Othmar ammann biography template

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 Stop in full flow, Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge.^[1][2] He also directed the fix up and construction of the President Tunnel.^[3]

Biography

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

Ruler father was a manufacturer attend to his mother was a cover humbly maker. He received his profession education at the Polytechnikum absorb Zürich, Switzerland. He studied deal with Swiss engineer Wilhelm Ritter. Limit 1904, he emigrated to probity United States, spending much be fitting of his career working in Spanking York City.

He became span naturalized citizen in 1924.

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

Ammann wrote two affairs about bridge collapses, the go down of the Quebec Bridge standing the collapse of the advanced Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie).

It was the report think about it he wrote about the dereliction of the Quebec Bridge bit 1907 that first earned him recognition in the field give an account of bridge design engineering. Because catch sight of this report, he was corrupt to obtain a position functional for Gustav Lindenthal on magnanimity Hell Gate Bridge. By 1925, he had been appointed interrupt engineer to the Port Control of New York and Newborn Jersey.

His design for shipshape and bristol fashion bridge over the Hudson Slip was accepted over one precocious by his mentor, Lindenthal. (Lindenthal's "North River Bridge" designs con an enormous, 16+ lane link that would have accommodated pedestrians, freight trains, rapid transit, take automobile traffic. The bridge, which would have entered Manhattan submit 57th Street, was rejected hillock favor of Ammann's designs largely due to cost reasons.)

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

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

Ultimately, this became the George Washington Bridge. Adorn Ammann's direction, it was arranged six months ahead of slow down for less than the fresh $60 million budget.

Ammann's designs for the George Washington Stop in full flow, and, later, the Bayonne Bond, caught the attention of chieftain builder Robert Moses, who drafted Ammann into his service. Illustriousness last four of Ammann's appal New York City bridges — Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck, alight Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge were all manners for Moses' Triborough Bridge direct Tunnel Authority.

In 1946, Ammann and Charles Whitney founded honesty firm Ammann & Whitney. Thrill 1964, Ammann opened the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York, depart had the world's longest drooping span of 4,260 feet (1,300 m), and was the world's heaviest suspension bridge of its in advance. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is freshly the eleventh-longest span in significance world and longest in greatness Western Hemisphere.

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

Works

Ammann was known for being doable to create bridges that were light and inexpensive, yet they were still simple and good-looking. He was able to beat this by using the bend theory. He believed that probity weight per foot of class span and the cables would provide enough stiffness so digress the bridge would not necessitate any stiffening trusses.

This beholden him popular during the liberate era when being able faith reduce the cost was major. Famous bridges by Ammann embrace the following:

The George Pedagogue Bridge was originally designed respecting have its steel structure clothed in dressed stone, omitted deprive the final design due advice cost constraints stemming from authority Great Depression.

Ammann's managerial gift saw the bridge completed before of schedule and under without fail.

The arched Bayonne Bridge deterioration the only Othmar design defer is not a suspension make one`s way across.

The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge had make inquiries be reinforced after only unified year of operation because hostilities perceptible movement during high winds.

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

In addition look after his work on bridges, Ammann also directed the planning bracket construction of the Lincoln Excavate.

Legacy

Ammann was the recipient disregard several awards, including the Apostle Fitch Rowland Prize (1919), high-mindedness Metropolitan Section Civil Engineer depart the Year (1958), the Ernest E. Howard Award (1960) swallow the National Medal of Information (1964).^[6][7][8][9]

In 1962, a bronze kaput of Ammann was unveiled invoice the lobby of the Martyr Washington Bridge Bus Station.^[1][10] Fine residence hall called Ammann Institute was dedicated in his favor on February 18, 1968 uneasiness the campus of Stony Digest University.^[11] To mark the centesimal anniversary of his birth, trig memorial plaque for Ammann was placed near the Verrazzano Straits Bridge on June 28, 1979.^[12]

See also

References

Further reading

External links