That’s the Turn-of-River Bridge in Stamford, Connecticut. (Photo courtesy of Magicpiano.) Putting aside anything I have to say about the structure, that’s a fantastic name for a bridge. It’s (obviously) quite small and has been converted from a road bridge to a footbridge on a trail, but it’s looking okay for a neglected 1893 bridge. …
That’s the 1871 Ponakin Road Bridge over the Nashua River near Lancaster, Massachusetts. It’s not unique but it’s close enough that I’ve never seen this particular form before. The HAER description calls it a “Post truss,” named after Simeon Post. Supposedly these were common in the 1860s and 70s, which means most of the bridges …
There are a number of common histories for buildings. The happiest is construction->continuous_use. Frankly, that’s less common than it should be. A history that we encounter a lot in our work is construction->use->decay->restoration->new_use. Sometimes there are two or more cycles of disinvestment and restoration, which I find maddening: ordinary maintenance would be cheaper and less …
Finishing, for now, with this week’s discussion, here’s what’s left fo a bridge with Fink trusses that use Phoenix columns for compression in the top chord and the web verticals, loop eyebars for the tension diagonals in the web, and with no proper bottom chord, as is true of Fink trusses true to the original …
There is never a single answer in structural engineering. There are multiple answers to any design problem and the trick is to find one that works, in terms of design criteria, buildability, economics, and coordination with design factors other than structure. With that in mind, I absolutely love the magazine page above. It’s page iv …
