Personal

John Job Crew Bradfield was born in Sandgate, Queensland on the 26 December 1867; the son of John Edward Bradfield and Maria Crew.

He received the first part of his education at Ipswich State School and Ipswich Grammar School. Bradfield was the winner of the three exhibitions given each year by the Queensland government, which enabled him to study at Sydney University. He graduated as a Bachelor of Engineering in 1889.

One of the most interesting papers presented to the American Society of Engineers at the Seabright Convention is that of Mr. THEODORE COOPER on "American Railway Bridges." It is interesting from the historical matter contained in it, and here first systematically gathered together, and valuable as showing the progress of a branch of engineering that has made our country famous for its works of this nature. The paper is necessarily long, so that we cannot publish it in full, even did the rules of the society permit, and we must content ourselves with the following abstract. We congratulate Mr. COOPER upon the success attending his efforts to unearth and arrange much matter relating to the early history of wooden bridge building that has usually been considered inaccessible.

David Bernard Steinman: Born on 11 June 1886 in Khomsk, Brest, Belarus. Deceased on 21 August 1960 in New York, New York, USA. Associated with the following firms:Formerly:Founder(s): Robinson & Steinman; Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist & Birdsall; Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist & London.

Abraham Darby (the Grandfather of the famous bridge builder) was born in 1678 at Wrens Nest in the hamlet of Woodsetton in the Parish of Sedgley, Staffordshire, son of John & Ann Darby.

...The first of a succession of iron manufacturers who bore the same name, he was the son of a Quaker (Society of Friends) farmer residing at Wrens Nest, near Sedgley and served his apprenticeship with a maker of malt-kilns near Birmingham, Later he married and moved to Bristol around 1700, to begin business on his own.

In Bristol he was joined by three partners of the same Quaker persuasion, who provided the necessary capital to enable him to set up works at Baptist Mills, near the city. He carried on the business of malt-mill making and later added brass and iron founding

Thomas Bouch died during the public inquest into the failure of the high girders of the Tay Bridge at his country retreat in Moffat, and is buried at the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.

He was the engineer to the Edinburgh and Northern Railway during which time he designed the train ferry crossing between Granton and Burntisland.

Afterwards he became a consulting engineer. As an engineer he had a reputation for being able to build lines very cheaply. He went on to design many short distance lines for companies which could not afford heavy engineering.

The current structure is the third bridge on this site. Lewis Wernwag built the covered wooden Monongahela Bridge in 1818, the first river crossing bridge in Pittsburgh. It replaced a ferry and cost $102,000. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1845 and replaced the following year.
Drawing of 1818 bridge

John Roebling, creator of the Brooklyn Bridge, designed a wire rope suspension bridge which used the 6 piers and abutments from the earlier bridge (8 spans, 188 ft each). Roebling's first highway bridge operated as a toll bridge. Increasing live loads from added traffic resulted in excessive deflections and swaying, leading to its closure and replacement with current structure.

Joseph Baermann Strauss: Born on 7 January 1870 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Deceased on 16 May 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Associated with the following firms: Formerly: Founder(s): Strauss Bascule Company, Ltd.
Biography:
1892: Graduates from the University of Cincinnati;
works for Ralph Modjeski in Chicago.
1902: Founds his own company.
1904: Company becomes Strauss Engineering Corp. with offices in Chicago and San Francisco.

Two questions emerge, now that a substantial sum of money is available and a group of Subscribers formally identified to carry the work forward. If Wilkinson, with Pritchard, conceived the revolutionary idea of an iron bridge in the first place why did he not at this stage undertake the iron work of the bridge himself? And was Abraham Darby, a comparative youngster, capable and confident enough to cast the huge spans that Pritchard’s design demanded even with all the experience of the Coalbrookdale Company behind him?

This bridge almost did not see daylight; in fact, when it was realized that a railway link was necessary between both shores of river Forth, the solution brought forward was a tunnel. After a few studies,this approach was abandoned in 1806 and the idea of building a bridge was put forward. In 1818 a few designs were presented, namely the one submitted by Mr.James Anderson. The structure of the bridge was so light and not very strong and was described later as " such a light structure that it would almost have been impossible to see it on a somber day, and after a strong rainfall, it could not been seen anymore!" In 1865, a parliament resolution authorized the "North British Railway", and his engineer Thomas Bouch, to construct a bridge over the Forth. He proposed a suspended bridge with twin aprons of 1600 feet each. Engineer Bouch was also responsible for the bridge construction over the Tay river, which brough him lots letters of patent nobility.

In 1885, Gustav Lindenthal, a bridge engineer who established his reputation on two notable Pittsburgh spans, was approached by officials at the Pennsylvania Railroad regarding the feasibility of a railroad crossing across the Hudson River. At that time, the Pennsylvania Railroad was at a disadvantage vis-à-vis its chief competitor, the New York Central Railroad, because it did not have a direct entrance into Manhattan.

Because of the smoke that emanated from the locomotives of the era, the railroad favored a bridge across the Hudson rather than a tunnel. After giving serious thought to a cantilever design, Lindenthal decided upon a suspension bridge because such a design would allow wider distances between piers. However, the suspension bridge would have to have a main span of about 3,000 feet, nearly twice the length of the main span of the Brooklyn Bridge completed two years earlier.