Egbert Ludovicus Viele Egbert Ludovicus Viele ( Vee - lee ) ( June 17 , 1825 – April 22 , 1902 ) was a civil engineer and United States Representative from New York from 1885 – 1887 , as well as an officer in the Union army during the American Civil War . Biography . Viele was born in Waterford , New York ( Saratoga County ) , a son of Kathline Schuyler ( Knickerbacker ) and State Senator John L . Viele . He graduated with honors from The Albany Academy and studied law briefly before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York . He graduated on July 1 , 1847 , and was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant in the Second United States Infantry . He served in the Mexican - American War and was promoted to second lieutenant in the First United States Infantry on September 8 , 1847 . From 1848 to 1849 he was assigned to establish a military camp at Laredo , Texas , which was named " Camp Crawford . " Viele married Teresa Griffin on June 3 , 1850 , and was promoted to first lieutenant on October 26 the same year . He resigned from the service in 1853 to become a civil and military engineer . He received an appointment as State Engineer of New Jersey in 1855 with a commission to conduct a topographical survey of the state . He also surveyed the environs that would become Central Park and submitted a design proposal . A competition was held which was awarded to " the Greensward Plan " from Olmsted & Vaux . Viele was appointed engineer - in - chief of Central Park in 1856 , and engineer of Prospect Park , Brooklyn in 1860 . Viele was a captain in the Engineer Corps of the Seventh New York Regiment in 1860 , and brigadier general of United States Volunteers in 1861 , at the beginning of the Civil War . He commanded forces on the Savannah River during the siege of Fort Pulaski and was appointed Military Governor of Norfolk , Virginia , in 1862 . He resigned from service on October 20 , 1863 , to again engage in civil engineering . He was a President of the Aztec Club of 1847 . Viele Map . Viele was author of a color city map , a " Sanitary & Topographical Map of the City and Island of New York , " first published in 1865 , and now called the " Viele Map " , which shows his survey of the original streams , marshes and coastline of New York City , superimposed over the street grid . The map is still used by modern structural engineers and planners to design the foundations of new buildings and structures in the city . Two years later he worked as chief engineer on the Pittsburgh , Buffalo and Rochester Railroad . He and his wife were divorced in 1872 , and he later married Juliette Dana . From 1883 to 1884 Viele was the commissioner of parks for New York City he was elected as a Democrat to the Forty - ninth Congress ( March 4 , 1885 – March 3 , 1887 ) and an unsuccessful candidate for re - election in 1886 to the Fiftieth Congress ; he resumed his former business pursuits and engaged in literary work . Viele died at the age of 77 in New York City , and was survived by his second wife and four children . Francis Viélé - Griffin , the symbolist poet , was one of his sons . He and his second wife are entombed in a pyramid shaped monument , guarded by a pair of sphinx es , in the Post Cemetery at West Point , New York . According to an official video about West Point , Viele had a buzzer installed in his coffin wired to the house of the Superintendent of West Point so as to provide rescue if Viele had been accidentally buried alive . . This is on record with West Point ' s cemetery .