Please view the posters presented at the 18th Annual CityTech Faculty and Student Research Poster Session below. You can click on each poster to enlarge it and view the PDF version under the poster abstract.
We thank all presenters for sharing their innovative and informative research with the CityTech community and beyond!
19. Roebling before the bridge
This presentation will focus on the early work of John A. Roebling, the engineer of Brooklyn Bridge. Through a review of his early projects, this presentation traces the development of his ideas and methods, that made him the most successful American civil engineer of the 1800’s. His work paralleled the evolution of transportation in America from horse drawn carriages, to the heyday of commercial barges pulled along canals, to the introduction of railway systems with steam locomotives powered by coal, to the of evolution of commuter rail systems. A cross section of the original Brooklyn Bridge, shows the integration a railway system that travelled back and forth from Brooklyn to New York City, pulled by an endless wire rope powered by stationary steam engines located on the Brooklyn side. “Roebling, before the bridge”, looks closely at the evolution of all of Roebling’s built work from his first bridges in Pittsburg, to his suspension aqueducts for the Delaware & Hudson Canal System, to the first Railroad Suspension Bridge to span the Niagara Gorge, to the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge – his first bridge to use large masonry towers, a direct predecessor to his final work the Brooklyn Bridge. Along the way, Roebling refined techniques in the manufacture of wire rope, conducted experiments in materials science and patented bridge building methods that changed how bridges were built. As the manuscript nears publication, it has taken clear graphic and written form. The poster will include the display of materials from the book layout and an excerpt from the introduction. View or download a PDF version of this poster.
