Pushing the Limits: New Adventures in Engineering

304 Pages·2005·1.01 MB·English

by  Henry Petroski

Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Praise
Foreword
Bridges
Art in Iron and Steel
Bridges of America
Benjamin Franklin Bridge
Floating Bridges
Confederation Bridge
Pont de Normandie
Britannia Bridge
Tower Bridge
Drawing Bridges
An Eye-Opening Bridge
Millennium Legacies
Broken Bridges
New and Future Bridges
And Other Things
Dorton Arena
Bilbao
Santiago Calatrava
Fazlur Khan
The Fall of Skyscrapers
Vanities of the Bonfire
St. Francis Dam
Three Gorges Dam
Fuel Cells
Engineers’ Dreams
Engineers’ Achievements
Acknowledgments and Bibliography
List of Illustrations and Credits
About the Author
ALSO BY HENRY PETROSKI
Copyright Page
to Stephen
We were put on this earth to make things.
—W. H. Auden
Praise for HENRY PETROSKI
“Henry Petroski has become the main emissary from the world of engineering to the
rest of us. . . . He brings clarity and good sense to his subject, making the enigmatic
world of things a little less mystifying.”
—Austin American-Statesman
“Petroski writes . . . with the observant eye of an engineer and the imaginative heart of a
novelist.”
—Los Angeles Times
“An unlikely combination of mathematical brain power and a more irrational curiosity. .
. . Petroski not only can put science in laymen’s terms, but also can do so without
killing its magic.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
“Petroski . . . asks us to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.”
—Chicago Tribune
“[There is] pleasure [in] seeing Henry Petroski’s playful mind at work.”
—Scientific American
Preface
Engineers are the masterminds behind most things made, from the miniaturized
microelectronics device that fits into the ear to help the hard of hearing to the gigantic
domed stadium into which a hundred thousand fans can crowd and cheer. Small things,
large things, simple things, complex things—they are all the products of the minds of
engineers and the hands of engineering.
Mainly, this book is a celebration of the bigger things that engineers make, the
bridges and buildings and dams that are among the largest constructions on earth. The
stories behind such achievements are often the stories of engineers with personalities as
large as their plans, whose persistent dreams have become part of our reality.
Some of the greatest engineering achievements have been dwarfed by later ones.
Thus, the first flight of the Wright Flyer was shorter than the wingspan of today’s
jumbo jets. And a pedestrian who in five minutes can walk between the towers of the
Brooklyn Bridge—once the longest span in the world—would need twenty to walk
from tower to tower of Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, today’s longest. The title of
greatest is one that seldom stands unchallenged for long, but even former champions
still command a measure of respect. The Empire State Building, which reigned as the
world’s tallest for four decades, remains an awesome structure to which tourists flock.
Size is not the only criterion by which an accomplishment is judged. Great
engineering projects, even those in the megaproject category, are not great simply
because they are big. The ingenious creations and elegant solutions of engineers are
also works of art and inspiration: an Eiffel Tower or a voyage to the moon lifts
everyone’s spirits. Above all, the stories of great structures and schemes are also the
stories of people, often of those who persist in the face of opposition to realize what
others had declared impossible.
Making things is an activity as old as civilization, and making ever new things is part
of being human. Laypersons and engineers alike are forever encountering new
problems, new needs, and new desires that challenge them to invent, to innovate, and to
engineer still another thing, another scheme, another dream. The accomplishments of
our predecessors provide both the stick and the carrot to keep us going—at the same
time, we follow the tried-and-true ways and deviate from them. As footpaths evolved
into roads, so roads developed into highways, but what the highways of the future will
be like is unimaginable to most of us today.
The older is not always a reliable model for the newer, the smaller for the larger, or
the simpler for the more complex, as countless failures and embarrassments throughout
the history of civilization have demonstrated. Such temporary setbacks and
disappointments are an integral part of progress, but they occur remarkably infrequently
even in the face of the most difficult of challenges. Making something greater than any
existing thing necessarily involves going beyond experience. This book is about such
adventures in engineering: testing the boundaries, moving the frontier, pushing the
limits.
Bridges