[2] Jervis moved with his family to Fort Stanwix (later known as Rome) in upstate New York in 1798[3] when his father purchased a farm and ran a lumber business.

In this position, he convinced the board of directors to test locomotives for the gravity railroad feeding coal to the canal terminal.

[4] Jervis's first steam locomotive design was the DeWitt Clinton while working as chief engineer for the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad in 1831.

In 1836, Jervis was chosen as the chief engineer on the 41-mile Croton Aqueduct, which operated from 1842 to 1865, bringing fresh water to New York City.

Many of Jervis's original diagrams for this project are now preserved at both the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

The High Bridge which still stands across the Harlem River in New York City, connecting Manhattan and the Bronx, was part of this project.

The city was a port on the former Delaware and Hudson Canal, which he designed, and is located at the adjoining borders of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.