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Designing Structures that Benefit Society
When Miguel Rosales was in middle and high school, his favorite class was art. He now uses art in his job because Miguel is an engineer and architect who designs bridges.
Miguel enjoys designing bridges because they have such an important role in society. A bridge is a structure that allows humans to cross obstacles such as valleys or bodies of water. The span is the distance a bridge crosses unsupported from below.
Designing Boston’s Zakim Bridge
Miguel was the lead architect and designer for the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. This bridge crosses the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts.
This bridge took 10 years to complete. Miguel worked hard on the bridge’s design. He wanted it to fit into its surroundings. Before construction on the bridge began, Miguel made many 3-D drawings and models. He also made computer drawings so he could see how the bridge would appear when it was complete.
Like skyscrapers, bridges have to balance all of the forces acting on them. A well-built bridge doesn’t fail because it is made of shapes and materials that balance these forces.
Design of Bridges
Compression happens on the deck or roadway of a bridge. The weight of people walking or cars driving puts downward pressure on the structure. If a bridge experiences too great a load without enough upward support, it will buckle or break. Tension happens as traffic on the roadway causes the underside of the bridge to become longer. If a bridge experiences too much tension on the bottom without enough support, it will snap.
Different bridge designs handle the forces that act on the bridge in different ways, such as by transferring force from an area of weakness to an area of strength.
Zakim Bridge Design
The Zakim Bridge is a kind of cable-stayed bridge. This is a bridge design that includes one or more towers with cables that run directly from the tower to the roadway. Cables are very strong pieces of rope made of steel wire. The cables running directly from the tower to the deck form the distinctive fan-like pattern you see in the Zakim Bridge.
Cable-stay bridges are similar to another bridge design called a suspension bridge. Engineers design cable-stayed bridges or suspension bridges when they need to span long distances. To suspend means to hang in the air.
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