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Not far from where I live, work crews are replacing an old bridge along U.S. 1 over some railroad tracks. The span is maybe 200 feet long, if that. They've been working on it for the past five years, and with the new span in place and essentially complete, they've just yesterday announced that they've hit a snag: it's an inch too low.
Hard to imagine that this is the same country that used to build incredible feats of engineering like the Brooklyn Bridge.
The word is "rigor". It's what civilization is built on. Rigor in education, rigor in hiring, rigor in ensuring work meets standards. It what sets successful people, organizations and countries apart from others.
Somewhere along the way we started taking all the outcomes of rigor for granted and started slacking off with our heads in the clouds, worrying about trivial stuff instead.
Somewhere along the way we started taking all the outcomes of rigor for granted and started slacking off with our heads in the clouds, worrying about trivial stuff instead.
Agreed and kudos to your post. My OP lacked "rigor" in math in the sense that it is the 140th anniversary of the bridge opening, not the 150th.
Somewhere along the way we started taking all the outcomes of rigor for granted and started slacking off with our heads in the clouds, worrying about trivial stuff instead.
I agree. We have strayed but I don't think we have gone too far off the rails to get back on track. I'm an optimist on such things. But we better do it soon and quit the distractions and name calling. While we are busy fighting the culture wars the country's infrastructure, power grids, highway system, rail, education system, and healthcare is suffering.
Many, if not most, of our huge infrastructure projects (Railroads, for example, and mining or tunnelling efforts. All hard work.) were built using immigrant workers and the immigrant participation in such projects awarded them with skills and a sense pride and of ownership in this country. They became shareholders. Those were our parents and grandparents. Our national attitudes have changed in recent decades, and we need to rethink that stance. We have heavy loads ahead.
I visited this bridge about an hour west of my current residence in Chemnitz (Germany). It was built from 1845-1851 by about 1700 workers, mostly bricklayers. It has been the largest brick arch bridge in the world ever since then, and is still carrying active train traffic on dual tracks. When you look at structures of this scale, or of the scale of the Brooklyn Bridge, and think back that it was long before computers and most types of mechanized cranes, it is awe inspiring.
Some time ago I read The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of th Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough. My Timesmachine brought up the headline for this day in 1883, TWO GREAT CITIES UNITED THE BRIDGE FORMALLY OPENED. IMMENSE CROWDS ATTRACTED BY THE CEREMONIES(link). Excerpt:
The opening of the bridge was part of the knitting together of both what became the City of New York fifteen years later. More importantly it connected Long Island to the mainland. This movement of tying the country together by road continued into the Interstate Highway program and beyond. It has lead to the highest standard of living known to man.
NOTE: New York City (then just Manhattan and part of the modern Bronx) and Brooklyn were independent cities. Queens and Staten Island were a collection of villages, towns and unincorporated areas. Yes, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens were once actual municipalities. I believe Bronx later absorbed some towns and villages from modern Westchester County. All became New York City on, I believe, January 1, 1898 (link).
Exactly 100 years before the theatrical release of "Return of the Jedi".
I've read the David McCullough book, and I had the privilege to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with a friend who was a civil engineer who had to study it at engineering school. Gosh, that was enlightening! The whole thing is basically over-engineered--if one part fails, another picks up the slack; and if that fails, then something else picks up the slack. He said that with proper maintenance, the Brooklyn Bridge could conceivably last forever; it is that well engineered.
But even for us laypeople, it is an amazing bridge. Reading McCullough's book, I can tell that it took a lot of work to complete--his mention of "caisson disease," aka "the bends" is scary. But dammit, they did it, and it is a beautiful bridge.
Of course, when we left New York that day, we had to go via the Verrazano Narrows bridge, which he had also studied and wanted to cross. In a car this time, but he was pointing out just about every rivet in it, and talking about its construction.
I've read the David McCullough book, and I had the privilege to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with a friend who was a civil engineer who had to study it at engineering school. Gosh, that was enlightening! The whole thing is basically over-engineered--if one part fails, another picks up the slack; and if that fails, then something else picks up the slack. He said that with proper maintenance, the Brooklyn Bridge could conceivably last forever; it is that well engineered.
But even for us laypeople, it is an amazing bridge. Reading McCullough's book, I can tell that it took a lot of work to complete--his mention of "caisson disease," aka "the bends" is scary. But dammit, they did it, and it is a beautiful bridge.
What you may not realize is that Brooklyn was an independent city at that point, I think the third largest in the U.S. New York City was amalgamated effective the beginning of 1898.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChevySpoons
Of course, when we left New York that day, we had to go via the Verrazano Narrows bridge, which he had also studied and wanted to cross. In a car this time, but he was pointing out just about every rivet in it, and talking about its construction.
The Verrazano Narrows bridge was largely constructed as a sop to Staten Island. It was amalgamated into NYC, but NYC hasn't done much as all for it.
It is amazing to think how New York was able to build things like the Brooklyn Bridge, not to mention the Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburgh and Queensboro Bridge largely on its own with little help from the Federal government. Sadly, try doing that today.
Jbgusa, I am not sure if Kew Gardens and Forest Hills were ever separate municipalities themselves. They were to my knowledge, parts of the Town of Newtown (today commonly called Elmhurst) which was separate from New York City for hundreds of years until 1898.
Well, we did just build a new Goethals Bridge (OK, it wasn't the city or the state) with SOME help from the feds, but the federal TIFIA loan was only $474 million with the remaining $1 billion+ provided by private capital.
The Brooklyn Bridge was initially financed with private money, too, then bailed out by the state when it went over budget.
I've read the David McCullough book, and I had the privilege to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with a friend who was a civil engineer who had to study it at engineering school. Gosh, that was enlightening! The whole thing is basically over-engineered--if one part fails, another picks up the slack; and if that fails, then something else picks up the slack. He said that with proper maintenance, the Brooklyn Bridge could conceivably last forever; it is that well engineered.
But even for us laypeople, it is an amazing bridge. Reading McCullough's book, I can tell that it took a lot of work to complete--his mention of "caisson disease," aka "the bends" is scary. But dammit, they did it, and it is a beautiful bridge.
Of course, when we left New York that day, we had to go via the Verrazano Narrows bridge, which he had also studied and wanted to cross. In a car this time, but he was pointing out just about every rivet in it, and talking about its construction.
I would have liked to be in that car. Having worked in the NYC engineering industry all my life without actually being one myself, I have grown to be fascinated with bridges and how they are built. I was fortunate to have a small part in the Goethals Bridge replacement as well as the Bayonne Bridge's navigational clearance project, wherein the roadway was raised to allow post-Panamax ships into the port.
As you know, I've made many trips north to your own country, which took me over the two bridges at the Thousand Islands, from New York onto the border crossing on Hill Island and then into Ontario. I asked someone in the toll booth once how old those bridges are, and he said they were built in 1928. The views are amazing.
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