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Terminal Railroad Association Eades Bridge Drawings

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Engineering
  • Library/Archive
  • Middle Ages (5th-15th Century)
  • Secondary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/archives/guides/eads.html

Author: 
Sonya McDonald, WU Libraries, Washington University in St. Louis
Excerpt: 

Begun in 1867 and completed in 1874, the Eads Bridge was named after its designer, James Buchanan Eads. It was the first bridge to span the Mississippi at St. Louis, the first bridge to make significant of steel, and one of the first bridges in the U.S. to make use of pneumatic caissons (the caissons sunk for the bridge are still among the deepest ever). It was also the first bridge to be built entirely using cantilever construction methods, avoiding the need for falsework, and the first bridge designed so that any part could be removed for repair or replacement. The bridge is now a National Historic Landmark.

Annotation: 

Scope and content of the collection of original drawings of the Eads Bridge. Washington University.

Golden Gate Bridge

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Artifacts
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Educational
  • Engineering
  • Exhibit
  • Images
  • Library/Archive
  • Primary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/news_events/exhibits/bridge/intro.html

Author: 
Randal Brant, Virtual Curator, UC Berkeley Library
Excerpt: 

Welcome to the online edition of Bridging the Bay: Bridging the Campus.

...At a time when the Bay Area’s bridges are being analyzed and new structures are being planned, it is important to recognize the diversity and depth of the research collections that exist on the Berkeley campus. The exhibit includes books, documents, architectural drawings and renderings, blueprints, artifacts, maps, and photographs. The bridges documented include the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Carquinez Bridge, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, the Antioch Bridge, and the Dumbarton Bridge. The exhibit also contains documents detailing Bay Area bridge projects that were seriously considered, but were never built.

Annotation: 

UC Berkeley's online exhibition includes descriptions of and artifacts related to every major San Francisco Bay-area bridge; however, it devotes a significant amount of space to Joseph Strauss's plans for the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate section has five subsections - "Design & Construction," "Politics & Financing," "Toll Plaza," "Celebration," "The Color," and "Art & Icon" - each featuring photographs, architectural drawings, newspaper advertisements, and paraphernalia of all sorts from the bridge's inception. A useful resource for students looking for American historical artifacts for the World War II and postwar era, particularly for research purposes.

Paul Philippe Cret (1876-1945)

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Biographical
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://www.utexas.edu/tours/mainbuilding/people/cret.html

Author: 
Christopher Long
Excerpt: 

Paul Philippe Cret, architect, was born in Lyons, France, on October 23, 1876, the son of Paul Adolphe and Anna Caroline (Durand) Cret. He attended a Lycee in Bourg and studied architecture at the L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyons and the L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, where he graduated in 1903. At the Paris school he was awarded the Rougevin Prize and the Grand Medal of Emulation, both in recognition of his remarkable skill as a draftsman. In 1903 he was invited to teach architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained until his retirement in 1937.

Annotation: 

Essay discusses his commission to draw up a general development plan for the campus at the University of Texas.

An Inventory of his Drawings, 1930-1945 by Blake Alexander

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Engineering
  • Exhibit
  • Library/Archive
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utaaa/00051/aaa-00051.html

Author: 
Texas Archival Resources Online, University of Texas
Excerpt: 

Drury Blakeley Alexander (1924-), architectural educator, served as professor at the University of Texas School of Architecture and continues to serve the city through the Historic Landmarks Commission and the University as a champion of the preservation of the University's historic buildings, resident historian, and special friend to the Architecture and Planning Library. Creative works, correspondence, memoirs, printed material, minutes, maps, images, photographs, student work, slides, and artifacts, (1887-1995) created or collected by Drury Blakely Alexander, evidence his career in education and interests in architectural history and preservation.

Annotation: 

Scope and contents of the collection held at the University of Texas. Also includes a biographical sketch.

James Eads

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Biographical
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/RiverWeb/Projects/Ambot/TECH/TECH20.htm

Author: 
Vernon Burton, Ph.D., Professor, Department of History, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Excerpt: 

Aware that control of the country's river systems would important to both sides in the Civil War, Eads proposed the U.S. government invest in the development of steam-powered, ironclad warships. Eads made his proposal before the war, but his idea was coolly received. When he was awarded a contract, he employed upwards of 4,000 men to build the U.S. ironclad armada that would prove decisive in Union efforts against Forts Henry and Donelson, at Memphis, Island No. 10, Vicksburg, and Mobile Bay. In a remarkable feat Eads turned out his first ironclad 45 days after he began production. The ironclad idea would be adopted by the Confederacy and both sides would improve on Eads' idea throughout the war. After the war Eads found a new project, the spanning of the Mississippi with a suitable bridge to carry everything from people to trains. The self-trained engineer proposed a triple-arch design fabricated from steel. Each span was roughly 500 hundred feet and rested on piers resting on bedrock some 100 feet beneath the river bottom. The building of the arches involved steel supplied by Andrew Carnegie's steel works. Eads required that the 18 inch diameter hollow tubes conform to a test strength of 60,000 pounds. Many times during construction steel was returned to be re-rolled so that it might meet Eads' exacting standards. Keeping the shipping lanes open was necessary during construction, so Eads designed a cantilever system to support the unjoined arches. A system of pulleys stretched over the piers and supported the arches. Eads was also innovative in that he employed a threaded iron plug to close the arches. He allowed five inches on each arch to be used for threading the plug and closing the distance between the arches. The Eads Bridge was the largest of its kind and quickly became world renowned.

Annotation: 

Biographic sketch and bibliography.

Eads Bridge

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/ibex/archive/guidebook/EadsBridge.htm

Author: 
Brian Orland, Professor in Landscape Architecture Dept., University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Excerpt: 

In 1867 a convention for the improvements of the Mississippi and its tributaries met in St. Louis. Even at this early date the people were beginning to see vaguely that the Mississippi Valley was destined to be the ruling section of the country. Eads in his address to the convention showed that he foresaw it plainly. It was at this time he made clear his remarkable plans for the bridge. A little later in the same year the long-talked-of bridge at St. Louis was at last begun. The population of St. Louis at this time was about 100,000 inhabitants. The estimated cost of the bridge, $736,000, caused consternation among the city officials and there was some delay in the plans.

Annotation: 

Illustrated essay discusses Eads involvement in the decisions leading to the construction of the bridge.

The Paul Philippe Cret Collection

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Engineering
  • Images
  • Library/Archive
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Primary Source
  • Secondary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://www.design.upenn.edu/archives/majorcollections/cret.html

Author: 
William Whitaker, Collections Manager, Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania
Excerpt: 

A gift of John F. Harbeson, the archive consists of Cret's student and professional work and is displayed on approximately four hundred and seventy-six sheets containing one or more drawings, photos, or prints per sheet. The archival holdings may be broadly divided into eighty-eight sheets of student work at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Lyon and Paris, fifty-three student and professional watercolors, thirteen sheets of bookplates, seals, medals and title pages, fifty-six sheets of competitions (thirty-two of various university designs), nine sheets of commercial work, one hundred and two of memorials, twenty-two sheets of government buildings, twelve residential designs, twenty-one sheets of bridge designs, five sheets of watercolors and ink sketches by Col. Oscar Lahalle (Cret's father-in-law), and one hundred and eleven sheets of varied design work.

Annotation: 

The University of Pennsylvania School of Design has assembled a complete index of drawings by architect Paul Philippe Cret, a professor at PennDesign who went on to great success in his own firm. Only 20 of the 199 indexed works have links to actual drawings; however, the drawings themselves are of very high quality, and "next project" links underneath each scanned work make navigating from drawing to drawing simple. In addition, a biography on the first page of the site contexualizes Cret's influence very well. The site would be of use to any student of art or architectural design.

Report on a Rail-way Suspension Bridge Across the Connecticut at Middletown

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Engineering
  • Images
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Primary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://bridges.lib.lehigh.edu/books/book501.html

Author: 
Digital Bridges, Lehigh University
Excerpt: 

Personal author:
Ellet, Charles, 1810-1862.

Title:
Report on a rail-way suspension bridge across the
Connecticut, at Middletown, with a proposal for its
construction, to a committee of the citizens of

Annotation: 

Facsimile of Ellet's report published in 1848. Also available in pdf and tiff formats.

Tay Bridge Collection

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • University
URL: 

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/ms030.htm

Author: 
Michael Bolik, University of Dundee
Excerpt: 

This collection consists of display material with related notes and copies of records and papers brought together by Michael Shafe, Deputy Librarian, University Library, Dundee, for an exhibition held in the library, December/January, 1979-1980, to commemorate the centenary of the Tay Bridge Disaster and mark the career of Sir Thomas Bouch, engineer of the first Tay Bridge.

Annotation: 

Scope and content of the collection held at the University of Dundee.

David Lennox

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Biographical
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
  • University
URL: 

http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P003718b.htm

Author: 
Rosanne Walker, Bright Sparcs, University of Melbourne
Excerpt: 

Lennox's arrival in New South Wales opened a new chapter in the bridge-building history of the colony. He built a series of stone bridges, some of which are still standing. In 1844 he moved to Melbourne, where he had charge of all roads, bridges, wharves and ferries, acted as advisory engineer to various government departments and built 53 bridges.
Career Highlights:
Born Ayr, Scotland. Arrived Sydney 1832; Sub-Inspector of Roads 1832-33; Superintendent of Bridges 1833-43; district surveyor to the Parramatta Council 1843-44; Superintendent of Bridges, Port Phillip District 1844-53. Built a number of stone bridges, including one on the main western road at Lapstone Hill, the Lansdowne Bridge on the main southern road near Liverpool, the Lennox Bridge over the Parramatta River and the first Prince's Bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne.

Annotation: 

Brief biography and career highlights from Bright Sparcs.

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