreed that Eads and his vessels had been vital to early victory in the West.

[11] This was over a month before the combat actions of the ironclads CSS Virginia and USS Monitor during the March 8–9, 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads.

Eads was the first bridge builder to employ the cantilever method,[citation needed] which allowed steam boat traffic to continue using the river during construction.

The Mississippi in the 100-mile-plus stretch between the port of New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico frequently suffered from silting up of its outlets, stranding ships or making parts of the river unnavigable for a period of time.

[12] If he was successful, and the jetties caused the river to cut a channel 30 feet deep for 20 years, the government agreed to pay him $8 million.

In 1920, Eads was added to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans colonnade, located on the grounds of the Bronx Community College in New York.

Today Eads Hall continues to serve Washington University as the site of a number of facilities including the Arts and Sciences Computing Center.