witnessed the rise
and fall of other men's creations, had seen how one flaw in mathematics could ruin an engineer's reputation for life—and he
was determined it would not happen to him.
Othmar Hermann Ammann had been born on March 26, 1879, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, into a family that had been established
in Schaffhausen since the twelfth century His father had been a prominent manufacturer and his forebears had been physicians,
clergymen, lawyers, government leaders, but none had been engineers, and few had shared his enthusiasm for bridges.
There had always been a wooden bridge stretching from the village of Schaffhausen across the Rhine, the most famous of them
being built at a length of 364 feet in the 1 700s by a Swiss named Hans Ulrich Grubenmaim. It had been destroyed by the French
in 1799, but had been replaced by others, and as a boy Othmar Ammann saw bridges as a symbol of challenge and a monument to
beauty.
In 1904, after working for a time in Germany as a design engineer, Ammann came to the United States—which, after slumbering
for many decades in a kind of dark age of bridge design, was now finally experiencing a renaissance. American bridges were
getting bigger and safer; American engineers were now bolder than any in the world.
There were still disasters, but it was nothing like it had been in the middle 1800s, when as many as forty bridges might collapse
in a single year, a figure that meant that for every four bridges put up one would fall down. Usually it was a case of engineers
not knowing precisely the stress and strain a bridge could withstand, and also there were cases of contractors being too cost-conscious
and willing to use inferior building materials. Many bridges in those days, even some railroad bridges, were made of timber.
Others were made of a new material, wrought iron, and nobody knew exactly how it would hold up until two disasters—one in
Ohio, the other in Scotland—proved its weakness.
The first occurred on a snowy December night in 1877 when a train from New York going west over the Ashtabula Bridge in Ohio
suddenly crumbled the bridge's iron beams and then, one by one, the rail cars fell into the icy waters, killing ninety-two
people. Two years later, the Firth of Tay Bridge in Scotland collapsed under the strain of a locomotive pulling six coaches
and a brakeman's van. It had been a windy Sunday night, and seventy-five people were killed, and religious extremists blamed
the railroad for running trains on Sunday But engineers realized that it was the wrought iron that was wrong, and these two
bridge failures hastened the acceptance of steel—which has a working strength twenty-five percent greater than wrought iron—and
thus began the great era that would influence young Othmar Ammann.
This era drew its confidence from two spectacular events— the completion in 1874 of the world's first steel bridge, a triple
arch over the Mississippi River at St. Louis designed and built by James Buchanan Eads; and the completion in 1883 of the
Brooklyn Bridge, first steel cable suspension span, designed by John Roebling and, upon his tragic death, completed by his
son, Washington Roebling. Both structures would shape the future course in American bridge-building, and would establish a
foundation of knowledge, a link of trial and error, that would guide every engineer through the twentieth century. The Roeblings
and James Buchanan Eads were America's first heroes in high steel.
James B. Eads was a flamboyant and cocky Indiana boy whose first engineering work was raising sunken steamers from the bottom
of the Mississippi. He also was among the first to explore the river's bed in a diver's suit, and he realized, when it came
time for him to start constructing the foundations for his St. Louis bridge, that he could not rely on the Mississippi River
soil for firmness, because it had a peculiar and powerful shifting movement.
So he
and fall of other men's creations, had seen how one flaw in mathematics could ruin an engineer's reputation for life—and he
was determined it would not happen to him.
Othmar Hermann Ammann had been born on March 26, 1879, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, into a family that had been established
in Schaffhausen since the twelfth century His father had been a prominent manufacturer and his forebears had been physicians,
clergymen, lawyers, government leaders, but none had been engineers, and few had shared his enthusiasm for bridges.
There had always been a wooden bridge stretching from the village of Schaffhausen across the Rhine, the most famous of them
being built at a length of 364 feet in the 1 700s by a Swiss named Hans Ulrich Grubenmaim. It had been destroyed by the French
in 1799, but had been replaced by others, and as a boy Othmar Ammann saw bridges as a symbol of challenge and a monument to
beauty.
In 1904, after working for a time in Germany as a design engineer, Ammann came to the United States—which, after slumbering
for many decades in a kind of dark age of bridge design, was now finally experiencing a renaissance. American bridges were
getting bigger and safer; American engineers were now bolder than any in the world.
There were still disasters, but it was nothing like it had been in the middle 1800s, when as many as forty bridges might collapse
in a single year, a figure that meant that for every four bridges put up one would fall down. Usually it was a case of engineers
not knowing precisely the stress and strain a bridge could withstand, and also there were cases of contractors being too cost-conscious
and willing to use inferior building materials. Many bridges in those days, even some railroad bridges, were made of timber.
Others were made of a new material, wrought iron, and nobody knew exactly how it would hold up until two disasters—one in
Ohio, the other in Scotland—proved its weakness.
The first occurred on a snowy December night in 1877 when a train from New York going west over the Ashtabula Bridge in Ohio
suddenly crumbled the bridge's iron beams and then, one by one, the rail cars fell into the icy waters, killing ninety-two
people. Two years later, the Firth of Tay Bridge in Scotland collapsed under the strain of a locomotive pulling six coaches
and a brakeman's van. It had been a windy Sunday night, and seventy-five people were killed, and religious extremists blamed
the railroad for running trains on Sunday But engineers realized that it was the wrought iron that was wrong, and these two
bridge failures hastened the acceptance of steel—which has a working strength twenty-five percent greater than wrought iron—and
thus began the great era that would influence young Othmar Ammann.
This era drew its confidence from two spectacular events— the completion in 1874 of the world's first steel bridge, a triple
arch over the Mississippi River at St. Louis designed and built by James Buchanan Eads; and the completion in 1883 of the
Brooklyn Bridge, first steel cable suspension span, designed by John Roebling and, upon his tragic death, completed by his
son, Washington Roebling. Both structures would shape the future course in American bridge-building, and would establish a
foundation of knowledge, a link of trial and error, that would guide every engineer through the twentieth century. The Roeblings
and James Buchanan Eads were America's first heroes in high steel.
James B. Eads was a flamboyant and cocky Indiana boy whose first engineering work was raising sunken steamers from the bottom
of the Mississippi. He also was among the first to explore the river's bed in a diver's suit, and he realized, when it came
time for him to start constructing the foundations for his St. Louis bridge, that he could not rely on the Mississippi River
soil for firmness, because it had a peculiar and powerful shifting movement.
So he
Similar Books
Down Don't Bother Me (9780062362209)
Jason Miller
BIG SKY SECRETS 01: Final Exposure
Roxanne Rustand
The Command
David Poyer
Raney & Levine
J. A. Schneider
In the Arms of an Earl
Anna Small
The Sinful Stones
Peter Dickinson
To See You Again
Alice Adams
Old Growth & Ivy (The Spook Hills Trilogy Book 1)
Jayne Menard
Bindlestiff (The Nameless Detective)
Bill Pronzini
Dark Rival
Brenda Joyce