Engineering

Civil engineer.
Born: 26 December 1867 Sandgate, Queensland, Australia. Died: 23 September 1943 Gordeon, New South Wales, Australia.
John Job C. Bradfield was associated with a great range of engineering works including the Cataract and Burrinjuck Dams, the Sydney Underground Railways and Brisbane's Story Bridge. He was, however, best known as one of the original designers of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. For his thesis on the design and construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the city railway system, Bradfield was awarded the degree of Doctor

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.

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".

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.

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.

Eleven major bridges unite New York City together and with the rest of the nation. One engineer was responsible for more than half of them, yet hardly anyone knows his name.

Othmar Ammann came to America as a graduate of Swiss engineering schools and learned bridge building from the reigning bridge engineer, Gustav Lindenthal. As his protégé, Ammann worked on the Hell Gate Railroad Bridge, an arch bridge of unprecedented strength and beauty. Lindenthal had plans for an enormous rail bridge across the Hudson River, but they were rejected as too expensive. Ammann proposed a lighter, less expensive span for automobiles and trucks. In a painful parting, he left Lindenthal and built the landmark George Washington Bridge, a span twice as long as any suspension bridge in the world.

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.

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.

It will be the effort of the writer in the following pages to point out the peculiarities of material and construction involved in the designing and building of “Iron Highway Bridges,” in the hope that a dissemination of their scientific principles in a popular form, will bear fruit in a more thorough appreciation of a noble art, and in elevating the standard of requirements of this very important class of public works. The subject has been divided into two parts, each complete in itself; the one general and descriptive, and the other analytical. The former is peculiarly intended to present to public committees entrusted with the letting of bridge contracts such information as they ought to possess, while the latter is offered as an aid to engineers not experts in this branch of the profession, and yet who are often called upon to act as inspectors.

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.