Masonry Bridges, Viaducts and Aqueducts

by Ted Ruddock (Editor)

Overview

For 2,000 years the most durable spanning structures have been built of masonry, and the surviving bridges of the Roman Empire have challenged master masons, architects and engineers to emulate and surpass them. Down the centuries, bridge-builders have been commissioned by monarchs, bishops, councils of state, cities, private individuals and, more recently, waterway and railway companies. The studies collected in this volume focus chiefly on the bridges, viaducts and aqueducts themselves and the actions of the designers and builders, but also encompass the political, economic and social contexts and outcomes of their creation. Famous bridges in Britain, Italy, France, Iran and the USA are all featured. Narratives of conception, design and construction predominate, but there are also papers on construction techniques, on the analysis of documentary sources, and on the continuing search by modern engineers for satisfactory scientific description of the strength and stability of arch bridges.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351919272
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/15/2017
Series:	Studies in the History of Civil Engineering
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ted Ruddock

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction; Testing times for arches, B. Harvey; The Roman bridge-builder: some aspects of his work, N. A. F. Smith; The Pont du Gard and the aqueduct of Nîmes, N. A. F. Smith; Vitruvius and the elevated aqueducts, F. D. Prager; Resistance to technological innovation: the history of the pile driver through the 18th century, M. N. Boyer; Rebuilding the bridge at Albi, 1408-1410, M. N. Boyer; Le Pont du Rialto: un chantier public à Venise à la fin du XVIe siècle, D. Calabi et P. Morachiello; The Pul-i Khwaju in Isfahan: a combination of bridge, dam and water art, H. Luschey; Berwick-on-Tweed Bridge, J. Summerson; Hollow spandrels in arch bridges: a historical study, E. C. Ruddock; Pont-y-pridd: a critical examination of its history, E. I. Williams; William Edwards’s bridge at Pontypridd, E. C. Ruddock; The foundations of Hexham Bridge, E. C. Ruddock; Pulteney Bridge, Jean Manco; Two masonry bridges: II. Telford’s bridge at Over, J. Heyman and B. D. Threlfall; Arch bridges, J. B. B. Owen; Valley crossings on the Old Croton Aqueduct, L. D. Lankton; The Canton Viaduct, E. D. Galvin; The fall of Barentin Viaduct, 10 January 1846, D. Brooke; The safety of masonry arches, J. Heyman; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'The aim of Ashgate's twelve volume series is to bring together collections of important papers on particular topics from scholarly journals, conference proceedings and other hard-to-access sources. This is a wholly laudable objective. Some of the papers in the volume under review [The Civil Engineering of Canals and Railways before 1850] cannot be found even in abundantly-resourced academic libraries. The series opens up, directly or indirectly, debates over the nature of historical evidence which arise from the profoundly different approaches to the past of historians of technology, whose works are principally represented in these volumes, industrial archaeologists and social and economic historians.' Industrial Archaeology Review, Vol. XXI, No. 1

From the Publisher