Shane Cashman
The tomb of General Egbert Ludovicus Viele and his wife Juliette in the West Point Cemetery.
He was a civil engineer and United States Representative from New York from 1885–1887, as well as an officer in the Union during the Civil War.
He also served in the Mexican-American War.
He was a President of the Aztec Club of 1847. A club which both Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee belonged since the men all fought together in the Mexican-American War. Viele also surveyed the land that would become Central Park and submitted a design proposal for which he would win a competition that would lead him to become appointed engineer-in-chief of Central Park in 1856, and engineer of Prospect Park, Brooklyn in 1860.
A map that Viele made of NYC is still used today by engineers when planning to build in the city.
Given that in the late 1800s it was not uncommon for people to be buried alive by accident, Viele insisted that a doorbell be installed in his tomb should he wake up in his coffin.
The doorbell was wired to go off in the house of the Superintendent of West Point. The buzzer became a traditional prank pulled amongst cadets. Cadets would sneak into the graveyard and ring Viele’s doorbell, which would alarm the groundskeeper and Superintendent enough to eventually disable the buzzer. Two sphinxes guard the entrance to his tomb.
Viele died on April 22, 1902.
