Short answers, pulled from the story.
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment. It covers public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage systems, pipelines, structural components of buildings, and railways.
John Smeaton, who constructed the Eddystone Lighthouse, was the first person to call himself a civil engineer. In 1771 he and some colleagues formed the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, a group that met informally over dinner.
The term civil engineering was coined in the 18th century to incorporate all things civilian as opposed to military engineering. Civil engineering is the second-oldest engineering discipline, after military engineering.
Civil engineering includes sub-disciplines such as coastal engineering, construction engineering, earthquake engineering, environmental engineering, forensic engineering, geotechnical engineering, materials science and engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, municipal engineering, and water resources engineering. Surveying is also closely tied to the field.
In most countries a bachelor's degree in engineering is the first step toward professional certification, with a professional body certifying the degree program. After a certified program, an engineer must satisfy work experience and exam requirements, after which they are designated a professional engineer, a chartered engineer, a chartered professional engineer, or a European engineer depending on the country.
Cornell University granted the first civil engineering degree awarded to a woman, Nora Stanton Blatch, in 1905. In the United States, the first civil engineering degree overall was awarded by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1835.