Lewis Nixon (April 7, 1861 – September 23, 1940) was a naval architect, shipbuilding executive, public servant, and political activist.

He started an ill-fated effort to run seven major American shipyards under common ownership as the United States Shipbuilding Company, and he was the chair of the New York City commission that began construction of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Their son was Stanhope Wood Nixon, whom Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947) would paint full-length in Scottish costume in 1902-1903.

His superintendent-in-charge was Arthur Leopold Busch, another former William Cramp & Sons shipbuilder and naval architect, who had come from Great Britain to Philadelphia in 1892.

[4][5]: p90 Beginning in December 1896, the Crescent Shipyard built the United States' first submarines, including the USS Holland (SS-1).

These submarines became America's first fleet of underwater fighting vessels, and were operated by the United States Navy on both coasts.

[10] Nixon continued to serve as Standard Motor Construction's president into the next decade, when it was a major manufacturer of marine engines.

[12] Unfortunately, "the one thing [the consolidated firms] lacked, individually and collectively, was a realistic prospect of earning sustained profits.

[15] From late 1904 to January 1906, Nixon was in Russia supervising the construction of ten torpedo boats for the navy of Czar Nicholas II.

Nixon suggested numerous changes including the required use of wireless communication devices on ships.

[24] Nixon resigned several months later and explained, "I find that I cannot retain my self-respect and remain the leader of the Tammany organization.

[25] A resident of Staten Island, Nixon served from 1914 to 1915 as the borough's Acting Commissioner of Public Works and its consulting engineer.