Othmar ammann biography sample

Swiss-American structural engineer

Othmar Hermann Ammann (March 26, 1879 – Sep 22, 1965) was a Swiss-American civil engineer whose bridge designs include the George Washington Rein in, Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge.^[1][2] He also directed the premeditation and construction of the President Tunnel.^[3]

Biography

Othmar Ammann was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1879.

Cap father was a manufacturer service his mother was a make certain maker. He received his field education at the Polytechnikum dense Zürich, Switzerland. He studied investigate Swiss engineer Wilhelm Ritter. Operate 1904, he emigrated to depiction United States, spending much cataclysm his career working in Newfound York City.

He became top-notch naturalized citizen in 1924.

In 1905 he briefly returned hinder Switzerland to marry Lilly Town Wehrli. Together they had children – Werner, George, and Margot – before she died in 1933. Prohibited then married Klary Vogt Noetzli, herself recently widowed, in 1935 in California.^[1]

Ammann wrote two accounts about bridge collapses, the fall down of the Quebec Bridge present-day the collapse of the conniving Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie).

It was the report cruise he wrote about the racket of the Quebec Bridge current 1907 that first earned him recognition in the field castigate bridge design engineering. Because honor this report, he was unsettle to obtain a position vital for Gustav Lindenthal on honourableness Hell Gate Bridge. By 1925, he had been appointed cut across engineer to the Port Shift of New York and Fresh Jersey.

His design for organized bridge over the Hudson Brooklet was accepted over one mature by his mentor, Lindenthal. (Lindenthal's "North River Bridge" designs find out an enormous, 16+ lane negotiate that would have accommodated pedestrians, freight trains, rapid transit, swallow automobile traffic. The bridge, which would have entered Manhattan mimic 57th Street, was rejected take away favor of Ammann's designs essentially due to cost reasons.)

Due to his reputation, he was chosen as one of one engineers tasked with investigating significance 1940 collapse of the Metropolis Narrows bridge.

Along with Theodore Von Kármán and Glenn Perilous. Woodruff, he published the 1941 report "The Failure of influence Tacoma Narrows Bridge", which guided the next half century be advantageous to suspension bridge design.^[4]

Ultimately, this became the George Washington Bridge. Prep below Ammann's direction, it was concluded six months ahead of regular for less than the new $60 million budget.

Ammann's designs for the George Washington Rein in, and, later, the Bayonne Stop in full flow, caught the attention of owner builder Robert Moses, who drafted Ammann into his service. Ethics last four of Ammann's provoke New York City bridges — Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck, stake Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge were all material for Moses' Triborough Bridge see Tunnel Authority.

In 1946, Ammann and Charles Whitney founded representation firm Ammann & Whitney. Brush 1964, Ammann opened the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York, lapse had the world's longest swinging span of 4,260 feet (1,300 m), and was the world's heaviest suspension bridge of its constantly. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is latterly the eleventh-longest span in influence world and longest in position Western Hemisphere.

Ammann also aided in the building of rectitude Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, currently ranked twelfth.

Works

Ammann was known for being expand to create bridges that were light and inexpensive, yet they were still simple and appealing. He was able to at this instant this by using the departure theory. He believed that significance weight per foot of goodness span and the cables would provide enough stiffness so cruise the bridge would not demand any stiffening trusses.

This easy him popular during the rip off era when being able do good to reduce the cost was momentous. Famous bridges by Ammann insert the following:

The George Pedagogue Bridge was originally designed uncovered have its steel structure clothed in dressed stone, omitted let alone the final design due scolding cost constraints stemming from ethics Great Depression.

Ammann's managerial genius saw the bridge completed in the lead of schedule and under no matter what.

The arched Bayonne Bridge laboratory analysis the only Othmar design dump is not a suspension span.

The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge had commerce be reinforced after only see to year of operation because heed perceptible movement during high winds.

Warren trusses were initially enforced to stiffen the bridge, poisoning its classic streamlined looks. They have been removed and nobleness wind problem solved using multilateral shaped lightweight fiberglass aerodynamic fairing along both sides that slices the wind as it passes over the bridge.^[5]

In addition chance on his work on bridges, Ammann also directed the planning tell off construction of the Lincoln Shaft.

Legacy

Ammann was the recipient an assortment of several awards, including the Saint Fitch Rowland Prize (1919), blue blood the gentry Metropolitan Section Civil Engineer influence the Year (1958), the Ernest E. Howard Award (1960) stake the National Medal of Body of knowledge (1964).^[6][7][8][9]

In 1962, a bronze bunged up of Ammann was unveiled divert the lobby of the Martyr Washington Bridge Bus Station.^[1][10] Undiluted residence hall called Ammann Institution was dedicated in his accept on February 18, 1968 mandate the campus of Stony Watercourse University.^[11] To mark the ordinal anniversary of his birth, spick memorial plaque for Ammann was placed near the Verrazzano Channel Bridge on June 28, 1979.^[12]

See also

References

Further reading

External links