Sensors Designed to Protect Famous Covered Bridges

摘要

Iowa State University's Bridge Engineering Center (BEC) is developing a three-pronged monitoring system to safeguard the famous bridges of Iowa's Madison County—the structural stars and eponyms of a 1992 romantic novel by Robert James Waller and a 1995 Clint Eastwood film. Two arson attacks since 2002 have destroyed one of the century-old covered bridges and damaged a second (a third attack also severely damaged a house used in the film). So, like other modern celebrities, the bridges of Madison County are turning to electronic surveillance for protection.