J. Walter Christie

J. Walter Christie Biography

John Walter Christie, the second of four children was born in the landmark Campbell-Christie House in New Milford, New Jersey on May 6, 1865, three days before the end of the American Civil War. He was the son of Jacob Brinkerhoff and Elizabeth (Van Houten) Christie. The family father was a manager of the Comfort Coal and Lumber Company. At the age of sixteen Christie started working at the Delamater Iron Works while taking classes at the Cooper Union in New York City. The Iron Works had gained fame for the building of the Civil War Ironclad, the Monitor. He eventually became a consulting engineer for a number of steamship lines and in his spare time did some work on early submarine designs.

In 1899, he established the Christie Iron Works to construct and refurbish strengthened gun turret components for U.S. and British warships, and with the proceeds built a state-of-the-art machine shop in Manhattan. Shortly after, Christie began to work on a line of automobiles, and a metal lathe developed for his maritime machining work inspired him to focus his efforts on vehicles driven by the front wheels. Christie felt that an automobile drive system should pull the vehicle like a train and not push it like a boat. Christie focused on a front-wheel drive system in which the engine was situated transversely between the front wheels. He believed this arrangement would create a light, simple, high-speed auto. Christie’s front-wheel drive car was the first of its kind built in the United States.