Secondary Source

RENNIE, JOHN, a celebrated civil engineer, was the youngest son of a respectable farmer at Phantassie, in East Lothian, where he was born, June 7, 1761. Before he had attained his sixth year, he had the misfortune to lose his father; his education, nevertheless, was carried on at the parish school (Prestonkirk) by his surviving relatives. The peculiar talents of young Rennie seem to have been called forth and fostered by his proximity to the workshop of the celebrated mechanic, Andrew Meikle, the inventor or improver of the thrashing-machine. He frequently visited that scene of mechanism, to admire the complicated processes which he saw going forward, and amuse himself with the tools of the workmen. In time, he began to imitate at home the models of machinery which he saw there; and at the early age of ten he had made the model of a wind-mill, a steam-engine, and a pile-engine, the last of which is said to have exhibited much practical dexterity.

Between 1901 and 1903, the New York City Department of Bridges presented plans for a new swing bridge at 207th Street (Fordham Road) before the Board of Estimate. Gustav Lindenthal, the commissioner of the newly created New York City Department of Bridges, favored a lift bridge, then a new development in bridge engineering. The city was not eager to spend on this expensive design, and when the opportunity was presented to make use of the original Broadway Bridge span (which was about to be replaced by a dual-deck swing span), the city seized it. In August 1903, the War Department approved plans for the bridge, provided that allowances were made for navigable vessels at Fordham Landing, and the Board of Estimate subsequently approved the bridge.

Alfred P. Boller, who designed the Madison Avenue, 145th Street and Macombs Dam swing spans, created the design for the University Heights Bridge. In November 1903, work began on dredging and building the center pier on which the draw span was to rest. The center pier and side piers were constructed of masonry. The steel draw span, which was originally constructed over the Harlem River Ship Canal in 1895, was lifted from its pier, floated down the river and lifted onto the new center pier in June 1906. New machinery was installed to control the draw span.

June 13 -- Dr. D.B. Steinman, designer of the St. John's Bridge, chose a gothic style of architecture with the determined purpose of making the span his most beautiful work, "The gothic arch was made of stone in the mideval days because steel had not been developed. It is really more appropriate in steel. Until recently the public took it for granted that steel bridges had to be utilitarian and unattractive, but now the interest is turning to the development of forms of beauty in steel."

Though accustomed to having the type of bridge left to his discretion, Dr. Steinman & Robinson, Consulting Engineers, worked out and submitted to the county commissioners plans and estimates for both the suspension and the canti- lever forms before the former was finally chosen. His estimate showed that the suspension type, beside from being more suitable for the site, would be $640,000 cheaper than the cantilever style.

Ralph Modjeski, considered "America's greatest bridge builder", was born in Bochnia, near the city of Krakow, Poland on January 27, 1861. He immigrated to America at the age of 15 with his mother, famous Shakespearean actress, Helen Modjeska, in July, 1876. Even though Modjeski seemed destined to become an accomplished concert pianist, he went on instead to become a highly successful civil engineer and "one of the twentieth century's most famous designers and builders of bridges". In 1929, Modjeski was awarded the John Fritz Gold Medal, the highest American engineering medal, with a citation for his genius in combining strength and beauty. He was also honored by the Pennsylvania state legislature in 1966 by a resolution citing him as one of America's "greatest inventors".

We call the confluence of the Harlem and the East Rivers in New York City Hell's Gate. Dramatic, I suppose, but why not! A bridge opened over Hell's Gate in 1917. It's an arch of iron girders. The arch thickens at each end. It thins toward the center. You get a feeling of buoyancy looking at it.

Othmar Ammann, who designed the bridge, caught Hell for it. This, says writer Christopher Bonanos, was an age of ornament, gravity, solidity, and dignity. Ammann's design was imperfect in some ways. But its simplicity, lightness, and freedom signaled a new era in design.

Take a virtual walk across the Mid-Hudson Bridge!! Discover various facts about the bridge. Find out about attractions in the area of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. Learn about how the bridge was conceived, designed, and built.

Othmar Hermann Ammann, partner of the firm Ammann & Whitney, Consulting Engineers, New York, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, died at his home in Rye, New York, on September 22, 1965, at the age of eighty-six. His passing brought to a close an active, sixty-three-year engineering career during which he came to be known as the "master bridge builder of our time."

John Job Crew Bradfield was born in Sandgate, Queensland on the 26 December 1867. He was educated at Ipswich State School, Ipswich Grammar School and the University of Sydney, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Engineering in 1889. In 1891 he married Edith Jenkins. They had six children.

In 1891 Bradfield joined the New South Wales Department of Public Works as a temporary draftsman, becoming permanent in 1895. He was involved in such major projects as the Cataract Dam and Burrunjuck Dam. In 1909 he became assistant engineer and in 1913 he was appointed chief engineer for metropolitan railway construction. He went overseas in 1914 to study railway construction and in the next few years wrote many papers advocating the electrification of suburban railways. Work commenced on the underground railway in 1923 and the first stations were opened in 1926.

Othmar Herrmann Ammann. Swiss-American engineer and designer of the largest bridges of the city of New York. Born on 26 March 1879 in Feuerthalen bei Schaffhausen, Zurich, Switzerland. Deceased on 22 September 1965 in Rye, New York, USA. Associated with the following firms:Formerly: Triborough Bridge Authority. Technical director(s), Port of New York Authority. Founder(s), Ammann & Whitney.

THE FIRST BRIDGE (1884): As early as 1874, residents and business owners petitioned officials in New York City and Westchester County (which governed the Bronx at the time) for a Harlem River bridge at 138th Street. After three years of studying not only the location of the bridge, but also what type of bridge should be built (whether a high fixed bridge or low moveable bridge), the New York City Parks Department, which at the time had jurisdiction over all bridges in the city, received a $100,000 appropriation from the Board of Estimate in 1878.
Between 1879 and 1881, engineer Alfred P. Boller and General John Newton prepared plans for the Madison Avenue Bridge. This planning was done in the context of improving navigation along the Harlem River. During this time, the New York City Parks Department put out various bids for constructing the bridge, which was estimated to cost $510,000.