Густав Линденталь: Инженер и создатель мостов Нью-Йорка

American civil engineer

Gustav Lindenthal (May 21, 1850 – July 31, 1935) was a civil engineer who designed the Queensboro and Hell Gate bridges in New York City, among other bridges. Lindenthal's work was greatly affected by his pursuit for perfection and his love of art. Having received little formal education and no degree in civil engineering, Lindenthal based his work on his prior experience and techniques used by other engineers of the time.

Lindenthal was born in Brünn, Austrian Empire, now Brno, Czech Republic in 1850. Lindenthal began to receive practical training in 1866 when he was employed as a mason and carpenter. At the age of 18, Lindenthal left his family to set out to make a life of his own in Vienna, Austria.

When he arrived in Vienna he became an assistant in the engineering department for the Empress Elisabeth Railway of Austria. Two years later he joined the Union Construction Company, where he gained experience in building incline planes and railroads. Then a year later he decided to join the Swiss National Railroad, where he was hired on as a division engineer in charge of location and construction. While living in Vienna, he attended some public engineering lectures at a local university. However, he never did actually attend the university or receive a degree. Lindenthal in fact taught himself mathematics, engineering theory, metallurgy, hydraulics, estimating, management, and everything else that a successful bridge engineer needed to know. After completion of this project, Lindenthal worked for the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on numerous projects over a three year period. While working for this company, he gained valuable experience which propelled him to the status of bridge engineer. He worked for the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad during 1879 to 1881. In 1881, Lindenthal established his own consulting business and built four bridges in the Pittsburgh area: 30th Street Bridge (Herrs Island); Smithfield Street Bridge (over the Monongahela River; 1883), Youghiogheny River Bridge at McKeesport (1883); and the Seventh Street Bridge (Allegheny River; 1884). and Williamsburg Bridge. While the proposals ultimately remained unbuilt, the city would eventually host a similar (albeit scaled down) concept sixty years later with the Ford Motor Company "Magic Skyway" attraction at the 1964 New York World's Fair. The North River Bridge Company developed another proposal for a large Hudson River suspension bridge in 1920. This design would have been built at 57th Street in Manhattan, to carry both roadway and railroads, but neither the city nor the railroads were supportive. (Lindenthal's colleague Othmar Ammann developed a scaled down bridge proposal several years later, which became the George Washington Bridge, completed in 1931.) Lindenthal worked on several other bridge projects around the country in the 1920s. Lindenthal had a difference in opinion with one of the standard engineering practices of the day. Prior to the automobile, train construction represented the majority of transport building that took place. Trains being as heavy as they were made engineers greatly overcompensate and build bridges that were oversized, bulky, and expensive. Lindenthal pointed out that bridges did not have to support the full load of a train as a single point load. Instead, a train moves across the bridge and displaces its load relatively evenly. This was not how the bridges were tested to see if a design worked though. The train's total dead weight was simply added to the bridge, and if it did not hold, it was said to be structurally unstable. Lindenthal's idea of not having to carry the full load allowed bridge designers to create bridges that were still stable, but at the same time much lighter and cheaper. Gustav Lindenthal made bridges that reached new heights for his time. At the time of Hell Gate's completion, it stood as the longest and heaviest steel bridge in the world. Gustav Lindenthal also expanded the idea of "double decker" lanes on his bridges. The Queensboro Bridge is one of the bridges Lindenthal designed that displays the double decker idea.

During the time Lindenthal practiced engineering, the railroad industry was expanding and replacing many wooden truss bridges with stronger ones capable of handling the heavier locomotive loads. In order to accommodate these heavier trains, different construction materials were being utilized. The materials being considered by engineers like Lindenthal were reinforced concrete, cable, and steel. Steel and reinforced concrete were two main materials used in the truss bridges Lindenthal designed. The use of reinforced concrete was a relatively new idea in bridge construction, with its first use in 1889. The design of the Hell Gate Bridge required a different approach to bridge construction. Nearly all major members of Hell Gate are composed of smaller trusses. The erection of the Hell Gate was carried through without the assistance of any falsework, or work that was not part of the actual bridge. This was accomplished by building the two halves of the arch simultaneously from each tower. The steel work was supported with the use of cables during construction to carry the load of the arches until they finally met at the center of the span. In another instance, a bridge needed to be constructed over the Monongahela River, after the ferry, which was used for many years beforehand, became outdated. The first bridge, designed by John Roebling, continuously swayed and deflected, and was being "shaky and loose." Up until that point, he remained active as president and chief engineer of the North River Bridge Company.

The International Bridge Conference is the site of the annual presentation of the Gustav Lindenthal Medal. Winners have included the Millau Viaduct, the Deh Cho Bridge and the Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge.