John Alexander Low Waddell

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ASB Bridge in Kansas City, Missouri
ASB Bridge in Kansas City, Missouri
For the British engineer, see John Waddell
For the American sculptor, see John Henry Waddell

John Alexander Low Waddell (1854–1938, often shortened to J.A.L. Waddell and sometimes known as John Alexander Waddell) was an American civil engineer and prolific bridge designer, with more than a thousand structures to his credit in the U.S., Canada, and other countries around the world. In 1893, his patented design was used for the first steam-powered high-lift bridge in the United States, Chicago's South Halsted Street Lift-Bridge over the Chicago River. He went on to design more than a hundred other such spans, and the company he founded continues to make movable bridges of various types. Many of Waddell's surviving bridges are now considered historic landmarks. One of his most notable works is the ASB Bridge In Kansas City Missouri. It is only one of two of this design ever built, and is in use as a railroad bridge for the BNSF

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[edit] Biography

Waddell obtained his first degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1871, and soon traveled to Canada to work with that country's Marine Department of the Dominion before spending some time with the Canadian Pacific Railway. He returned to the States where he designed mines for a West Virginian coal company. In 1878, he returned to Rensselaer and taught mechanics courses until 1880. Waddell then traveled west, obtaining additional degrees from McGill University in Montreal, Ontario, Canada, and spending some time working at the Raymond & Campbell firm in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In July 1882, he headed across the Pacific Ocean to Japan and taught at the Imperial University of Tokyo for a few years while he wrote two books. He returned to the U.S. in 1886, founding a new design company the next year in 1887 and establishing himself in Kansas City, Missouri. That company continues to exist today as Hardesty & Hanover. Waddell took on a number of challenging projects and soon demonstrated a strong ability.

Lifting and swinging bridges had been used for generations by this time, though not on the scale we know them today. Waddell was the first to come up with a modern design, originally intended to span a short channel into the harbor of Duluth, Minnesota. His design won a contest put on by the city in 1892, it was built in 1905 it is called the Aerial Lift Bridge an is still up today. Chicago, however, was willing to build the bridge, where it went up in 1893.

In 1920, Waddell moved to New York, New York and consulted on various projects there including the Goethals Bridge and Marine Parkway Bridge.

His wife died in 1934, and he died four years later, in 1938, in New York City.

[edit] Notable works

Waddell "A" Truss Bridge (1898), Spanning the Linn Branch Creek, Missouri. Removed to construct Smithville Lake.
Waddell "A" Truss Bridge (1898), Spanning the Linn Branch Creek, Missouri. Removed to construct Smithville Lake.

(not necessarily an exhaustive list)

[edit] Bibliography

  • The Designing of Ordinary Iron Highway Bridges (1884)
  • System of Iron Railroad Bridges for Japan (1885)
  • De Pontibus: A Pocket-book for Bridge Engineers (1906)
  • Bridge Engineering (1916)
  • Economics of Bridgework (1921)
  • Memoirs and Addresses of Two Decades (1928)
  • Vocational Guidance in Engineering Lines (1933) by the Committee on Engineering Education of the American Association of Engineers. Waddell was a contributor.

[edit] External links

[edit] References