Enjoyed reading. I thought " I Kind of Want to Know the Guy Who Built It Would Be Ruined If It Collapsed" was going to be a warning about some future autonomous AI engineer! That wouldn't be such an interesting story.
Agreed! I stayed in St Louis for a week close to the Gateway Arch and the Eads Bridge. In 2021 I didn’t know how significant the Eads bridge was until I read Rising Tide about the 1927 Mississippi flood. It definitely needs some love by the relevant government authorities. The new “see the USA commercial shows the Gateway arch in a scene that I think could only be filmed crossing the Eads Bridge. And I’ve thought books with subtitles stupid for years. The Brothers Karamazov: after effects of patricide. Rebecca: not what she seemed. Etc.
About worker safety -- before OSHA, the worker death worker death rate for major civil engineering projects stood at (roughly) 1 death per $1,000,000 spent.
Recent engineering failures include the FIU pedestrian bridge, and the KC Hyatt Recency walkway collapse. Faulty engineering contributed to the Champlain Tower collapse. The building was only 40 years old -- you would think that the engineers could have come up with better building materials. At the very least, the building should have been engineered so that material failures would not cascade into a catastrophic collapse.
Great article, well written, but the best part about it is the subject matter. I love hearing about different eras and how the builds were "engineered", not to mention my secret affection for bridges. Please continue the excellent writing on this type of subjects.
so happy to see you blogging about these things. keep it up!
Enjoyed reading. I thought " I Kind of Want to Know the Guy Who Built It Would Be Ruined If It Collapsed" was going to be a warning about some future autonomous AI engineer! That wouldn't be such an interesting story.
Agreed! I stayed in St Louis for a week close to the Gateway Arch and the Eads Bridge. In 2021 I didn’t know how significant the Eads bridge was until I read Rising Tide about the 1927 Mississippi flood. It definitely needs some love by the relevant government authorities. The new “see the USA commercial shows the Gateway arch in a scene that I think could only be filmed crossing the Eads Bridge. And I’ve thought books with subtitles stupid for years. The Brothers Karamazov: after effects of patricide. Rebecca: not what she seemed. Etc.
Nice post!
About worker safety -- before OSHA, the worker death worker death rate for major civil engineering projects stood at (roughly) 1 death per $1,000,000 spent.
Recent engineering failures include the FIU pedestrian bridge, and the KC Hyatt Recency walkway collapse. Faulty engineering contributed to the Champlain Tower collapse. The building was only 40 years old -- you would think that the engineers could have come up with better building materials. At the very least, the building should have been engineered so that material failures would not cascade into a catastrophic collapse.
Great article, well written, but the best part about it is the subject matter. I love hearing about different eras and how the builds were "engineered", not to mention my secret affection for bridges. Please continue the excellent writing on this type of subjects.