His father intended him to be a lawyer, but the boy's taste for adventure led him into another career.
In 1819 he undertook a second trip of reconnaissance toward Pittsburgh for the purpose of locating and examining his father's wild lands.
Education
As a child Moncure attended Gerardine Academy where he received a grounding in the French language which later proved useful; in 1816-17 he was a student at the College of William and Mary. For some three years, 1825-28, he was in Europe, attending lectures in mathematics and science in France, and studying public works in France, England, Wales, and the Low Countries. As were the other engineers of his day, with the exception of those from West Point, he was untrained in the technique of the profession. He acquired his engineering education through self-directed study and the observation of engineering projects throughout the United States and Europe.
Career
In 1818 the Board of Public Works of Virginia authorized a topographic survey and connected line of levels from Richmond to the Ohio River, and young Robinson applied for a position on the corps of surveyors.
On this trip he made accurate notes of the coal deposits in the region that is now West Virginia.
Two years later, having reached maturity, he was employed in the location of an extension of the James River Canal in Virginia.
For the latter railroad he constructed a bridge over the James River which attracted attention both at home and abroad (see Michel Chevalier, Histoire et Description des Voies de Communication auxtats-Unis et des Travaux d'Art qu'en Dependent, 1841, pp. 567, 571-76).
This bridge was 2, 844 feet long, with a grade line sixty feet above the water.
There were nineteen spans of lengths varying from 140 to 153 feet.
The superstructure was latticed.
In 1834 Robinson began his chef-d'oeuvre, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, which involved the construction of a 1, 932-foot tunnel at Phoenixville and a stone bridge of four spans, each seventy-two feet long.
In connection with the building of this road he formulated three fundamental rules for determining grades and curvatures.
In 1839 he made a reconnaissance for a railroad from Brunswick on the Georgia coast to the Gulf of Mexico.
He retired from professional activity in 1847, making his home in Philadelphia, and for more than forty years devoted his attention to his personal investments.
He died in 1891.
As an engineer Robinson belonged to the old school.
These men worked out their technique in the school of experience, and for that reason their lives were characterized by a peculiar initiative and resourcefulness.
By extensive travel and inspection Robinson equipped himself for those positions of responsibility which he occupied in rapid succession.
Religion
He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society (1833) and by his professional brethren of a younger generation was awarded one of the highest honors within their power to bestow, that of honorary membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Membership
Member in the American Philosophical Society
Honorary member in the American Society of Civil Engineers
Connections
Conway Robinson was his younger brother.
On February 2, 1835, he had married Charlotte Randolph Taylor, daughter of Bennett Taylor, a member of the Richmond bar.
They had five sons and five daughters, of whom all but two daughters survived their father.