Completed in 1850 Brittania Bridge was the brainchild of Robert Stephenson and at the time was at the cutting edge of civil engineering, with all aspects of construction being on an unprecedented scale. Construction began in 1846 and was completed by 1850, it was intended that the bridge carry the Chester and Holyhead railway across the Menai Strait. Brittania Bridge had to be a tubular bridge to meet the criteria set by the board of admiralty, that the span of the bridge should be at least 100ft above the Menai Straits at all points. This was the first of many issues met and overcome during the conception and construction of the bridge.
The proposed route for the railway line was originally surveyed in 1838 by George Stephenson, however it was intended that the route use the existing Menai Suspension bridge to cross the Menai Strait (Robbins, 1981). The rail carriages would be pulled across the bridge by horses; Robert Stephenson didn’t feel this was adequate and proposed that a new bridge should be built instead. It is now widely accepted that under the increased loading on the Menai suspension bridge would have collapsed (Beckett, 1984). In 1845 Robert Stephenson managed to convince parliament that the project was feasible, although at this point no in-depth analysis had been conducted. This analysis fell to William Fairbairn; he expressed the opinion that the tubular structure could be constructed in such a way that they could not only support their own weight but also a uniformly distributed load of 20,000 kn. This high load capacity was due to the revolutionary design, with cellular flanges on the top and bottom of the tubes, resisting compressional failure (Beckett, 1984). Fairbairn also proposed that a catenary form of c...
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... been preserved on the Caernarvon side of the bridge, the lasting legacy of such a magnificent feat of Victorian engineering.
Works Cited
BECKETT, D. 1984. Stephensons' Britain, Newton Abbot, Devon ; North Pomfret, Vt, David & Charles.
BREESE, G. 2001. The bridges of Wales, Llanrwst, Wales, Gwasg Carrech Gwalch.
ROBBINS, M. 1981. George & Robert Stephenson, London, H.M.S.O.
Patrick Robertson, Menai Heritage Experience — History of the Britannia Bridge. Available at: http://www.prosiectmenai.co.uk/bbhistory.php [Accessed October 28, 2011].
Warren Kovach, Menai Strait Bridges. Menai Strait Bridges. Available at: http://www.anglesey-history.co.uk/places/bridges/ [Accessed October 25, 2011].
Patrick Robertson, Menai Heritage Experience — History of the Britannia Bridge. Available at: http://www.prosiectmenai.co.uk/bbhistory.php [Accessed October 28, 2011].
Steven Hermosillo Professor Wallace Fire Tech 105 15 November 2015 Silver Bridge Collapse According to Wikipedia, Forty-six people were killed in the silver-bridge collapse and another nine people were injured. “The Silver Bridge was an eye-bar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, over the Ohio River” (Wikipedia). This was a highly used bridge serving thousands of cars a day before the collapse.
...ncyclopedia of Archaeology, Ed. Deborah M. Pearsall. Vol. 3. Oxford, United Kingdom: Academic Press, 2008. p1896-1905. New Britain: Elsevier, Inc.
In a moment of self reflexivity Ondaatje reveals part of his own experience with history through Patrick. “The articles and Illustrations he found in the Riverdale Library depicted every detail about the soil, the wood, the weight of the concrete, everything but information on those who actually built the bridge.” (Ondaatje 145) This statement is strikingly similar to comments made by Michael Ondaatje in an interview regarding his novel. “…I can tell you exactly how many buckets of sand were used, because this is Toronto history, but the people who actually built the goddamn bridge were unspoken of. They’re unhistorical!”(qtd. In Sarris 186) Powerful scenes thr...
The Jericho Covered Bridge in Kingsville, Maryland was built in 1865 and restored in 1982. The bridge is 100 feet long and cased in cedar planks and timber beams. Legend has it that after the Civil War many lynchings occurred on the bridge. Passersby were supposedly captured on the bridge and hung from the upper rafters. The bridge is very close to my house and I have driven over it several times. The storyteller, age 19, also lives a couple minutes away from the bridge. He has lived in Kingsville, Maryland his entire life. He recalled a dramatic story he had heard from his older brother involving the haunted bridge.
History Guy Media, 23 Jan. 2011. Web.
The Victoria Bridge, constructed in the mid-19th-Century in British North America, is a famous Canadian landmark that set the stage for the beginning of the industrialization phase of Canada and more specifically, Montreal. It would eventually “play a vital role in the growth of the city and the country”.
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.)
When assigned the England project, I wanted to research something having to do with my heritage. My ancestors originate from England. Correspondingly, I chose Whittington Castle. According to an old English legend, one of my family ancestors, Dick Whittington, set out from the castle for London, in search of his fortune. After residing in London for a time, Dick Whittington went on to be "thrice Lord Mayor of London". That piece of history supposedly occurred in 1368, but the first construction of Whittington Castle was in 845 and modeled after the Norman Motte and Bailey castles of the time.
In conclusion, the Ruthwell Cross has a detailed and important history behind. Its runic inscriptions and carvings give us insight into what the culture was like in those times. The Ruthwell Cross is an important piece of history and is recognized as such in the Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882, under which it is protected.
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
The bridges of Königsberg posed a problem not many, if any, had ever considered before. At first, their question was, could all seven bridges be crossed once and only once in order to reach each land mass? But soon it became, could all bridges such a path take place in any network of bridges anywhere? The answer was unsure, though none could succeed in the task, until Leonard Euler, a genius of the eighteenth-century, proposed his solution to the problem...
Haghani et al. (2012:456), state that bridges are vital parts of the infrastructure in the modern society and some railway and highway bridges were built in the first half of the 19th century and their technical life span is deemed to be already completed. TFR’s SAC BU constructed its rail bridges in the 19th century, despite the fact that the maintenance teams are maintaining them according to schedule and procedure. The railway bridges that are currently in use by SAC’s BU are currently being subjected to rigorous demands due to an increased number of trains that the BU is running. Life cycle management, which is vital in infrastructure and technical support managers must ensure that they adhere to life cycle management to improve the performance of the railway
...P, “The Ulster Museum: An Appreciation”, Perspective, Vol. 16, Issue no. 4, July/Aug 2007, pg.30
For this bridge its fall was inflicted by an unknown patron. One who’s identity or existence we never see verified. The record of the fall is short in the story described as only being for a moment. Then the bridge was finally introduced to “the sharp rocks which had always gazed up at me so peacefully from the rushing water”. Rocks gazing peacefully? This is almost as absurd as a bridge turning around. An action that the bridge itself cannot seem to believe it is doing. This attempt by the bridge was his final effort before his fall. I cannot even picture how a bridge would turn around and attempt to look on his back. The question that comes to my mind is how can a bridge see what’s on his back? If this book is trying to make us believe that this bridge is a human, or has human like qualities. Then how flexible a person is this bridge? Because I know very few people who can see whats on their back. Especially without turning so much that anything on their back would fall off. So is this bridge so inflexible that it breaks itself by turning around or is it trying to buck off its attacker unintentionally? This answer is never answered due to the story ending shortly thereafter this scene. With the short fall of the bridge onto the sharp rocks it had stared at for the entirety of its life. The events before and during the fall of the bridge was the main issue I had with my thesis that the bridge was