rave: Grady's Valentine to Cable-Stayed Bridges

[jesse_the_k]

Grady Hillhouse, PE is a civil engineer who’s expanded that professional credential into a media empire:

Practical.Engineering

I look forward to his 20-minute videos twice a month at PracticalEngineeringChannel. He explains crucial infrastructure—water and sewage systems, power distribution grids, transportation—with luscious stock footage and homey see-through models he cobbles together in his garage.

I strongly recommend his Valentine’s Day contribution: An Engineer’s Love Letter to Cable-Stayed Bridges

Watch on YouTube

I agree that cable-stayed bridges are exquisitely beautiful—they bring the gracious sweep of sailboats back to our bodies of water. Their simple central towers hold a fan of cables to suspend the roadway. As Grady explains, they’re faster and cheaper to build as well as easier to maintain.

Grady doesn’t go into the history, which begins centuries ago and accelerates in the past 50 years. Thanks to excellent PR, I assumed they were originated by Spanish architect-engineer Santiago Calatrava. Close to home, he used similar technology on the 2001 extension to the Milwaukee Art Museum. This STRUCTURE magazine article explains how wrong I was--they cite 1615 for the first cable-stayed bridge!

Have you seen a cable-stayed bridge? Is there another infrastructural design that makes you grin?

And if you’re wondering what he’s talking from 0:17 to 0:30?

5 other geeky YouTubers

Destin = SmarterEveryDay
Grey = CGPGrey
Matt = numberphile
Vi was @vihart.youtube but the content is offline
Alec = TechnologyConnections

Comments

[redbird]

There's a cable-stayed bridge over the Charles River in Boston, which always looks a little odd to me, since I keep forgetting that it isn't a suspension bridge. I grew up in New York City, which has several large suspension bridges

I think that's the Zakim bridge, which

[jesse_the_k]

was created as part of the Central Artery project (generally known as, and gloriously documented in, the Big Dig).

Indeed the NYC area has some very famous suspension bridges. The Tappan Zee, which was made in a hurry in the 1950s with a short design life, was replaced with a cable-stayed version in 2017.

Re: I think that's the Zakim bridge, which

[redbird]

I'd been over the old Tappan Zee bridge several times, but most of what I remember is that very long causeway.

Re: I think that's the Zakim bridge, which

[jesse_the_k]

Many great causeways on the Overseas Highway, which stretches 107 miles from the Florida mainland to Key West. The longest segment is the Seven Mile Bridge, with stunning panoramas of the Atlantic on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other.

(Also the place where I got the worst sunburn of my life--made the mistake of rolling down the car window!)

[anais_pf]

I cross three different cable-stayed bridges with some regularity: the new Tappan Zee bridge (renamed after a former governor but it crosses the Tappen Zee so that's how I continue to refer to it), the new version of the Kosciuszko Bridge, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

What a panoply!

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for the education: today I learned that the Brooklyn Bridge's original design melded cable-stayed and suspension.

The Kosciuszko Bridge's transformation is the most dramatic: from blocky welded trusses to an asymmetrical harp!

[sovay]

Have you seen a cable-stayed bridge? Is there another infrastructural design that makes you grin?

We have the Zakim in Boston, but I am also very fond of the triangles of truss bridges which are becoming scarcer around here.

[jesse_the_k]

I remember seeing those a lot on railroad trestles--sadly a dying breed in the midwest.

[spiralsheep]

I love skew arch bridges. They're not uncommon but they're difficult to photograph.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skew_arch

Stone:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/141239321/16600585712

Brick:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aylesbury_Arm_-_Skew_Brickwork_on_Dixon%27s_Gap_Bridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1235899.jpg

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7538640

Oh those are so beautiful!

[jesse_the_k]

I can't even imagine what it's like to create those, course by course.

Now I'm on the hunt for some locally.

Re: Oh those are so beautiful!

[spiralsheep]

As with the renaissance domes I suspect perfecting the scaffolding was the most intimidating engineering leap. Enjoy your hunt, and I hope you find a good un! :-)

(And I've just remembered you're a fellow brick fancier, from a conversation years ago about bricks stamped by their makers.)

[yourlibrarian]

My favorite for these are the works of Calatrava. The bridge of strings may be the most remarkable https://calatrava.com/projects.html?project_type=bridges&view_mode=list#ref-2

Oh my goodness

[jesse_the_k]

...that's ... how does that even work? It looks completely Spider-man magical.

Re: Oh my goodness

[yourlibrarian]

They're really gorgeous. I first saw his work in the bridge leading to the Milwaukee Museum of Art. It actually opens and closes wings several times a day.

Re: Oh my goodness

[jesse_the_k]

Yep! I've seen the wings flapping as well.