Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America
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3.1 Theodore Cooper, as a member of Rensselaer’s Class of 1858 (courtesy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Archives)
3.2 East coast of Scotland, showing railway connections around the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay, ca. 1890 (from Westhofen)
3.3 The Tay Bridge after the collapse of its high girders, on December 28, 1879 (from Shipway [1989])
3.4 The high girders of the rebuilt Tay Bridge, as they stand today (from Shipway [1989])
3.5 John Roebling’s Suspension Bridge and the cantilever bridge over the Niagara Gorge, with Whirlpool Rapids in the foreground (from Tugby)
3.6 Benjamin Baker, ca. 1890 (from Westhofen)
3.7 The Forth Bridge drawn to scale before familiar structures and landmarks (from the Library of the Department of Civil Engineering, Imperial College)
3.8 Asian cantilever bridge with a central girder span (from Westhofen)
3.9 The anthropomorphic model used by Baker in his lectures on the Forth Bridge (from Westhofen)
3.10 Two of many ways proposed to bridge the Firth of Forth, including the accepted design (from Westhofen)
3.11 The Forth Bridge under construction (from Westhofen)
3.12 The completed Forth Bridge (from Steinman and Watson)
3.13 The Kinzua Viaduct, late nineteenth century (from Shank)
3.14 An early proposal for a cantilever bridge across the St. Lawrence River at Quebec (from Scientific American, May 30, 1885)
3.15 The south arm of the Quebec Bridge, just before its collapse (from Government Board of Engineers)
3.16 Designs submitted for the rebuilding of the Quebec Bridge (from Government Board of Engineers)
3.17 Comparison of cross sections of lower-chord members of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century bridges (from Government Board of Engineers)
3.18 Three members of the Board of Engineers for the redesigned Quebec Bridge standing inside one of the lower-chord members (from Government Board of Engineers)
3.19 The second Quebec Bridge accident, showing the central span buckling upon impact with the water (from Government Board of Engineers)
3.20 The completed Quebec Bridge (from Government Board of Engineers)
3.21 The scale of the Quebec Bridge shown by a guard posted during World War I (from Government Board of Engineers)
3.22 Theodore Cooper (from Engineering News-Record, August 28, 1919)
4.1 The Colossus of 1812, a wooden bridge of uncommon span (from Shank)
4.2 The original portal design of Pittsburgh’s Smithfield Street Bridge (from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers [1883])
4.3 The widened Smithfield Street Bridge, with a less ornate portal (courtesy of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation)
4.4 Progress by 1882 of a Hudson River tunnel begun in 1874 (from Scientific American, February 4, 1882)
4.5 Lindenthal’s proposed North River Bridge compared with other bridges drawn to scale (from Engineering News, January 14, 1888)
4.6 Lindenthal’s New York City Terminal Railroad scheme, drawn with an exaggerated vertical scale (from Engineering News, January 14, 1888)
4.7 An early version of Lindenthal’s Hudson River bridge design (from Scientific American, May 23, 1891)
4.8 Proposed cantilever bridge over the Hudson River (from Scientific American, June 16, 1894)
4.9 Late-nineteenth-century proposal for a railway bridge over the English Channel (from Scientific American, November 30, 1889)
4.10 A popular view of a possible stage in the evolution of bridges (from Waddell [1916])
4.11 Thomas Pope’s early-nineteenth-century proposal for a bridge across the East River (from Edwards)
4.12 Leffert L. Buck, chief engineer of the Williamsburg Bridge (from Hungerford)
4.13 Sketch of an early design detail for a tower and the roadway of the Williamsburg Bridge (from Engineering News, August 20, 1896)
4.14 The Williamsburg Bridge, upon its dedication in December 1903 (from Hungerford)
4.15 Gustav Lindenthal, as Commissioner of Bridges for New York City (from Hungerford)
4.16 Lindenthal’s design for the Manhattan Bridge, employing eyebar chains (from Engineering News, October 1, 1903)
4.17 Detail of an eyebar suspension system (courtesy of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation)
4.18 Diagrams showing suspension bridges as inverted arches (from Engineering News, October 1, 1903)
4.19 Views of the towers of the Manhattan Bridge, as redesigned in 1904 (from Engineering News, July 7, 1904)
4.20 Ralph Modjeski, perhaps in his late forties (from Carswell)
4.21 A sense of showmanship displayed by engineers on one of the thirty-inch-diameter pins for the Quebec Bridge (from Government Board of Engineers)
4.22 An 1838 proposal for a bridge at Blackwell’s Island (from Edwards)
4.23 An 1881 proposal for a “second bridge over the East River,” at Blackwell’s Island (from Scientific American, May 28, 1881)
4.24 Blackwell’s Island Bridge, 1903 design (from Engineering News, September 3, 1903)
4.25 Two arch designs for the Hell Gate Bridge (from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers [1918])
4.26 A 1906 design detail for the Hell Gate Bridge tower and arch (from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers [1918])
4.27 Completed Hell Gate Bridge (from Waddell [1916])
4.28 Sciotoville Bridge (from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers [1922])
4.29 Henry Hodge’s proposed Hudson River Bridge (from Waddell [1916])
4.30 Waddell’s lift bridge across the South Branch of the Chicago River (from Waddell [1916])
4.31 J.A. L. Waddell (from Waddell [1928])
4.32 Proposed designs for a bridge across the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden (from Engineering News-Record, June 23, 1921)
4.33 Perspective drawing of Delaware River Bridge (from Civil Engineering, December 1930)
4.34 Comparison of steel tower designs of several contemporary suspension bridges (from Civil Engineering, December 1934)
4.35 Photograph of the Delaware River Bridge under construction and Joseph Pennell’s etching of “The Ugliest Bridge in the World” (from Carswell; and from the Pennell Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, courtesy of A. J. Fredrich)
4.36 Sketch of Charles Evan Fowler’s proposal for three suspension bridges across the Hudson River (from The New York Times, June 6, 1924. Copyright © 1924 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.)
4.37 Lindenthal’s 1921 design for a Hudson River bridge (from Scientific American, June 25, 1921)
4.38 An illustration of Lindenthal’s proposed bridge (from “A Study in Magnitude,” by J. Bernard Walker. Copyright © 1921 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.)
4.39 A 1921 comparison of a tower of Lindenthal’s bridge with the Woolworth Building (from “A Study in Magnitude,” by J. Bernard Walker. Copyright © 1921 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.)
4.40 Roadway configuration for Lindenthal’s proposed Hudson River bridge in 1923 (from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers [1933])
4.41 Illustration of how New York’s City Hall could fit across the roadway of Lindenthal’s bridge (from “A Study in Magnitude,” by J. Bernard Walker. Copyright © 1921 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.)
4.42 Another view of Lindenthal’s never-realized Hudson River bridge (from Steinman [1922])
4.43 Gustav Lindenthal, as an old man (from Civil Engineering, September 1935)
5.1 Othmar Ammann in 1904 (courtesy of Margot Ammann Durrer)
5.2 Two unrealized proposals for Hudson River vehicular tunnels (from Engineering News-Record, August 28, 1919)
5.3 Clifford Holland’s design for a Hudson River vehicular tunnel comprising twin tubes (from Engineering News-Record, February 19, 1920)
5.4 Clandestine ground-breaking in
New Jersey for the Canal Street Tunnel (from Engineering News-Record, June 8, 1922)
5.5 “Tunnels and Bridges of Manhattan Already Finished or in Process of Completion” in 1908 (from The New York Times, October 11, 1908)
5.6 Geological cross section at the site of proposed bridge at 179th Street (from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers [1933])
5.7 Othmar Ammann’s 1923 proposal for a bridge across the Hudson River at 179th Street (from Engineering News-Record, January 3, 1924)
5.8 Cantilever design originally accepted for the bridge over Sydney Harbour (from Engineering News, September 22, 1904)
5.9 Comparison of pylon-design details of Hell Gate Bridge and the Sydney Harbour arch (from Civil Engineering, April 1932)
5.10 Four versions of Ammann’s proposed Hudson River bridge (from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers [1933])
5.11 The completed George Washington Bridge (from Steinman and Watson)
5.12 The Washington Bridge over the Harlem River (from Scientific American, May 18, 1889)
5.13 Fourth Street Bridge, San Francisco (courtesy of California Department of Transportation)
5.14 Joseph Strauss’s 1921 proposal for a bridge across the Golden Gate (from O’Shaughnessy and Strauss)
5.15 Page from a promotional booklet showing Strauss’s cost estimate for a Golden Gate bridge (from O’Shaughnessy and Strauss)
5.16 The Golden Gate Bridge, in its dramatic setting (courtesy of California Department of Transportation)
5.17 A controversial bridge design of the mid-1930s, superimposed on a photograph of its proposed location between Brooklyn and lower Manhattan (from the Special Archive, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority)
5.18 The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, 1939, with anchorage in foreground (from the Special Archive, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority)
5.19 The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge after stiffening trusses were added in the mid-1940s (from the Special Archive, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority)
5.20 Leon Moisseiff (from Engineering News-Record, September 9, 1943)
5.21 The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, in July 1940 (from Ammann, von Kármán, and Woodruff)
5.22 The Tacoma Narrows Bridge executing its fatal oscillations in November 1940 (from Ammann, von Kármán, and Woodruff)
5.23 Othmar Ammann at the dedication of his bust at the George Washington Bridge, shaking hands with the governors of New Jersey and New York (courtesy of Margot Ammann Durrer)
5.24 The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, shortly after its opening in 1964 (from the Special Archive, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority)
6.1 The New York approach to the Brooklyn Bridge (from Scientific American, January 15, 1881)
6.2 Professor William H. Burr (from Finch [1954])
6.3 David Steinman and Boy Scouts on the bridge they built across a stream in Idaho (from Engineering News, September 25, 1913)
6.4 Holton Robinson, engineer in charge of construction of the Williamsburg Bridge (from Hungerford)
6.5 The Florianópolis Bridge, as originally designed and as built (from Engineering News-Record, November 13, 1924)
6.6 The San Francisco Bay area, showing the locations of bridges (from United States Steel [1936])
6.7 Engineers making final inspection of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (from California Toll Bridge Authority)
6.8 Artist’s conception of how the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge would look when completed (from United States Steel [1936])
6.9 The completed San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (from United States Steel [1936])
6.10 The Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge over Coos Bay, Oregon (courtesy of Oregon Historical Society, Negative No. ORHI 90909)
6.11 David Steinman’s unrealized Liberty Bridge (from Steinman and Watson)
6.12 Official first-day cover and U.S. postage stamp commemorating the centennial of engineering in America (courtesy of W. S. Persons)
6.13 Terminology used for various means of suppressing or reducing oscillations of suspension bridge decks (from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers [1945])
6.14 David Steinman, lecturing on the aerodynamics of suspension bridges (from Ratigan)
6.15 The Mackinac Bridge (courtesy of Michigan Department of Transportation)
6.16 The Messina Strait bridge design proposed by David Steinman (from Steinman [1954a])
6.17 David Steinman, among the floor-stay and suspender cables of the Brooklyn Bridge (from Ratigan)
7.1 The Bixby Creek Bridge, a reinforced concrete arch, on California’s coastal highway (courtesy of California Department of Transportation)
7.2 Cable-stayed bridge proposed over the Mississippi at Cape Girardeau, Missouri (courtesy of HTNB Architects, Engineers, Planners)
7.3 The Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay (courtesy of Florida Department of Transportation)
7.4 Santiago Calatrava’s Alamillo Bridge in Seville, Spain (courtesy of Calatrava Valls SA)
7.5 Computer-generated image of Calatrava’s unrealized East London crossing of the River Thames (courtesy of Calatrava Valls SA)
HENRY PETROSKI
Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. The author of more than a dozen books, he lives in Durham, North Carolina.
BOOKS BY HENRY PETROSKI
THE BOOK ON THE BOOKSHELF
As writing and literacy advanced over the last two thousand years, the development of the book was seemingly inevitable. As books grew more common, the question of how to store them became more pertinent. But how did we come from sheets rolled on spools to the ubiquitous portable item you are holding in your hand? In The Book on the Bookshelf, Petroski answers these and virtually every other question we might have about books as he contemplates the history of the making and storing of books.
History/Books & Reading/978-0-375-70639-4
ENGINEERS OF DREAMS
Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America
In Engineers of Dreams, Petroski explores the engineering—not to mention the politics, egotism, and sheer magic—behind America’s great bridges. It is the story of the men and women who built the St. Louis, the George Washington, and the Golden Gate bridges, drawing not only on their mastery of numbers but on their gifts for self-promotion. It is an account of triumphs and ignominious disasters (including that of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which twisted apart in a high wind). In this engaging book, Petroski lets us see how bridges became the “symbols and souls” of our civilization, as well as testaments to their builders’ vision, ingenuity, and perseverance.
Science/Engineering/978-0-679-76021-4
THE EVOLUTION OF USEFUL THINGS
How did the fork acquire a fourth tine? What advantage does the Phillips-head screw have over its single-grooved predecessor? Why does the paper clip look the way it does? What makes Scotch tape Scotch? In this delightful book, “the poet laureate of technology” takes a microscopic look at artifacts that most of us count on but rarely contemplate. At the same time, he offers a convincing new theory of technological innovation as a response to the perceived failures of existing products—suggesting that irritation, and not necessity, is the mother of invention.
History/Science/978-0-679-74039-1
PAPERBOY
Confessions of a Future Engineer
As Henry Petroski recounts his youth in 1950s Queens, New York—a borough of handball games and inexplicably numbered streets—he winningly shows how his after-school job amounted to a prep course in practical engineering. Petroksi’s paper was The Long Island Press, whose headlines ran to COP SAVES OLD WOMAN FROM THUG and DiMAG SAYS BUMS CAN’T WIN SERIES. Folding it into a tube suitable for throwing was an exercise in post-Euclidean geometry. Maintaining a Schwinn revealed volumes about mechanics. Reading Paperboy, we also learn about the hazing rituals of its namesakes, the aesthetics of kitchen appliances, and the delicate art of penny-pitching.
Memoir/978-0-375-71898-4
PUSHING THE LIMITS
New Adventures in Engineering
Pushing the Limits celebrates some of the largest things we have created and provides a startling new vision of engineering’s past, its present, and its future. It highlights our greatest successes, like London’s Tower Bridge; our most ambitious projects, like China’s Three Gorges Dam; our most embarrassing moments, like the wobbly Millennium Bridge in London; and our greatest failures, like the collapse of the twin towers on September 11. Throughout, Petroski provides fascinating insights into the world of technology with his trademark erudition and enthusiasm for the subject.
Science/Engineering/978-1-4000-3294-5
REMAKING THE WORLD
Adventures in Engineering
Feats of engineering have changed our environment in countless ways, big and small. Remaking the World focuses on the big: the Panama Canal, a cut through the continental divide that required the excavation of 311 million cubic yards of earth. It tells the stories of the personalities behind the wonders, from the jaunty Isambard Kingdom Brunel, designer of nineteenth-century transatlantic steamships, to Charles Steinmetz, genius of the General Electric Company, whose office of preference was a twelve-foot canoe. This spirited book is a celebration of the creative instinct and of the engineers whose inspirations have immeasurably improved our world.
Science/Engineering/978-0-375-70024-8
SMALL THINGS CONSIDERED
Why There is No Perfect Design
Why has the durable paper shopping bag been largely replaced by its flimsy plastic counterpart? What circuitous chain of improvements led to such innovations as the automobile cup holder and the swiveling vegetable peeler? Henry Petroski looks at some of our most familiar objects and reveals that they are, in fact, works in progress. For there can never be an end to the quest for the perfect design.
Science/Engineering/978-1-4000-3293-8
THE TOOTHPICK
Technology and Culture
From ancient Rome, where emperor Nero made his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth, to nineteenth-century Boston, where Charles Forster, the father of the American wooden toothpick industry, ensured toothpicks appeared in every restaurant, the toothpick has been an omnipresent yet often overlooked part of our daily lives. Here, with an engineer’s eye for detail and a poet’s flair for language, Henry Petroski takes us on an incredible tour of his most interesting invention. Along the way, he peers inside today’s surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, and explores a treasure trove of the toothpick’s unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.