Jessie was born on May 26, 1868 in Nantucket, Massachussets, United States, one of the five children of Charles Earl Snow and Emily Jane (Carpenter) Snow. His father was in the packet trade, following the tradition of his ancestors, who were early settlers on the New England coast.
Snow's early education was obtained in public schools in Nantucket; he then studied engineering and took his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Union College, Schenectady, New York in 1889. He received an honorary D. Sc. from Union College in 1930.
Soon after graduation, Snow launched his career, at a time of enormous growth in the number and size of North American cities, largely due to the effects of the industrial revolution. During the early years of his career, from 1889 until the turn of the century, Snow undertook a variety of general municipal works projects, such as surveying and designing streets, sewers, waterworks, bridges, and street railways. The results of his work were evident in the cities of Goshen, West Superior, Long Island City and Tonawanda.
For the next decade his activities were confined to railroad engineering. He served, for a short period, as resident engineer for the construction of a street railroad in Kitchener, Ontario. From 1902 until 1904, he was chief engineer of the Jersey City Transit Company. From 1904 to 1910, Snow aided in the construction of cross-town tunnels and a railroad tube under the North River from Manhattan to Jersey City for the Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad Co.
Having entered the field of tunneling and, specifically, construction under compressed-air conditions, Snow spent the next five years, from 1910 until 1915, using his knowledge of tunneling in dam construction, first at the Hauser Lake dam, Montana, for the Foundation Company, then as field engineer for a proposed hydroelectric development near Port Jervis, New York, sponsored by the Canada Syndicate Company of Montreal.
The final, and most impressive, phase of his career was spent engineering sections of the New York subway network, particularly the underwater tunnels. From 1914 until his reluctant retirement on May 31, 1945, he held positions with the New York Public Service Commission (1914 - 1919) as supervisor of the Old Slip-Clark St. , the Whitehall St. -Montague St. , and the 14th St. -North 7th St. tunnels; the New York, New Jersey Interstate Tunnel Commission (1919 - 1921) as principal assistant to the engineer for the two Holland vehicular tubes under the Hudson River; the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of New York City (1921 - 1925) as tunnel engineer for the proposed combined railroad and rapid transit tunnels under the Narrows between Staten Island and Brooklyn and others.
In addition to his permanent responsibilities, he acted as consulting engineer for the Queens-Midtown, East River vehicular tunnels (1930 - 1939) and the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel (1940 - 1943).
His retirement itself was extended several times, with the result that he worked practically until his death, in Great Neck, New York, after a long illness, at the age of seventy-nine.
Jessie Baker Snow was considered to be the outstanding compressed air tunnel engineer. In all, he played an active part in the construction of twenty-three rapid transit railroad and vehicular tunnels out of a total of forty-one constructed along the periphery of Manhattan Island. Snow was responsible for consolidating the city's three subway systems as they were brought under municipal ownership, for its expansion and for the razing of some of Brooklyn's, and much of Manhattan's, elevated railway lines.
In politics he was an independent.
During his career, he belonged to the Railroad and Engineer's clubs in New York City. A licensed engineer in New York state, Snow joined the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1902 and became a life member in 1939.
Snow's ability was greatest in the field of subaqueous tunnel construction. His engineering talent was combined with a capacity for hard work.
Snow was married twice, first, in 1894, to Eleanor Curtis Harman, of Schenectady, New York, who died within a few years, and second, to May Purdy, the daughter of William Henry Purdy of New York, on August 1, 1903. She died in the summer of 1945.
He had two children, Annette W. and Charles G. , by his first wife, and one son, Edgar P. , by his second.
