Skip to main content

Civil

Waldo-Hancock Suspension Bridge
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BridgesEra: 1930-1939DateCreated: 1931Penobscot RiverStockton SpringsState: MEZip: E 04981Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Waldo-Hancock-Suspension-Bridge/Creator: Steinman, David

Designed by David B. Steinman, of Robinson & Steinman, New York City, the Waldo-Hancock suspension Bridge is a significant example of Steinman's work. David Steinman is considered among the most important suspension bridge designers of the 20th century. He earned an engineering degree from Columbia University in 1909 and went on to apprentice with Gustav Lindenthal, then at work on New York's Hell Gate Bridge. In the 1920's, Steinman emerged as an outstanding and innovative suspension bridge designer.

YearAdded:
2002
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Justin Russell (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Waldo-Hancock Suspension BridgeEra_date_from: 1931
Vulcan Street Plant
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: Power GenerationEra: 1880-1889DateCreated: 1882Fox RiverAppletonState: WIZip: 54911Country: USAWebsite: https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/engineering-history/landmarks/29-vulcan-street-power-plant, https://www.asme.org/getmedia/c0b5b641-34df-46a5-aa22-c847b42084b4/29-Vulcan-Street-Power-Plant.aspxCreator: Rogers, H.J. , Edison, Thomas

The plant began operation only twenty-six days after Thomas Edison's first steam plant began operating on Pearl Street in New York (NL 46). On September 30, 1882, an Edison "K" type dynamo produced electricity from a water-powered turbine to light three buildings (two paper mills and the H.J. Rogers home), at rate of about 12 1/2 kilowatts. It is the first Edison hydroelectric central station to serve a system of private and commercial customers in North America. The story of its development provides keen insight into the nation's first experiences with the electric light.

YearAdded:
1977
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/bigcityal (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Vulcan Street PlantEra_date_from: 1882
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BridgesEra: 1900-1909DateCreated: 1905Country: ZimbabweCreator: Rhodes, Cecil
The Victoria Falls Bridge, completed in 1905, is a 152-meter span, steel-lattice, two-hinged arch bridge with a deck level 122 m above the Zambezi River. Conceived by Cecil Rhodes as a key link in his proposed Cape-to-Cairo railway, it is situated just downstream of the Victoria Falls in a site of unsurpassed grandeur. Although a product of the colonial period, it continues to serve and enhance the lives of all people living in the region.
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Christopher Jensen (CC BY-ND 2.0)Image Caption: Victoria Falls BridgeEra_date_from: 1905
Viaducto del Malleco
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BridgesEra: 1890-1899DateCreated: 1890Malleco RiverAraucaníState: MallecoCountry: ChileWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Viaducto-del-Malleco/Creator: Lastarria, Jose Victorino

The bridge is 408 meters long and weighed approximately 1,500 metric tons when built. Originally supported by four columns, two more were added in later years to support the weight of heavier rail cars.

YearAdded:
1994
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Rafael Retamal (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: Viaducto del MallecoEra_date_from: 1890
Kentucky Dam
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: DamsEra: 1940-1949DateCreated: 1944Tennessee RiverGrand RiverState: KYZip: 42045Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Kentucky-Dam/Creator: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

In 1930, the U.S. Corps of Engineers was directed to complete an engineering survey of the Tennessee River to determine the feasibility of establishing complete river navigability. The resulting report recommended a series of nine main river dams and several tributary dams to allow for a minimum eight foot channel (standard for barge navigation) from Knoxville to Paducah.

YearAdded:
1996
Image Credit: Courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District (CC BY-ND 2.0)Image Caption: Kentucky DamEra_date_from: 1944
U.S. Capitol
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BuildingsEra: 1750-1799DateCreated: 1793Capitol HillWashingtonState: DCZip: C 20016Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/U-S--Capitol/Creator: Thornton, William , Latrobe, Benjamin

The United States Capitol is among the most symbolically important and architecturally impressive buildings in the nation. Construction of the original Capitol began in 1793, but it has been through several additions and alterations. Over its lifetime, the Capitol building has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended, and restored.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Jiuguang Wang (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: U.S. CapitolEra_date_from: 1793
Union Station
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BuildingsEra: 1890-1899DateCreated: 18941820 Market Street
St. LouisState: MSCountry: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Union-Station/Creator: Link, Theodore , Pegram, George

In the early 1900s, Union Station was the hub of passenger railroad traffic in the central United States. It was one of the first stations to serve as a centralized terminal for multiple railroad lines. It originally served 22 rail lines; 13 from the east and nine from the west.

YearAdded:
1981
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Ron Reiring (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Union StationEra_date_from: 1894
Union Canal Tunnel
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: TunnelsEra: 1800-1829DateCreated: 1828Union CanalLebanonState: PACountry: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Union-Canal-Tunnel/Creator: Ives, John

According to oral history, George Washington visited the canal diggings in 1792, and then again in 1794, while he was accompanying troops to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania. 

YearAdded:
1970
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Ospreye (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Union Canal TunnelEra_date_from: 1828
Tunkhannock Viaduct
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BridgesEra: 1910-1919DateCreated: 1915Tunkhannock CreekNicholsonState: PAZip: 18446Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Tunkhannock-Viaduct/Creator: Cohen, Abraham Burton, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

This majestic viaduct was built during the golden age of railroading. It was at the western end of a major readjustment in grade and alignment of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, and had double tracks to carry the trains across the valley of Tunkhannock Creek. The Hallstead cutoff (between Scranton, Pennsylvania and Hallstead, New Jersey) reduced passenger travel time by 20 minutes, and freight travel time by over an hour.

YearAdded:
1975
Image Credit: Original Photo: Flickr/Jim Danvers (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Tunkhannock ViaductEra_date_from: 1915
Bollman Truss Bridge
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: Bridges, TransportationEra: 1860-1869DateCreated: 1869Little Patuxent RiverSavageState: MDCountry: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Bollman-Truss-Bridge/Creator: Bollman, Wendel

The design of the Bollman Truss Bridge-patented in 1852 and one of the first to use iron exclusively in all essential structural elements-was critical in the rapid expansion of American railroads in the 19th century. Replacing wooden bridges, which  were cumbersome to build and vulnerable to decay, the Bollman Truss Bridge could be built relatively quickly and inexpensively, while providing the long-lasting qualities associated with metal. This allowed new rail lines to be built over long distances in a short period of time.

YearAdded:
1966
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Andrew Bossi (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: Bollman Truss Bridge as it looks today, after the repairs done in 1934-84.Era_date_from: 1869
Subscribe to Civil

Innovations

Panama Canal

The United States became interested in a water route through the Panamanian isthmus in the mid-1850s, but it was the French who first attempted to build the Panama Canal. Led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the French began the project in 1876. Conditions were brutal…

Read More
Peavey-Haglin Concrete Grain Elevator

No image dominates the Midwestern landscape like the monolithic grain elevator, whose present shape and construction owe much to grain company operator Frank Peavy and architect-builder Charles Haglin.

Wanting to improve on the flammability and cost of traditional wood-cribbed…

Read More
Pelton Impulse Water Wheel

Water wheels have been used to power mills and pumps for centuries. However, the traditional water wheel was inefficient: water hitting a bucket would splash back against the next bucket, slowing the wheel. This is especially true when water is delivered to the buckets under very high pressure…

Read More
Pennsylvania Turnpike (Old Section)

The Pennsylvania Turnpike was the first American paved highway of the automobile era in which tolls alone were expected to pay all project costs. The 160-mile roadway, which cut an east-west path from Pittsburgh to the state capital of Harrisburg, was considered a revolutionary example of…

Read More
Philadelphia City Hall

Philadelphia City Hall was the largest masonry load-bearing wall building in the world at the time of its completion in 1901, stood as the tallest occupied building in the United States until 1909, and still is the largest city hall in the United States. The building covers 14.26 acres,…

Read More
Philadelphia Municipal Water Supply

After an initial difficulty in attracting customers (who were used to getting their water from public pumps and private wells and cisterns), Philadelphia's waterworks soon couldn't keep up with demand. John Davis and Frederick Graff designed a complete remodeling of the system in 1811 so that it…

Read More
Ponte Maria Pia Bridge

Built to cross one of the steepest valleys along the Douro River, the Ponte Maria Pia was the first major work to emerge from the French firm of Gustav Eiffel  and Company, establishing Eiffel as an important bridge designer and civil engineer of his day. Resting on a parabolic arch spanning 160…

Read More
Portland Observatory

The Portland Observatory was built in 1807 by Captain Lemuel Moody to serve as a communication station for Portland Harbor. Portland Observatory was one of the earliest marine signal stations in the United States, and it is the last known to survive. The Observatory's location on Munjoy Hill…

Read More
Portland Head Light

The Portland Head Light was the first lighthouse to be constructed in Maine and the first one completed and put into service by the Federal government under the Lighthouse Act of 1789, which moved to place all lighthouses under federal control. While work had begun on the lighthouse in 1787 by…

Read More
Potowmack Canal and Locks

These canals and locks are a part of the first extensive system of canal and river navigation works undertaken in the United States. The idea for the canal was proposed by George Washington, when, as an engineer, surveyor and military emissary for Virginia, he saw the need for a trade route west…

Read More
Poughkeepsie-Highland Bridge

A bridge across the Hudson at or near Poughkeepsie was planned starting in the early 1870s to primarily carry coal from the coalfields of northeastern Pennsylvania to New England. At the time there were no bridges between Albany and New York Harbor. Horatio Allen, soon to be President of the…

Read More
Quebec Bridge

The bridge is immense, not only in length and weight but in width. At 67 feet wide, it can accommodate two sets of railway tracks, two sets of streetcar tracks and two roadways.

It took three tries and cost 89 lives, but the city of Quebec was determined to compete with provincial rival…

Read More
Queensboro Bridge

When opened in 1909, the Queensboro Bridge had the two longest steel cantilever spans in the world - 1,182 feet from Manhattan to Blackwell's Island and 984 feet from Blackwell's Island to Queens. These would remain the world's longest cantilever spans until the completion of the Quebec Bridge…

Read More
Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility

Conceived in the early years of World War II as a plan to bury four fuel containers horizontally in a hillside at the U.S. Navy facility at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility ultimately encompassed the design and construction of 20 vertical storage tanks - each…

Read More
Alvord Lake Bridge

Alvord Lake Bridge, along with many of Ernest Ransome's reinforced concrete buildings, survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and several subsequent tremblers with no damage. Built in 1889 by Ernest L Ransome of New York, this reinforced concrete arch bridge in San Francisco's Golden Gate…

Read More
Rockville Stone Arch Bridge

The third bridge built on the same site to carry railroad tracks across the Susquehanna River just north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Rockville Stone Arch Bridge, at 3,820 feet long and 52 feet wide, is believed to be the longest and widest stone-arch railroad bridge in the world. A central…

Read More
Blue Ridge Parkway

Designed to connect the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway was planned to provide pleasant motoring and to conserve and interpret the unique natural and cultural resources of the Southern Highlands. It was…

Read More
Salginatobel Bridge

The Salginatobel Bridge, spanning the Salgina Valley ravine, is the earliest surviving three-hinged, hollow box arch bridge designed by  Robert Maillart.

Maillart's 1901 invention of the concrete hollow box design became a major bridge building concept. In this design, the concrete arch…

Read More
Ever since the Gold Rush days of the 1850s, San Francisco Bay area residents and businesses had lobbied for a bridge joining San Francisco and Oakland. Early studies indicated that the bridge was impractical and infeasible; but in October 1929, President Herbert Hoover (himself an engineer) and… Read More
San Jacinto Monument

The San Jacinto Monument commemorates the decisive 1836 battle near the banks of the Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River that allowed Texas to win independence from Mexico. It is the world's tallest monument, rising 15 feet higher than the Washington Monument.

In 1936, Daughters and…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.