The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. Its constitution was based on the older Boston Society of Civil Engineers from 1848.

ASCE is dedicated to the advancement of the science and profession of civil engineering and the enhancement of human welfare through the activities of society members. It has more than 143,000 members in 177 countries. Its mission is to provide essential value to members, their careers, partners, and the public; facilitate the advancement of technology; encourage and provide the tools for lifelong learning; promote professionalism and the profession; develop and support civil engineers.

The first serious and documented attempts to organize civil engineers as a professional society in the newly created United States were in the early 19th century. In 1828, John Kilbourn of Ohio managed a short-lived "Civil Engineering Journal," editorializing about the recent incorporation of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Great Britain that same year, Kilbourn suggested that the American corps of engineers could constitute an American society of civil engineers. Later, in 1834, an American trade periodical, the "American Railroad Journal," advocated for a similar national organization of civil engineers.

On December 17, 1838, a petition started circulating asking civil engineers to meet in 1839 in Baltimore, Maryland, to organize a permanent society of civil engineers. Prior to that, thirteen notable civil engineers largely identifiable as being from New York, Pennsylvania, or Maryland met in Philadelphia. This group presented the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia with a formal proposal that an Institution of American Civil Engineers be established as an adjunct of the Franklin..." Some of them were:

Forty engineers actually appeared at the February 1839 meeting in Baltimore, including J. Edgar Thomson (Future Chief Engineer and later President of the Pennsylvania Railroad), Wright, Roberts, Edward Miller, and the Maryland engineers Isaac Trimble and Benjamin Henry Latrobe II and attendees from as far as Massachusetts, Illinois, and Louisiana. Subsequently, a group met again in Philadelphia, led by its Secretary, Edward Miller to take steps to formalize the society, participants now included such other notable engineers as:

Miller drafted a proposed constitution that defined society's purpose as "the collection and diffusion of professional knowledge, the advancement of mechanical philosophy, and the elevation of the character and standing of the Civil Engineers of the United States." Membership in the new society restricted membership to engineers, and "architects and eminent machinists were to be admitted only as Associates." The proposed constitution failed, and no further attempts were made to form another society. Miller later ascribed the failure to the difficulties of assembling members due to available means for traveling in the country at the time. One of the other difficulties members would have to contend with was the requirement to produce each year one previously unpublished paper or "...present a scientific book, map, plan or model, not already in the possession of the Society, under the penalty of $10." In that same period, the editor of the American Railroad Journal commented that effort had failed in part due to certain jealousies that arose due to the proposed affiliation with the Franklin Institute. That journal continued discussion on forming an engineers' organization from 1839 thru 1843 serving its own self-interests in advocating its journal as a replacement for a professional society but to no avail.

During the 1840s, professional organizations continued to develop and organize in the United States. The organizers' motives were largely to "improve common standards, foster research, and disseminate knowledge through meetings and publications." Unlike earlier associations such as the American Philosophical Society, these newer associations were not seeking to limit membership as much as pursue "more specialized interests." Examples of this surge in new professional organizations in America were the American Statistical Association (1839), American Ethnological Society (1842), American Medical Association (1847), American Association for the Advancement of Science, (1848) and National Education Association (1852).

During this same period of association incorporations in the 1840s, attempts were again made at organizing an American engineer association. They succeeded at first with the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, organized in 1848, and then in October 1852, with an effort to organize a Society of Civil Engineers and Architects in New York. Led by Alfred W. Craven, Chief Engineer of the Croton Aqueduct and future ASCE president, the meeting resolved to incorporate the society under the name "American Society of Civil Engineers And Architects". The founding meeting was held on November 5, 1852 in the offices of the Croton Aqueduct Department at the Rotunda in City Hall Park, Manhattan. Membership eligibility was restricted to "civil, geological, mining and mechanical Engineers, architects, and other persons who, by profession, are interested in the advancement of science." James Laurie was elected the society's first president. At an early meeting of the Board of Direction in 1852, instructions were given for the incorporation of the "American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects" but this was the proper steps were never taken, and therefore this name never legally belonged to the association. The ASCE held its first meetings at the Croton Aqueduct Department building in City Hall Park. The meetings only went through 1855 and with the advent of the American Civil War, the society suspended its activities.