CreatingbyDoingTheInventionandInnovationofUnusualTrussBridgesintheUnitedStates.docVIP

FSU-Jena Historisches Institut ü Transformation in the USA 1880-1920 Prof. Ann Stamp-Miller WS 05/06 Jason D. Smith 28 June, 2006 Creating by Doing: The Invention and Innovation of Unusual Truss Bridges in the United States 1850-1930 Introduction: Every great engineer was once a beginner. During the late 1800s, a toy company A.C. Gilbert and Co. invented a new toy especially made for engineers called the Erector Set. Consisting of steel beams, nuts and bolts to connect them, as well as other components, children who received an Erector Set spent hours upon hours building various structures they could even imagine, whether it was a replica of the Eiffel Tower, the Eads Bridge, or the first skyscrapers dominating Chicago. Little did they realize that many of these owners of the Erector set would later become some of the most renowned engineers in the country. Although it would be na?ve to say that every boy who received an Erector set would later become an engineer, as was mentioned by A.C. Gilbert, but it was clear that the number of engineers in the United States had skyrocketed since 1850, when the number was at 512. By 1900, over 45,000 engineers were in business, designing and building skyscrapers, houses, and especially truss bridges (see figure 1.) This leads to the question of the popularity of truss bridges during that time. What was so special about the construction of truss bridges? Many bridge engineers followed the basic concepts of building Pratt, Howe, Warren, and Bowstring Arch bridges and their variants, with some of them decorated them with ornamental designs located on end posts and portal bracings. To show their pride in their bridge design, many engineers constructed plaques on the bridge, as a way of leaving their mark and allowing future historians and engineers to document the information on the bridge’s significance for various governmental organisations dealing with architectural history, like the National Register of Historic Places, and