Fifty Years of Riveted, Bolted, and Welded Steel Construction

The last 50 yr have been a time of unprecedented structural developments with the advances in the structural fastening field playing an important part in these developments. Structural steel ranging from 30,000 psi to 100,000 psi (207,000 kN/m² to 609,000 kN/m²) in yield strength have been made available, new welding processes have been introduced, the welding of steel structures widely accepted, and high-strength structural bolting has been developed and accepted as one of the principal methods of fabricating and erecting structures. These advances have played an important role in the development of such structures as the 1,450-ft (440-m) Sears tower, and the 4,260-ft (1,300-m) span Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.