The Tower and The Bridge is a very intresting book about structural engineering and opinions about it form an engineer named David Billington. Billington attempts to clearly define structural engineering by distinguishing it from science and architecture. His first topis was structural engineering and art. He argues that structural engineering or the structural arts follow the idea of efficiency, economy and elegance and by doing so provide evidence that communities flourish when such goals of freedom and discipline are balanced. .
Engineering or technology is the making of things that did not previously exist, whereas science is the discovering of things that have long existed. Technological results are forms that exist only because people want to make them, where scientific results are formulations of what exists independently of human intentions. Technology deals with th artificial, science with the natural. In reality, machines are only one half of technology, the dynamic half, and structures are the are the other, static, half-objects that create a water supply, permit, transportation, and provide shelter. The new tradition arose with the Industrial Revolution and its new material, industrial iron, which in turn brought forth new utilities such as the railroad. These events led directly to the creation of a new class of people, the modern engineers trained in special schools which themselves came into being only after the Industrial Revolution had made them a necessity. Economy was a very important during this time. .
Because of the great cost of the new industrilized iron, the engineers of the nineteenth century had to find ways to use it as efficiently as possible. For example, in their bridges, they had to find forms that would carry heavier loads-the locomotive-than ever before with a minimum amount of metal. Because of this the engineers had to speed up the design process and be mor efficient and economical.
The rail platform was to be built on top of the towers. ... Stone piers would be needed to support the towers. ... A rig called a gin pole was used to build the first tower, and then a wooden crane on top of the first tower was used to build the second. This process was repeated until all twenty towers were erected. ... He planned a suspension bridge with two 480 metre towers. ...
The massive towers and the four steel cables that would be used came from his brain. ... The Towers The towers were going to have to serve two very fundamental purposes. ... Unfortunately, only very tall towers could make up for what nature had failed to provide. ... Secured on land, it allowed the mass of the towers, whatever their height, to be sufficient to withstand the huge downward pressure of the cables as they passed over the tops of the towers. ... The span was to be held between the towers by the four immense cables. ...
The elegant high arches of the stone towers, the graceful swoop of the main cables, and the pattern created by the suspender cables and diagonal stays made the bridge very lovely. ... Only two towers are needed to hold up the cables, and they can be placed far apart to keep the river open for boat traffic. ... Roebling's design called for two massive stone support towers, over 276 feet and weighing 67,850 tons. Thick cables of steel wire rope would loop over towers from stone anchorages on shore. ... Hundreds of thousands of people cheered for over an hour as fireworks exploded ...
Gustave Eiffel, designer of the tower which bears his name. ... Years later he devised improved methods in the construction of a bridge over the Douro at Oporto. ... After 20 years of private ownership the tower became the property of the City of Paris. ... In 1858 the company was granted a contract to erect a railway bridge at Bordeaux. ... Soon afterwards he began work on his greatest project, the building of the Eiffel Tower. ...
The first part of the bridge was built on the north pier, one of the two towers that would be made. ... The north tower was being built in the summer of 1933; the same time the foundation for the south tower was nearing completion. ... As the tower got higher, confusion inside the tower-cells grew. ... About eight months later construction on the south tower began with the same process as the north tower. ... Wire was placed across the towers from which catwalks were made. ...
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest bridges of either type in the United States. ... Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio. ... When iron probes underneath the caisson for the Manhattan tower found the bedrock to be even deeper than expected, Roebling halted construction due to the increased risk of decompression sickness. He later deemed theaggregate overlying the bedrock 30 feet (9 m) below it to be firm enough to support the tower base, and construction continued.[19] The to...
The entrance was the front right leg of the Eiffel tower. ... It was surrounded with windows but all I could see was the leg of the tower. ... There we were, on the second floor of the magnificent Eiffel Tower. ... The river had lights lining it and the bridges. ... I didn't want to leave the Eiffel tower or Paris! ...
History of Bridges History of Bridges Although bridges often go unnoticed, their function is essential to modern America. ... These rope bridges were the fore- runners of modern suspension bridges. ... Each tower supporting the cables consists of 20,000 tons of steel and more than one million rivets! Cantilever bridges are a type of truss bridge. ... This type of bridge is used extensively for railroad bridges. ...
London Bridge It was a frightful and gloomy month for the people in the city of London. ... The people of the city anxiously and nervously awaited the falling of the bridge. ... Upon my arrival at the bridge I worked so very quietly. ... Just an inch to be pulled before the bridge would come tumbling down. ... Now here I am, the fairest of them all, locked up in a tower overlooking the newly rebuilt London Bridge. ...
