Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

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MGMcAnick
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Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by MGMcAnick »

I know it's in bad taste to make light of a tragedy, but sometimes I have a strange sense of (dark) humor.
And now, the news.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/14/europe/i ... index.html
A friend of Doc's, one of only two B-29 bombers still flying.

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Joe Guy
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by Joe Guy »

That certainly is dark. I was thinking it's in the wrong forum but I don't think there's a right forum for it.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by BoSoxGal »

To be fair, the evidence is not yet in and it’s rather premature to excoriate the engineers.


In recent months I’ve had occasion to drive a great deal underneath Boston, through the tunnel system including the Big Dig. I’ve really had to work on my anxiety while driving through these structures - and over plenty of bridges and overpasses too - because while these types of structures once fascinated me as a younger person, that was before I worked in government.

Now that I have seen up close and personal the way the sausage is made, it really puts my teeth on edge to rely on the many people involved in building those bridges and tunnels and what have you. I’d much prefer to stay on flat roads out in Hicksville that are pretty hard to fuck up.

My sympathies are with the people devastated by this bridge collapse, including the many people whose anxiety will be nearly uncontrollable next time they must traverse such feats of engineering - and lowest/corrupt bidding.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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dales
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by dales »


Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


yrs,
rubato

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by BoSoxGal »

Respect to the engineer who attempted to rescue the dog abandoned by his owner; bad owner! Poor doggie. :cry:
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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MGMcAnick
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by MGMcAnick »

It does remind me of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse, but only because they are both suspension bridges. I wonder why someone was filming that one. 1937 was waaay before everyone carried a cell phone. Was that its grand opening?
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BoSoxGal
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by BoSoxGal »

It fell in 1940, 4 months after opening opening to use. Here’s a wiki quote:
No human life was lost in the collapse of the bridge. The only fatality was a Cocker Spaniel named Tubby, who perished after he was abandoned in a car on the bridge by his owner, Leonard Coatsworth. Professor Frederick Burt Farquharson, an engineer from the University of Washington who had been involved in the design of the bridge, tried to rescue Tubby but was bitten by the terrified dog when he attempted to remove him. The collapse of the bridge was recorded on 16 mm film by Barney Elliott, owner of a local camera shop, and shows Farquharson leaving the bridge after trying to rescue Tubby and making observations in the middle of the bridge. In 1998, The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4] This footage is still shown to engineering, architecture, and physics students as a cautionary tale.
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ex-khobar Andy
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

Strictly speaking it's not a suspension bridge but cable stayed. Suspension bridges like the Tacoma Narrows have cables from which vertical cables support the deck. Cable stayed bridges have multiple cables direct from the support to the deck which radiate from the top of the support.

And BTW I've owned two Fiats (127) and loved them both. In North Africa where I owned the first, the roads were terrible and often non-existent, and the only cars around were either the legendary Peugeot 404 or various Fiats and sundry Toyotas. Tough little car and of course (like all Italian cars) prone to rust - not really a problem in that dry atmosphere.

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Lord Jim
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by Lord Jim »

Joe Guy wrote:That certainly is dark. I was thinking it's in the wrong forum but I don't think there's a right forum for it.

"General stuff..."
ImageImageImage

Jarlaxle
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by Jarlaxle »

BoSoxGal wrote:To be fair, the evidence is not yet in and it’s rather premature to excoriate the engineers.


In recent months I’ve had occasion to drive a great deal underneath Boston, through the tunnel system including the Big Dig. I’ve really had to work on my anxiety while driving through these structures - and over plenty of bridges and overpasses too - because while these types of structures once fascinated me as a younger person, that was before I worked in government.

Now that I have seen up close and personal the way the sausage is made, it really puts my teeth on edge to rely on the many people involved in building those bridges and tunnels and what have you. I’d much prefer to stay on flat roads out in Hicksville that are pretty hard to fuck up.

My sympathies are with the people devastated by this bridge collapse, including the many people whose anxiety will be nearly uncontrollable next time they must traverse such feats of engineering - and lowest/corrupt bidding.
The Big Dig is the worst...already killed one person. And yet...the Callahan Tunnel is 56 years old...the Sumner is 84 years old! (Opened 1934.) Both are more watertight than the Big Dig.

Jarlaxle
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by Jarlaxle »

ex-khobar Andy wrote:Strictly speaking it's not a suspension bridge but cable stayed. Suspension bridges like the Tacoma Narrows have cables from which vertical cables support the deck. Cable stayed bridges have multiple cables direct from the support to the deck which radiate from the top of the support.
Cable-stay seems unusual in the USA, for whatever reason. Only one that comes to my mind immediately is the 10-lane (!) Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston.

Useless trivia: also in Boston, the Tobin Bridge is longer (11,900') than the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Guinevere
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by Guinevere »

I hate the Tobin bridge.
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BoSoxGal
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by BoSoxGal »

I just spent some time reading the Wiki entry on the Big Dig, and a number of the referenced source materials.

Now I REALLY don’t want to drive through it anymore!
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

Jarlaxle
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by Jarlaxle »

I have to every week. :(

Big RR
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by Big RR »

Jarl--
Cable-stay seems unusual in the USA, for whatever reason. Only one that comes to my mind immediately is the 10-lane (!) Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston.
If I'm not mistaken, the Brooklyn Bridge is a combination of cable stay/suspension bridge, where the stays run from the two towers as do the suspension cables.

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datsunaholic
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Re: Built by the same engineers who gave us the FIAT

Post by datsunaholic »

The Brooylyn Bridge is considered today to be a hybrid suspension/cable stayed bridge. The cable stays are for stability, rather than load.

We have several cable stayed bridges here in Washington.

The East 21st St Bridge in Tacoma, and the Cable Bridge between Pasco and Kennewick, which claims to be the first true Cable Stayed design bridge in the US.
Death is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.

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