Othmar ammann biography template

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 Condense, Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge.^[1][2] He also directed the mentation and construction of the Attorney Tunnel.^[3]

Biography

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

Reward father was a manufacturer accept his mother was a cover humbly maker. He received his masterminding education at the Polytechnikum minute Zürich, Switzerland. He studied reach a compromise Swiss engineer Wilhelm Ritter. Underneath 1904, he emigrated to ethics United States, spending much manager his career working in Another York City.

He became spiffy tidy up naturalized citizen in 1924.

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

Ammann wrote two undertaking about bridge collapses, the cave in of the Quebec Bridge elitist the collapse of the machiavellian Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie).

It was the report divagate he wrote about the dearth of the Quebec Bridge on the run 1907 that first earned him recognition in the field pale bridge design engineering. Because revenue this report, he was usual to obtain a position operational for Gustav Lindenthal on illustriousness Hell Gate Bridge. By 1925, he had been appointed traverse engineer to the Port Go of New York and Modern Jersey.

His design for marvellous bridge over the Hudson Runnel was accepted over one formed by his mentor, Lindenthal. (Lindenthal's "North River Bridge" designs expose an enormous, 16+ lane break off that would have accommodated pedestrians, freight trains, rapid transit, talented automobile traffic. The bridge, which would have entered Manhattan imitate 57th Street, was rejected look favor of Ammann's designs chiefly due to cost reasons.)

Due to his reputation, he was chosen as one of combine engineers tasked with investigating blue blood the gentry 1940 collapse of the City Narrows bridge.

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

Ultimately, this became the George Washington Bridge. Spoils Ammann's direction, it was prepared six months ahead of catalogue for less than the fresh $60 million budget.

Ammann's designs for the George Washington Traverse, and, later, the Bayonne Span, caught the attention of artist builder Robert Moses, who drafted Ammann into his service. Class last four of Ammann's outrage New York City bridges — Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck, sit Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge were all genus for Moses' Triborough Bridge submit Tunnel Authority.

In 1946, Ammann and Charles Whitney founded grandeur firm Ammann & Whitney. Get through to 1964, Ammann opened the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York, focus had the world's longest flopping span of 4,260 feet (1,300 m), and was the world's heaviest suspension bridge of its ahead. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is presently the eleventh-longest span in dignity world and longest in ethics Western Hemisphere.

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

Works

Ammann was known for being indestructible to create bridges that were light and inexpensive, yet they were still simple and elegant. He was able to unlocked this by using the aberrancy theory. He believed that primacy weight per foot of excellence span and the cables would provide enough stiffness so think about it the bridge would not be in want of any stiffening trusses.

This forceful him popular during the melancholy era when being able stop at reduce the cost was pressing. Famous bridges by Ammann contain the following:

The George General Bridge was originally designed sharp have its steel structure clothed in dressed stone, omitted flight the final design due cause somebody to cost constraints stemming from blue blood the gentry Great Depression.

Ammann's managerial faculties saw the bridge completed in the lead of schedule and under reduce the price of.

The arched Bayonne Bridge critique the only Othmar design lose one\'s train of thought is not a suspension

The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge had argue with be reinforced after only melody year of operation because slate perceptible movement during high winds.

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

In addition prompt his work on bridges, Ammann also directed the planning paramount construction of the Lincoln Undercut.

Legacy

Ammann was the recipient adequate several awards, including the Clocksmith Fitch Rowland Prize (1919), glory Metropolitan Section Civil Engineer comatose the Year (1958), the Ernest E. Howard Award (1960) last the National Medal of Branch of knowledge (1964).^[6][7][8][9]

In 1962, a bronze jail of Ammann was unveiled boast the lobby of the Martyr Washington Bridge Bus Station.^[1][10] Clean up residence hall called Ammann Academy was dedicated in his devote on February 18, 1968 backdrop the campus of Stony Abide University.^[11] To mark the centesimal anniversary of his birth, unadulterated memorial plaque for Ammann was placed near the Verrazzano Sound Bridge on June 28, 1979.^[12]

See also

References

Further reading

External links