Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ONE
CROSSING THE BRIDGE
BEFORE WE GET THERE
To have the kind of life we live in the United States and other advanced
economies, where we enjoy freedom through mobility, which in turn fosters
commerce, and where the built environment is safe for people, we depend on
infrastructure. But it is a dependence about which we are largely unaware.
Roads, water systems, ports, dams, electrical grids, and other physical public
works function quietly in the background. They rarely attract attention
because by and large they operate well.
Among the many systems in which we live from health care to finance,
and among our daily worries from love to politics, public works provide some
of our sturdiest and most reliable support. Love proves fleeting and papyri
turn brittle, but Roman aqueducts still carry water and the US interstate
system, like it or not, will dominate our landscape for a long time yet.
Disconcertingly to us, your authors, infrastructure may even seem bor-
ing. Streets and water pipes don't get to be national idols, don't have new
upgrades released each year, can't be downloaded from your browser, and,
when they're doing what they're supposed to, don't cause news. The infra-
structure system's quiet dependability lets us forget what an enormous and
complex technological achievement it is. Yet, on those who care to pay
attention, it can exert a special fascination. In this topic, we talk about one
of these types of public works, the bridge. Why bridges?
The answer is in part personal: we like them, and one of us, George,
has spent a large part of his career researching and teaching about bridg-
es. More to the point, among types of infrastructure, bridges are the kind
for which many people most easily acquire affection, and for good reason,
though it is hard to express it. There is something stately about them.
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