History of Parsons Brinckerhoff (Building & Contrconsultancy)
Founded in 1885 in New York City by William Barclay Parsons, among Parsons Brinckerhoff’s earliest projects was the original IRT line of the New York City subway, designed by Parsons and opened in 1904. Parsons also designed the Cape Cod Canal and charted the course of a railway in China from Hankow (Wuhan) to Canton (Guangzhou) in 1899, a line that is also still in use today. In 1906, Henry M. Brinckerhoff, a highway engineer, brought his expertise in electric railways to the firm. He is known for his co-invention of the third rail.
The firm has worked on some of the most notable infrastructure projects of the 20th century, including: the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel; the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado; the rapid transit systems of San Francisco, Atlanta, Singapore, Taipei and Caracas; the I-95/Fort McHenry Tunnel under Baltimore Harbor; Virginia’s Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnels; and Hawaii’s H-3 highway.
Currently, the firm is involved in several major expansions of the public transportation system in the New York metropolitan area, including the extension of the No. 7 line subway, the new Second Avenue Subway, and an extension of the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal. Other current and recent projects include: the Epping to Chatswood Rail Line in Australia; the Taiwan High Speed Rail Project; the Kanchanaphisek Bridge in Bangkok, Thailand; the Katy Freeway Reconstruction in Houston, Texas; an extension of the East London Line of the London Overground; and the Medupi Power Station in South Africa.
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