WORTHEN, William Ezra, civil engineer, born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, 14 March, 1819. He is the son of Ezra Worthen, who was the first to suggest the present site of the city of Lowell as a desirable locality for manufacturing, and who was the first superintendent of the Merrimac mills. The son was graduated at Harvard in 1838, and at once began the practice of civil engineering. Beginning under George R. Baldwin. C. E., with surveys and measurements of brook-flows for the increase of the Jamaica-pond supply for the city of Boston, he continued hydraulic investigations and works under James B. Francis, C. E., of Lowell, until 1848, with an intermediate employment in 1840-'2 on the surveys and construction of the Albany and West Stockbridge railroad. Removing to New York in 1849, he did architectural work, and became the engineer of the New York and New Haven railroad, and in 1854 its vice-president. As a hydraulic engineer, he has designed and constructed masonry dams across rivers, for the establishment of water-powers, and the canals, mills, and shops connected therewith. For the water-supply and sewers of towns he has given designs for all the constructions and has supervised their execution. He has tested the large pumping-engines of Brooklyn, Lawrence, Jersey City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Milwaukee, and has also given designs for and constructed pumping-engines. In the city of New York he was the sanitary engineer of the Metropolitan board of health, during its continuance in 1866-'9, engineer of the Southern boulevard, member of the examining board on the new docks and bulkheads, engineer of the first rapid-transit commission in the annexed district, member of a later commission, and member of examining board on the Riverside park and Fifth avenue pavement. In Brooklyn he has been consulted, and, with the engineer of the board of city works, has reported on an extensive addition to the system of sewers. He has been the consulting engineer of many of the large water-power companies, has measured" the quantity of water used by different lessees, and reported on the condition and capacity of the works. Mr. Worthen is a member of several scientific societies, and was president of the American society of civil engineers in 1887. In addition to numerous official reports, he has published a "Cyclopaedia of Drawing" (New York, 1857); "First Lessons in Mechanics" (1862); and "Rudimentary Drawing for Schools" (1863).