Louis-Marie-Henri Navier, officier de la Légion d'Honneur, member of l'Institut Royale de France and Divisional Inspector of le Corps Royale des Ponts et Chaussées, was born in Dijon on 15 February 1785. His father was a lawyer of distinction and died at an early age as a result of the excesses of the revolutionaries.

Navier, orphaned at fourteen years of age, had the good fortune to find a second father in an uncle, numbered with reason among the notables of le Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, M. Gauthey, who, having been an engineer for the region of Bourgogne, became Inspector General of bridges and highways following the departmental organisation of France; he died 14 July 1807, after having designed and accomplished works of the greatest importance including the remarkable constructions mentioned later in this notice.

Navier's education, supervised by Gauthey, had (not surprisingly) that emphasis on scientific culture which would be familiar to an engineer; the progress of the young pupil was such that in 1802 he presented himself for examination for admission to l'Ecole Polytechnique and was among the highest in order of merit; after a brilliant record there, he entered l'Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées in 1804, and in 1808 obtained the qualification of ordinary engineer.[…]