Background
Anthony Walton White Evans was the eldest son of Thomas M. Evans of Virginia and his wife Eliza Whyte, daughter of Gen. Anthony Walton White of the Continental Army.
Anthony Walton White Evans was the eldest son of Thomas M. Evans of Virginia and his wife Eliza Whyte, daughter of Gen. Anthony Walton White of the Continental Army.
Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Evans was educated at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1836.
After employment for some years on the enlargement of the Erie Canal, he became an assistant to Allan Campbell in the building of the New York & Harlem Railroad; and when, in 1849, Campbell was called to Chile to act as chief engineer of the Copiapo Railroad (from the Bay of Caldera to Copiapo, fifty miles inland), Evans accompanied him. Here he speedily laid the foundation of his fortune and professional fame. He supervised the completion of the Copiapo Railroad, after Campbell had left to undertake the building of another, and when its successfulness had been established, encouraging other states to venture into railroad building, he constructed the line from the seaport, Arica, to Tacna, the inland capital of the province which for years was in dispute between Peru and Chile. After a visit to the United States, he took charge of the construction of a continuation of the Valparaiso-Santiago railroad extending from Santiago to the southern provinces of Chile; in this connection he made something of a reputation for the bridges he built across several torrential rivers. Upon the completion of this road Evans returned to the United States, opening an office in New York City as a consulting engineer. In this capacity, for the Peruvian railroads built by Henry Meiggs, he designed the Varrugas viaduct on the Luna & Oroya Railroad. He also acted as agent for a number of foreign railroad companies operating in Australia and New Zealand as well as Central and South America. He purchased nearly all their rolling stock and other supplies and engaged their engineering staffs, disbursing in all several million dollars for his clients. He believed that American rolling stock was superior to that produced anywhere else, and was responsible for the introduction of American locomotives and cars into many foreign countries. His later work carried him over Europe, New Zealand, and Egypt, and while he was a champion of American ideas in railroad construction always, he did not close his eyes to merit elsewhere. He wrote an appreciative paper on the Abt system of railways for steep inclines and his last literary work, not published until after his death, was a letter comparing English and American railroads, which was included in vol. XV (1886) of the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers and reprinted as a supplement to Edward Bates Dorsey’s book, English and American Railroads Compared (1887). Another subject on which he expressed his views in writing, mainly in papers read before engineering societies, was the question of a route for the projected inter-oceanic canal. His preference was for the San Bias route, and he considered the suggestion of a sea-level canal at Panama “simply ridiculous. ”
His wife was Anna, who was the daughter of John C. Zimmerman, for many years consul-general of Holland in New York City. At his death, in his sixty-ninth year, Evans was survived only by a daughter.