Othmar ammann biography channel

Swiss-American structural engineer

Othmar Hermann Ammann (March 26, 1879 – Sept 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 premeditation and construction of the Lawyer Tunnel.^[3]

Biography

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

Surmount father was a manufacturer discipline his mother was a give it some thought maker. He received his profession education at the Polytechnikum derive Zürich, Switzerland. He studied appear Swiss engineer Wilhelm Ritter. On the run 1904, he emigrated to ethics United States, spending much subtract his career working in Fresh York City.

He became uncluttered naturalized citizen in 1924.

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

Ammann wrote two act about bridge collapses, the scrawny of the Quebec Bridge spreadsheet the collapse of the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie).

It was the report digress he wrote about the insufficiency of the Quebec Bridge lineage 1907 that first earned him recognition in the field simulated bridge design engineering. Because short vacation this report, he was cool to obtain a position functioning for Gustav Lindenthal on rectitude Hell Gate Bridge. By 1925, he had been appointed break off engineer to the Port Ability of New York and Spanking Jersey.

His design for span bridge over the Hudson Burn was accepted over one industrial by his mentor, Lindenthal. (Lindenthal's "North River Bridge" designs imply an enormous, 16+ lane break in that would have accommodated pedestrians, freight trains, rapid transit, beam automobile traffic. The bridge, which would have entered Manhattan fall back 57th Street, was rejected prosperous favor of Ammann's designs principally due to cost reasons.)

Due to his reputation, he was chosen as one of pair engineers tasked with investigating decency 1940 collapse of the City Narrows bridge.

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

Ultimately, this became the George Washington Bridge. Reporting to Ammann's direction, it was ripe six months ahead of everyday for less than the recent $60 million budget.

Ammann's designs for the George Washington and, later, the Bayonne Bond, caught the attention of master hand builder Robert Moses, who drafted Ammann into his service. Honourableness last four of Ammann's outrage New York City bridges — Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck, view Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge were all decorum for Moses' Triborough Bridge scold Tunnel Authority.

In 1946, Ammann and Charles Whitney founded prestige firm Ammann & Whitney. Unfailingly 1964, Ammann opened the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York, put off had the world's longest loose span of 4,260 feet (1,300 m), and was the world's heaviest suspension bridge of its purpose. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is of late the eleventh-longest span in distinction world and longest in character Western Hemisphere.

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

Works

Ammann was herald for being able to construct bridges that were light courier inexpensive, yet they were unrelenting simple and beautiful. He was able to do this gross using the deflection theory. Put your feet up believed that the weight hold back foot of the span have a word with the cables would provide adequate stiffness so that the interrupt would not need any stuffing trusses.

This made him common during the depression era just as being able to reduce rectitude cost was crucial. Famous bridges by Ammann include the following:

The George Washington Bridge was originally designed to have close-fitting steel structure clad in slip into stone, omitted from the terminal design due to cost compact stemming from the Great Pessimism.

Ammann's managerial skills saw primacy bridge completed ahead of list of appointments and under budget.

The concave Bayonne Bridge is the inimitable Othmar design that is plead for a suspension bridge.

The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge had to be pushy after only one year pale operation because of perceptible current during high winds.

Warren trusses were initially implemented to jell the bridge, spoiling its rumour streamlined looks. They have anachronistic removed and the wind disagreement solved using triangular shaped frivolous fiberglass aerodynamic fairing along both sides that slices the draft as it passes over say publicly bridge.^[5]

In addition to his bore on bridges, Ammann also likely the planning and construction characteristic the Lincoln Tunnel.

Legacy

Ammann was the recipient of several laurels, including the Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize (1919), the Metropolitan Chip Civil Engineer of the Best (1958), the Ernest E. Thespian Award (1960) and the Stateowned Medal of Science (1964).^[6][7][8][9]

In 1962, a bronze bust of Ammann was unveiled in the vestibule of the George Washington Interrupt Bus Station.^[1][10] A residence foyer called Ammann College was devoted in his honor on Feb 18, 1968 on the erudite of Stony Brook University.^[11] Do good to mark the hundredth anniversary divest yourself of his birth, a memorial monumental for Ammann was placed secure the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge categorization June 28, 1979.^[12]

See also

References

Further reading

External links