Civil Engineering Almanac

This Day in Civil Engineering History

[Civil Engineering Almanac @ThisDayInCEHist]

30JUL1936: #CivilEngineer Avery Brundage is elected to International Olympic Committee; later served as IOC president. Civil engineering legacy in Chicago includes Ford assembly plant, 23rd Street viaduct, modernization of the LaSalle Hotel, and the landmark Brundage Building.

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02JUL1830: Birth of John Flint Kidder, #CivilEngineer and member of #California State Assembly. Chief engineer for construction and later president of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge RR (#NCNGRR). Upon his death, his widow Sarah became the world's first female railroad president.

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01JUL1913: #LincolnHighwayAssociation is formed to “procure the establishment of a continuous improved highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, open to lawful traffic of all description without toll charges.” Highway route was developed from New York City to San Francisco.

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09JUN1785: Birth in #BraintreeMA of #SylvanusThayer, superintendent of #WestPoint who reformed it into the nation's first engineering school. Also namesake of #Dartmouth #ThayerSchool of Engineering, forming its technical curriculum built on a strong liberal arts foundation.

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04JUN1825: Ceremonial re-lighting of the first US natural gas well during a reception for General #MarquisdeLafayette. First well specifically to produce natural gas was dug in #FredoniaNY 4 years earlier; hollow log pipeline supplied gas to two stores, two shops and a gristmill.

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03JUN1810: Birth in #Dublin of #CivilEngineer Robert Mallet. Invented Buckled Iron Plate first used on #London’s #WestminsterBridge. Regarded the Father of Seismology, having authored the paper "On the Dynamics of Earthquakes," one of the foundations of modern seismology.

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02JUN1873: Groundbreaking for Clay Street Hill Railroad in #SanFrancisco. Opened two months later, it was the first successful cable hauled street railway. Designed by William Eppelsheimer, who later designed the bottom grip that is still used by the city's surviving cable cars.

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01JUN1878: Opening of the original #TayBridge carrying railway over the #Scotland's #FirthofTay. Bridge catastrophically failed nineteen months later, taking 75 lives. Investigation concluded that the collapse was a result of defects in design, construction, and maintenance.

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31MAY1953: Final day of #LosAngeles streetcar service on West Hollywood Line. Route was converted to motor coach the next day. Originally built in 1896 as part of the Pasadena and Pacific; #PacificElectric Railway Company was world's largest electric railway system in the 1920s.

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30MAY1922: #LincolnMemorial dedicated on #DecorationDay, now #MemorialDay. Built on reclaimed marshland along the Potomac River, structure has sub-foundation of 122 solid concrete piers anchored in bedrock and upper-foundation of top piers joined together by concrete arches.

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29MAY1884: Opening of #HighgateHill Cable Tramway in #London, first cable tramway in Europe. Cable was slotted in a concrete channel in the ground between railway tracks and kept moving continuously. Cars were controlled by gripping and releasing the cable with clamping devices.

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28MAY1818: Birth in St Bernard Parish, near #NewOrleans of P. G. T. Beauregard, known for ordering the first shots fired in the #AmericanCivilWar. Trained as an engineer at West Point; post-war, he was a #CableCar pioneer, inventing a system of cable-powered street railway cars.

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27MAY1937: After four years of construction, #GoldenGateBridge opens to the public with a "Pedestrian Day." Opens to vehicle traffic the following day. Longest bridge in the world for nearly three decades, 1937-1964. Named ASCE National #HistoricCivilEngineeringLandmark in 1984.

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26MAY1837: Birth of #CivilEngineer #WashingtonRoebling, Assistant Engineer for design of the #BrooklynBridge; named Chief Engineer for its construction after his father's death. Designer of pneumatic caissons that became the foundations for the two towers. #BridgeEngineering

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25MAY1968: Dedication of #StLouis #GatewayArch, at 63 stories, the world's tallest arch. More than 43,000 tons of concrete and steel with no true structural skeleton, the arch relies upon its inner and outer steel skins forming a composite structure for its strength. #StLouisArch

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24MAY1883: Opening of the #BrooklynBridge, a legendary monument to #CivilEngineering. World's longest bridge for two decades, one and a half times longer than any built previously at the time of its opening. Designated ASCE National #HistoricCivilEngineeringLandmark in 1972.

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23MAY1905: Birth of #CivilEngineer John D Watson, Chief Engineer at #OakRidgeTN Clinton Engineer Works nuclear facility. Responsible for placing foundations of the K-25 Plant, the first use of a compacted fill as an engineering material for building foundations. #ManhattanProject

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22MAY1888: Architect and #Engineer LeRoy Buffington receives a patent for his "cloudscraper," using load-bearing iron frames, which he claimed to have invented. Buffington was mostly unsuccessful in claiming notoriety or royalties for what became popularly known as #Skyscrapers.

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21MAY1736: Birth of canal pioneer Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. Commissioned #BridgewaterCanal from his estates in #Worsley, to transport coal from his mines to city of #Manchester. Described as 1st great achievement of the canal age, inspiring British "Canal Mania."

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20MAY1913: Breakthrough of the Culebra Cut, achieving a milestone in the construction of the #PanamaCanal. After years of excavating and blasting through the continental divide, steam shovels #222 and #230 meet one another at the bottom of the Cut, 40 feet above sea level.