Before the Quebec Bridge was constructed the only way to reach the north shore at Quebec City from the south shore of the St. Lawrence River was by boat. The bridge was to be a feat of engineering and would greatly increase the efficiency of crossing the river. In 1903 a six million dollar bond was passed for the construction on the bridge to begin. The first mistake made was choosing an inexperienced engineer, Edward Hoare to lead the project. Although he was a distinguished engineer he had never worked on a cantilever bridge that was longer than 90 meters and the Quebec Bridge today spans about 987 meters. Eventually Theodore Cooper replaced Hoare as chief engineer.
By 1904 the bridge was coming along by then there were some signs that it
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was not all was going according to plan. Some of the calculations had not been changed after the length of the bridge was extended. Nearing the completion of the bridge in 1907 a site engineer named Norman McLure noticed distortions in key structural pieces. The actual weight of the bridge was far heavier than its carrying capacity. The bridge company said if there were bends in the steel than the steel must have been bent before it was installed. Eventually Cooper realized not all was well and ordered work to stop adding any more weight to the bridge but the order was not given in time. On August 29, 1907 the south and central section collapsed into the river. 75 out of 86 workers were killed that day and the rest were injured. The next commission was appointed to investigate the bridge collapse.
The commission issued 15 conclusions that lead to the failure of the bridge. The commission found that Theodore Cooper and Peter Szlapka were directly responsible for the collapse. Peter Szlapka was the design engineer for the Phoenix Bridge Company and designed the chords that failed. Theodore Cooper was found responsible as well because he officially examined and approved the design. The Quebec Bridge and Railroad Company was also found responsible for failure to appoint an experienced engineer as chief engineer. The main reason for the collapse was poor design. Eventually the bridge became so heavy that it couldn’t even support itself. The bending and distortion of the steel was caused by the dead load of the bridge. The collapse can also be due to stubbornness and refusal to admit a mistake was made early on and didn’t want to redo all the plans. The Phoenix Bridge Company refused to believe their steel was bending and claimed that the distortions must have already been there before the steel was used to make the bridge. Also important factors such as increasing the span of the bridge were not taken into account and no new calculations were ever computed to change the
construction.
How exactly did the Mackinac Bridge start? It started back around 1884 when they started thinking about it. The Lansing Republic newspaper , dated February 5th 1884, reprinted a story from the Grand Traverse Herald pointing out that the experiment to provide all year service across the straights by boat had failed, and if that a great east west route were ever to be established through Michigan a bridge or tunnel would have be required. They considered both as possible, the only question in their mind was cost (History of the Bridge 1).
Without a concrete reason for the bridge's failure, every suggested reason was researched until proven incorrect” (Silver). There were many reasons that were suggested, but could not be proven correct due to the collapse. Wikipedia states that “A small crack was formed through fretting wear at the bearing, and grew through internal corrosion, a problem known as stress corrosion cracking.” The failure of the bridge was caused by a defect in one of the eye-bars on the north side causing the other side to collapse as well. “Stress corrosion cracking is the formation of brittle cracks in a normally sound material through the simultaneous action of a tensile stress and a corrosive environment.
The reasons for the collapse are to be found in the acts and omissions of those entrusted with building a bridge of a new and highly sophisticated design.
The Capilano Suspension Bridge was built in 1889 across the Capilano River by a Scottish engineer named George Grant Mackay in the city of Vancouver. The bridge was initially constructed from hemp ropes and cedar planks, which were later replaced with more durable steel cables in 1903. Over time, the bridge has exchanged ownership several times and has undergone a series of renovations. This is a paper on the Capilano Bridge. Special focus is given to its history, construction, and impact in its locality.
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 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.
Following the American Civil War, the use of railroads for trade was booming. The Detroit, Michigan and Windsor Ontario border, separated by the Detroit River, was a center for railroads at the time with the Michigan Central and Great Western railroads operating on their respective sides of the border. In the early 20th century, the railroads used ferries to transport shipments across the river. As production and population grew, so did the shipments of goods, specifically grain. An increasing delay in the supply and demand of agricultural products was hurting the economy for both farmers and consumers. In 1909, a tunnel was constructed to transport trains under the Detroit River but the need for a bridge with mass transportation abilities was still needed. This led to the construction of the Ambassador Bridge in 1929, funded by financier Joseph Bower and engineered and constructed by the heralded Pittsburgh McClintic-Marshall Company. No one could have ever foreseen the societal and economical impact the decision to engineer a bridge would have.
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 concept for the Holland Tunnel was developed in 1906.1 In 1906, a coalition of the New York State and New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission began studies for a bridge connecting lower Manhattan to Jersey City, New Jersey.2 By the end of World War I (1918), the number of cars and trucks on U.S. roads had skyrocketed. This trend did not differ in the streets of New York City.3 At this time the Hudson River ferries were carrying about 30 million vehicles each year (24,000 vehicles a day3) from New York to New Jersey. This had become a major problem for commuters and a solution was needed.2
The I-35 Bridge collapse in 2007 was not the result of a single safety precaution being overlooked; it was primarily due to a miscalculation by the original design team, Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates. While the accountability can be placed on Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates, the only way to learn from such disasters is to delve deeper into the root cause and determine why this minute, yet extremely important, detail was overlooked for over 40 years.
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.)
The Panama Canal was constructed in two stages. The first between 1881 and 1888, was carried out by the French company headed by De Lessop. Second, was the work by the Americans who eventually completed the canals construction between 1904 and 1914. (Cameron 79)The contract for the canals construction was signed on March 12, 1881, and it was agreed the work would be carried out for 512 million French francs. Midway through the building of the canal, in 1885, the French company started to run into financial difficulties and even applied to the French government to issue lottery bonds. Rumors of these difficulties caused increased interest within the American government. The abandonment of the scheme at this stage would cause financial ruin for all the investors and a severe blow to the French. It was suggested that the original plan be modified and the lock system should be employed. Eventually, in 1899, France’s attempt at constructing the Panama Canal was seen to be a failure. However, they had excavated a total of 59.75 million cubic meters, which included 14.255 million cubic meters from the Culebra Cut. (Barret 63) This lowered the peak by 102 meters. The value of work completed by the French was about $25 million. When the French departed, they left behind a considerable amount of machinery, housing and a hospital. The reasons behind the French failing to complete the project were due to disease carrying mosquitoes and the inadequacy of their machinery.
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,