 Engineering & Industrial Heritage, PC
Telephone: 505-466-1448
E-Mail: Pontist@Comcast.net
Position/Title: Consultant
EDUCATION: Bachelors of Architecture, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1963-1968; Completed graduate studies in Historic Preservation, Columbia University, New York, New York, 1969-1970; Fulbright Scholar, Center for the Study of the History of Technology, University of Bath, and Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Shropshire, England, 1971-1972
EXPERTISE: Historic and Cultural Resources
RELATED TOPICS/EXPERIENCES: Following 32 years of public service saving technological heritage, Mr. Delony work as an engineering and industrial heritage consultant on a broad range of resources. Mr. Delony specialized interest is the preservation of historic bridges.
1987- 2003: Chief, Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, Washington, DC.
Senior manager of federal program established (1969) to create a national archive of America's industrial, engineering, and technological heritage. Administered a national documentation program responsible for producing measured and interpretive drawings, large-format photographs, and written data for the national collection at the Library of Congress. Departmental authority on engineering and industrial heritage representing the United States at foreign conferences and symposiums. Inspired a new generation of engineers to consider historic resources while working with the nation’s transportation and engineered systems. Worked to involve engineers in the protection, preservation and stewardship of the historic built environment. Helped established a national ethic and awareness of same. Promoted the revitalization of depressed American cities by demonstrating the value, significance and redevelopment potential of historic industrial buildings and technological resources. Initiated contacts for project co-sponsorship with federal, state and local governments, professional organizations, private industry, the public sector including the National Parks. Raised over $50,000,000 in support of HAER projects. One of the world’s leading authorities on the history of bridges.
1971-1987: Principal Architect, Historic American Engineering Record.
Helped initiate and manage HAER documentation projects throughout the United States. Developed new and innovative means to interpret and explain industrial processes and engineering phenomena. Responsible the production of measured and interpretive drawings, photographs and histories of America’s engineering and technological heritage. Directed national recruiting program to hire and supervise student architects, landscape architects, engineers and historians supervising more than 1,500 young professionals over 32 years of public service. Developed and maintained national documentation standards.
1968-1969: Served for three summers between undergraduate and graduate school as an architect on National Park Service teams documenting textile mills in New England (1968); engineering and industrial sites in the Capitol region of Albany, New York (HAER’s 1969 pilot project); and, as field supervisor, documented railroad resources along the main stem of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (1970).
Recent Projects, Publications and Accomplishments Include:
- Landmark American Bridges, published jointly by the American Society of Civil Engineers (New York) and Little Brown Publishing Company (Bulfinche Press), Boston, 1993.
- “Surviving Cast & Wrought Iron Bridges in America,” IA: The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, Vol.19. No.2, 1993.
- “The Golden Age of the Iron Bridge,” American Heritage of Invention & Technology, Vol.10, No.2, Fall 1994.
- “Bridges ‘95: Historic Bridges at a Crossroads,” Roads & Bridges, Volume 33, Number 6, June 1995.
- Context for World Heritage Bridges, Occasional Papers for the World Heritage Convention, International Council on Monuments and Sites, (A joint publication with TICCIH: The International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage), Paris, 1997.
- “29 Years Documenting Engineering Heritage,” Engineering History & Heritage: Proceedings of the Second National Congress on Civil Engineering History & Heritage (Boston, MA), ASCE Press, Reston, Virginia, 1998.
- “HAER and the Recording of Technological Heritage: Reflections on 30 Years’ Work,” IA: The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, Volume 25, Number 1, 1999.
- “Tom Paine’s Bridge,” American Heritage of Invention & Technology, Volume 15, Number 4, Spring 2000.
- “HAER’s Historic Road & Bridge Program,” Forum Journal: The Journal of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Volume 14, Number 4, Summer 2000.
- “Bridging the Past for the Future,” Pennsylvania Heritage: Quarterly of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, Volume XXVI, Number I, Winter 2000, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2000.
- “Surviving Cast and Wrought Iron Bridges in America ,” reprinted in Structural Iron and Steel, 1850-1900: Studies in the History of Civil Engineering 10, ed. by Robert Thorne, Ashgate, Variorum, Aldershot, United Kingdom, 2000.
- Louis Bergeron, Maria Teresa Maiullari-Pontois, Foreword by Eric DeLony. Industry, Architecture and Engineering: American Ingenuity, 1750-1950, “American Industrial Archaeology,” Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 2001.
- “Documenting Engineering Heritage in the 21st Century,” “Documenting Historic Bridges,” International Engineering History & Heritage: Proceedings of the Third National Congress on Civil Engineering History & Heritage (Houston, TX), ASCE Press, Reston, Virginia, 2001.
- “Die Dokumentation Historischer Brucken in den USA,” Brucken in der Stadt, Fachhochschule Potsdam, Germany, 2001.
- Dean Herrin, Foreword by Eric DeLony. America Transformed: Engineering & Technology in the 19th Century, ASCE Press, Reston, Virginia, 2002.
- Neil Cossons, Barrie Trinder, Foreword and Appendix: “The Iron Bridge in America,” by Eric DeLony. The Iron Bridge: Symbol of the Industrial Revolution, Phillimore, Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom, 2002.
- Thomas R. Winpenny, Foreword by Eric DeLony. A History of the Manhattan Bridge, Science Press, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 2003.
- “Documenting Historic Bridges,” Recording Historic Structures, Ed. by John Burns, 2nd Ed., John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2004.
- “The Value of Old Bridges,” APT Bulletin (Special Focus on Covered Bridges), Vol. XXXV, No. 4, 2004. Awarded the Anne de Fort-Menares Award by APT, Association for Preservation Technology International, in 2005. The award recognizes the article that best demonstrates excellence in the application of historical research to preservation practice published in the APT Bulletin during the year in which the award is conferred. First presented in 1997, this award was named in honor of the late Anne de Fort-Menares to recognize her many contributions to APT and her dedication to historical research.
- “Forgotten Heritage: America’s Steel Truss Bridges,” Bridge Design & Engineering, No. 37, Fourth Quarter 2004.
- America's National Park Roads and Parkways : Drawings from the Historic American Engineering Record. Timothy Davis, Todd A. Croteau, and Christopher H. Marston, editors; introductory essay by Tim Davis and foreword by Eric DeLony, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2004.
- “Does Any Country Have the Equivalent of the Historic American Engineering Record?” TICCIH Bulletin, No. 29, The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage, Spring 2005.
- “Rehabilitation of Historic Bridges,” (Co-authored with Terry Klein), Journal of the Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Vol. 131, No. 3, July 2005.
- “Afterword: Washington’s Unique Historical Bridge Legacy,” Spanning Washington: Historic Highway Bridges of the Evergreen State, Craig Holstine and Richard Hobbs, Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2005.
- “Henszey’s Arch (1869): A Bridge to Success,” Structure Magazine, June 2005.
- “Save Our Span!” (Across the Country, People are Joining Together to Preserve Some of the Most Visible Yet Most Threatened of Our Engineering Achievements), American Heritage of Invention & Technology, Vol. 21, No. 1, Summer 2005.
- “Park Life: Where Bridges Go to Retire,” Bridge Design & Engineering, No. 40, Third Quarter 2005.
- Parsons Brinkerhoff, Engineering and Industrial Heritage.A Context for Common Historic Bridge Types, NCHRP Project 25-25, Task 15, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 2005.
- “Discovering Technological and Engineering History Through US Patent Drawings: A Personal View,” Emory L. Kemp, editor. American Bridge Patents: The First Century (1790-1890),West Virginia University Press, Morgantown, 2005.
- “World Industrial Heritage and the Beginning of HAER,” Patrimoine de L’Industrie, 13: Ressources, Pratiques, Cultures, TICCIH (The International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage) in partnership with ICOMOS (International Council for Monuments and Sites), Septieme Annee, 2005.
- “Albuquerque’s Railway Monument: UNM Students consider Plan for Preservation of Historic Locomotive Shops,” (Co-authored with Dick Gerdes and Cynthia Martin, UNM Historic Preservation & Regionalism Program, School of Architecture & Planning), New Mexico Business Journal, November 2005.
- “Viewpoint: Historic Bridge Preservation-Some Special Spans Will Just Disappear,” ENR: Engineering News-Record, November 28, 2005.
- “Out on a Limb: Two of the World’s Oldest Cantilever bridges are Fighting for Survival in America,” Bridge Design & Engineering, No. 41, Fourth Quarter 2005.
- “Roebling’s Early Career Under Study,” Bridge Design & Engineering, Issue No. 43, Second Quarter 2006.
- “Classic Coverage,” Bridge Design & Engineering, Issue No. 43, Second Quarter 2006.
- “Oregon DOT Receives National Honor for Historic Bridge Program,” Society for Industrial Archeology Newsletter, Vol. 35, No. 2, Spring 2006.
- “How Can Engineers Help Save Historic Bridges?” Pittsburgh Engineer, Special Edition: 2006 International Bridge Conference, Summer 2006.
- “Two of the World’s Oldest Cantilever Bridges Are in the US,” Society for Industrial Archeology Newsletter, Vol. 35, No. 3, Summer 2006.
- “Taking Stock: US Interstate Bridges,”Bridge Design & Engineering, Issue No. 44, Third Quarter 2006.
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