Burr, William Hubert (1851–1934)

US engineer. In 1899 he was appointed a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission to report upon a route for the Panama Canal. In 1904 he joined the commission responsible for the canal's construction. In 1905 he became a member of the international board of consulting engineers to determine the plan of the canal. In 1919 he joined the board of consulting engineers for constructing a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River in New York City.

Burr was born in Waterford, Connecticut. He became professor of engineering at Harvard University in 1892 and at Columbia University in 1893. His publications include The Stresses in Bridge and Roof Trusses (1881), Elasticity and Resistance of the Materials of Engineering (1883), Ancient and Modern Engineering and the Isthmian Canal (1902), and Suspension Bridges, Arch Ribs, and Cantilevers (1913).