History of Bridge
Throughout history there have been numerous instances in which bridges have failed after years of service or even during the construction stage. Failure can be defined as not performing the intended function. This may mean a collapse or something less severe such as a long, straight span that causes drivers to fall asleep. In each of these cases, engineers learned something new about the analysis process or the materials. Throughout history, a catastrophic bridge failure has occurred about every 330 years. With each failure, our bridges become safer. One such case of a massive collapse that drew national attention was a bridge crossing the Ohio River between Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Kanauga, Ohio.
The Silver Bridge
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Steel’s American Bridge Company (“Silver Bridge”). It was a twenty-seven foot wide structure that spanned a total of 2,235 feet (Roberge). The main span was 700 feet, suspended 102 feet above the bottom of the Ohio River (“Silver Bridge”). Only one other bridge, the Hercilio Luz Bridge in Florianopolis, Brazil (1924) was built using the same design (“Silver Bridge”). It was described by the “Engineer News Record” as “the first of its type in the United States” (“Silver Bridge”).
The Silver Bridge’s twin structure was built 75 miles upstream at St. Mary’s in 1928 using different approaches but the same engineer, contractor, fabricator, and shop drawings (“Silver Bridge”). This bridge was definitely unique. It was the country’s first bridge to be painted with rust-resistant aluminum paint (Harvey). Instead of the three-chain link suspension bridges found in Pittsburgh and throughout the world (“Silver Bridge”), the highway was suspended by eyebar chains. Eyebar chains are made by connecting the “eyes” or holes of each eyebar with a pin. The pins are held in place with bolted cap plates (Fields). Each chain link consists of a pair of 2”
“It was designed with a twenty-two foot roadway and one five-foot sidewalk” (Silver). The silver bridge is a very long bridge. “An eye-bar is a long steel plate having large circular ends with an "eye" or hole through which a pin is used to connect to other eyebars (to make a chain) or to other parts of the bridge.” according to Richard Fields. The whole bridge was built using the eye-bar suspension.
OWLCREEK BRIDGE" ." ABP Journal. 1.1 (2005): n. page. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Bierce, Ambrose “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. The Norton Introduction to
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is split into three sections. In the first section, Bierce describes in detail the situation, a youn...
At the time of its construction in 1929, the Ambassador Bridge was the largest spanned suspension bridge at 564 meters until the George Washington Bridge was built. It was an engineering masterpiece at the time. The total bridge length is 2,286 meters and rises to 118 meters above the river. Suspension cables support the main span of the Ambassador Bridge and the main pillars under the bridge are supported by steel in a cantilever truss structure. In total, the McClintic-Marshall masterpiece is comprised of 21,000 tons of steel. The immense socio-economical impact that the Ambassador Bridge has on transportation and trade is imperative for daily interaction between the Un...
The Golden Gate bridge, standing as an icon of roadway innovations, took multiple engineers years to design and complete. They could not just simply build an ordinary bridge. They had to take into consideration the physics behind it, as well as, what kind of effect the environment would have upon the bridge. The bridge sits along one of the most active fault lines in the world, so engineers had to make sure their bridge could withstand a little movement. Today the Golden Gate bridge still stands tried and true, as does many other innovations that 20th century engineers came up with.
The area of where the bridge was to cross the Ohio River was said to be one of the hardest places to build but came with some advantages. The section of the river had a solid rock base for the supporting pier to be built on. Since the engineers knew they could build a pier that would not settle they decided on a continuous bridge design. This design type distributes the weight so the steel trusses could be smaller and riveted together. This alone saved an estimates twenty percent of steel that was originally thought to be need to make the bridge cutting down the cost. The two continuous trusses span a collective 1,550 feet across the water. With addition of the north and south approach viaducts, for trains to go under the bridge, the superstructure’s total length is 3,463 feet. The bridge was made to hold two sets of tracks making the width 38 feet and 9 inches. The design called for 27,000 cubic yards of concrete and 13,200 tons of steel with some members being four foot square beams that span a distance of seventy feet. The design was the first step in a long process that would take several years to
Following the collapse of the I-35 Bridge, other bridges in the country, with similar construction designs, were scrutinized. According to federal statistics, more than 70,000 of the 607,363 or roughly 12 percent of the bridges in the United States are classified as “structurally deficient.”
output of steel exceeded that of the UK, and Carnegie owned a large part of it. Carnegie's empire grew to include the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works,, Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces, the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill, the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company, and the Scotia ore mines. Carnegie, through Keystone, supplied the steel for and owned shares in the landmark Eads Bridge project across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri . This project was an important proof-of-concept for steel technology, which marked the opening of a new steel
On May 24, 1854, construction began of the Victoria Bridge. This was a difficult task for the workers given the size of the bridge (“almost two miles in length from shore to shore” ) was the largest construction project during this period of time. Moreover, the construction of the bridge did not cease during the winter months. Therefore, many of the workers on the bridge would continue even while the St-Lawrence River froze underneath their
The 14-year construction of this urban landmark that stretched across the East River was completed in May of 1883. This was not only a bridge; it stood for many significant symbols. During this time period, the industrial aspects of things were at its peak and this represented the strength of the industry. Also it symbolized the use of immigrant workers and how much time and effort they put into making this bridge. Twenty seven men died while creating this bridge and that is something that most people forget when looking at the bridge, people risked there lives while giving a society that people needed. Not only that but it took tons and tons of steel and iron in order to complete this bridge and it was part of the steel and iron boom. This landmark led to the rise o...
The first and most challenging problem associated with building the Mackinac Bridge arrived long before the bridge was even designed. Financing such an enormous project was no easy feat. In 1928, the idea of connecting the upper and lower peninsulas was proposed to Congress for the first time (Brown 4). At the time, the suspected bridge project was very much under government scrutiny and control. In fact, the initial boost in interest in pursuing the construction of a bridge came about due to the depression. The Public Works Administration (PWA) had been created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal economic plan which would fund certain construction projects with th...
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is perhaps the most notorious failure in the world of engineering. It collapsed on November 7, 1940 just months after its opening on July 1, 1940. It was designed by Leon Moisseiff and at its time it was the third largest suspension bridge in the world with a center span of over half a mile long. The bridge was very narrow and sleek giving it a look of grace, but this design made it very flexible in the wind. Nicknamed the "Galloping Gertie," because of its undulating behavior, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge drew the attention of motorists seeking a cheap thrill. Drivers felt that they were driving on a roller coaster, as they would disappear from sight in the trough of the wave. On the last day of the bridge's existence it gave fair warning that its destruction was eminent. Not only did it oscillate up and down, but twisted side to side in a cork screw motion. After hours of this violent motion with wind speeds reaching forty and fifty miles per hour, the bridge collapsed. With such a catastrophic failure, many people ask why such an apparently well thought out plan could have failed so badly?(This rhetorical question clearly sets up a position of inquiry-which iniates all research.) The reason for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is still controversial, but three theories reveal the basis of an engineering explanation. (Jason then directly asserts what he found to be a possible answer to his question.)
In Aurora, Colorado, there is a legend about the Third Bridge. The Third Bridge can be found on Quincy Road heading east out of town. The bridge is next to a power plant in an otherwise, dusty, and deserted area of land. The legend states that a van of young children crashed and everyone was killed.
In her essay,”Importance of the Golden Gate Bridge,” Stephanie Stiavetti suggest that “It maintained this point of pride for nearly 25 years until the Verrazano- Narrows Bridge was built in New York in 1964. Today, this historic San Francisco landmark holds its place as the second largest suspension bridge in the country, behind Verrazano Narrows.” Back then, experts thought that it would be impossible to build a bridge across the tides and currents in that area because strong currents and tides would make construction extremely difficult and dangerous. The water is over 500 feet deep in the center of the channel, and along with the area's strong winds and thick fog, the idea of building a bridge there seemed nearly impossible. Despite all of the problems of building a bridge across the Golden Gate, Joseph Strauss was named as lead engineer for the project. Construction began January 5, 1933, and in the end cost more than $35 million to
built, and after half the livestock and people had left the dry area, the bridge collapsed,