Philip Ogram

The Golden Gate Bridge

The idea of creating a bridge across the San Francisco Bay was proposed in 1916 as
San Francisco City Engineer, Michael O’Shaughnessy began to follow up the idea.
O’Shaughnessy then began meeting with other engineers about spanning the bay and the cost
of the bridge that may do it. Eventually he met one engineer by the name of Joseph Strauss,
who had at this time already designed nearly 400 different bridges. Strauss submitted some
preliminary drawings of a cantilever-suspension bridge with an approximate cost of around
$17 million. Each year the bridge was deliberated upon, the overall cost kept rising by the
millions. There was lots of concern between the neighboring counties about the building of
this bridge until the “Association of Bridging the Gate” was formed by representatives from
21 counties around the area. Once this was formed the final decision was waiting on the War
Department to issue a permit to build the bridge because they were concerned about
clearances for the war ships that navigate through the bay. On August 11, 1930 the War
Department issued the permit to build the 4,200 feet of suspension bridge. On August 27,
1930, Strauss had submitted the final plans of construction to the Golden Gate Bridge
District Board. After bidding the total bond issue was $35 million, of this amount
$27,125,000 was for structural construction and $2,050,000 was for engineering and
inspection costs. The remainder of this $35 million went towards administrative expenses,
financing and unforeseen expenses. The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began on
February 27, 1933.
The design of this bridge was lead by chief engineer Joseph Strauss along with the
help of his company at that time, Strauss Engineering and the help of many other consulting
engineers and architects. This amazing bridge was 8,981 feet from abutment to abutment,
220 feet high and 90 feet wide. The lengths of the bridge that were actually structurally
suspended were 6,450 feet. The total weight of the bridge was 894,500 tons and it was
designed using a live load of 4,000 pounds per linear foot. These numbers are almost
unbelievable, due to the fact that this bridge is suspended by two main cables, about 36
inches in diameter and over 7,000 feet long. The main towers reach almost 750 feet above
the water and 500 feet above the roadway. It’s amazing to think that this bridge can withhold
a maximum downward deflection of over ten feet and a maximum upward deflection of over
5 feet.
I chose this bridge because it is so fascinating to me as a soon to be Civil Engineering
graduate and the thought of someday maybe designing something like this that millions of
people use each year. Structures like this are so interesting to me and sometimes I feel like it
would be impossible to design something of this magnitude but the more I learn each day the
more I can’t wait to get out in the engineering field and begin contributing my knowledge to
the public.

The Chaotianmen Bridge

The Chaotianmen Bridge is the worlds largest arch bridge located in Chongqing,
China and spans across the Yangtze River. This bridge delivers six lanes of traffic on the
main deck and also has a second lower deck that handles two additional lanes of light rail
traffic. This amazing bridge was finished in 2008 and is one of the most spectacular bridges
in the world. With the most up to date designs, this bridge has a steel arch span of 552
meters and has an overall length of 1741 meters. The main part of the bridge is 932 meters
long and is a half-through continuous steel truss arch. The contractor of the project was the
China Harbour Engineering Company and the consultants for it was the Dorman Long
Company. The total cost of this engineering marvel was about $360 million and is on track
to be finished this year. The construction began in December 2004 and was supposed to be
finished in 2008 but it is taking longer than originally expected. It finally opened to traffic in
the spring of 2009 and is in my eyes on of the most spectacular bridges in the world. The
bridge is mostly constructed from steel beams and girders with concrete decking on each
level. There are pedestrian sidewalks on the upper level, which are also made of concrete.
All of the steel used in this bridge was covered with an anti-rust coating that was specified by
the Chinese Technical Standards. Many of the joints were bolted or welded for maximum
strength and support.
I chose this steel structure because it seemed to be one of the most recent and up to
date structures in the world and has the record of the world’s longest arch bridge. I also
found it fascinating that the bridge had two levels of traffic, which is something I have never
seen before and I found it very interesting. I felt that using one bridge for two levels and
types of traffic would be more beneficial than building multiple bridges for the traffic.
Overall, I found this bridge extremely interesting and look forward to learning more about it
as more information is released in the future.

References:

www.goldengatebridge.org
http://koti.kontu.la/jvirola/ria-chaotianmen