METAL BRIDGE INNOVATIONS FEATURED IN LONDON'S BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE

摘要

The selection of Blackfriars Bridge in London, Canada, for recognition as a Canadian Society for Civil Engineering National Historic Site will be celebrated at the CSCE 2016 Annual Conference. The bridge was fabricated by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company (WIBC) of Canton, Ohio and commissioned in 1875. The intense competition of the day is reflected in the WIBC 1874 book of designs, which contains technically credible information that is consistent with modern bridge design standards. It also contains other information that clearly distorts engineering science for commercial advantage. Blackfriars contains, or contained before renovations in 1950, eight features of 20 patented in WIBC's most significant U.S. patent, dated 11 February 1873. The bridge also features a novel arrangement of web members that was patented in America ten months after the bridge opened to traffic, by a WIBC officer, Job Abbott, who subsequently was the founding President of the Dominion Bridge Company, arguably Canada's most successful steel fabricator and erector in the 20th century.