Magnificent Structure — Louis Didier Jousselin
Louis Didier Jousselin was a military engineer responsible for one of the French army’s few successes in the year leading up to Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat and abdication. After graduating with the first class of the prestigious the Ecole Polytechnique, Jousselin joined the state corps of Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and Pavements), where he had a long and distinguished career. Jousselin began his career working on the Grand Canal du North, which links the l’Escaut, the Meuse, and the Rhine rivers in the Netherlands and Germany. Later in his career, Jousselin designed the Loire Lateral Canal before entering politics as a member of the legislature between 1831 and 1835.
Jousselin was the District Engineer for fortified city of Hapsburg during the fateful year of 1813. Hapsburg was a key transportation and supply hub in Napoleon’s far flung European empire. The disastrous defeat and retreat of the French army from Moscow in 1812 left Hapsburg isolated and besieged from enemy troops to the north, east and west. To the south, the city backs on a wide expanse of lowlands and the braided channel of the Elbe River. Working only with materials at hand, Jousselin threw up a bridge across these lowlands to the French-held city of Harbourg, spanning a distance of 6 miles in only 3 months. With supply and communications to the outside world assured, the French army was able to hold the city of Hapsburg until Napoleon’s empire came to an end in 1814. In his memoirs, Napoleon referred to Jousselin’s bridge as a magnificent structure.
Louis Didier Jousselin is one of the 72 engineers and scientists named on the Eiffel Tower.
