History and Aesthetics of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 11, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper is a study of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge. Othmar Ammann’s bridge, completed in 1939, has strong similarities to the ill-fated Tacoma Narrows, sharing many structural characteristics. While the New York bridge has served well for two-thirds of a century, the deck has oscillated noticeably for most of its lifetime; in attempts to calm these motions, the Whitestone has undergone an unusual number of retrofits—in 1940, 1946, 1988, and a new retrofit begun in 2003. From a historical perspective, these retrofits have kept pace with the development of suspension bridge technology, each representing the state of the art at the time they were implemented. We can therefore view the Whitestone as a valuable physical record of developments in the profession’s understanding of structural vibrations and aerodynamics. The goal of this paper is to place these retrofits in context, as well as to evaluate them on technical and aesthetic levels.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to acknowledge the considerable help and advice of Herbert Rothman. Also, part of this study has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant No. NSF0095010, by the Council on Science and Technology at Princeton University, and by documents given to the Princeton Maillart Archive by Margot Ammann-Durrer and Lawrence Ammann.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 11 • Issue 2 • March 2006
Pages: 230 - 240
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 2, 2004
Accepted: Dec 23, 2004
Published online: Mar 1, 2006
Published in print: Mar 2006
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