David Barnard Steinman

Background

David was born on June 11, 1886 in New York City, New York, United States, the son of Louis Kelvin Steinman, an immigrant factory worker, and of Eva Scollard. He grew up in lower Manhattan, close to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Education

Steinman entered the City College of New York (CCNY) at the age of thirteen, graduating in 1906 with highest honors. From there he moved to Columbia University, where he obtained C. E. and M. A. degrees in 1909 and a Ph. D. degree in 1911.

His dissertation, "The Design of the Henry Hudson Memorial Bridge as a Steel Arch, " was published shortly afterward.

Career

In 1910, Steinman accepted a teaching appointment at the University of Idaho at Moscow; he rose to the rank of full professor four years later. His dissertation had come to the attention of Gustav Lindenthal, a bridge engineer, who was developing a design for the Hell Gate Bridge over the East River in New York. Lindenthal asked Steinman to become his assistant. Steinman agreed and returned to New York. Steinman worked with Lindenthal on the design of the Hell Gate Bridge, which was opened to traffic in 1917.

In that year he became professor of civil and mechanical engineering at CCNY; at the same time he set himself up as an independent engineering designer and consultant. An opportunity presented itself at once. The Brazilian government proposed to select the design for the Florianapolis Bridge in an open competition. His collaboration with Holton D. Robinson, bridge engineer in design won the competition.

Completed in 1926, the Florian polis Bridge was at the time the longest suspension bridge in South America. Steinman and Robinson continued to design bridges together until Robinson's death in 1945. Steinman's reputation brought an increasing flow of contracts to design bridges.

The Carquinex Strait Bridge in California, of cantilever construction, was completed in 1927. In 1931, Steinman assisted Othmar H. Ammann, later his arch rival, in the design of the George Washington Bridge in New York City.

Other important Steinman bridges during this period were the Sidney Harbor Bridge in Australia (1932), the Triborough Bridge in New York City (1936), and the Thousand Islands International Bridge linking the United States to Canada (1938). Shortly after its construction reports came that the Thousand Islands Bridge was experiencing vertical heaving motions in a crosswind. Steinman solved the problem by adding pairs of inclined stays.

Four years later the problem recurred on a much more serious scale in a bridge designed by Leon S. Moisseiff. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, known, as soon as it was built, to be prone to torsional instabilities, broke apart in a strong wind and fell into the river in 1940.

Before the Tacoma Narrows disaster, Moisseiff had been commissioned to design a much longer suspension bridge, to be built across the straits of Mackinac in Michigan. When the project was revived after World War II, a committee was appointed to review the choice of architect. Two members of this committee were Ammann and Steinman, the most logical candidates to whom the task might be reassigned. They were unable to agree on their recommendations, and Ammann withdrew. The commission went to Steinman, and the Mackinac Straits Bridge was finally opened in 1957.

The design of the Mackinac Straits Bridge did not err on the side of flimsiness. It seems questionable, in fact, whether Steinman fully understood the problem of torsional oscillations.

His paper "Rigidity and Aerodynamic Stability of Suspension Bridges, " published by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1943, pointed out the factors making for poor stability; but his remedy, as executed in the Mackinac Straits Bridge, was simply more steel.

Later work, notably by Theodore von K-rm-n, using wind-tunnel modeling, showed how to reduce the effect of wind by means of different types of bridge cross section. In 1948, Steinman was asked to assume responsibility for the modernization of the Brooklyn Bridge. Having grown up in its shadow, and been inspired by it to make bridge building his career, this was a labor of love for Steinman. He was careful to leave the external appearance of the bridge untouched. The project was completed in 1954.

Steinman wished to build a bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island. The contract for what became the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge went instead to Ammann.

Steinman designed a bridge to cross the Bosporus at Istanbul, Turkey, but the bridge constructed there in 1973 was not his. He conceived a bridge connecting Sicily to Italy at the Strait of Messina, but it was never built.

He died in New York City.

Achievements

• David Barnard Steinman was responsable for the Florian polis Bridge, which was at the time the longest suspension bridge in South America. He also founded the partnership of Steinman, Boynton, Fronquist and London. Over the next thirty years the firm designed more than 400 bridges throughout the world. Other important Steinman bridges during this period were the Sidney Harbor Bridge in Australia (1932), the Triborough Bridge in New York City (1936), and the Thousand Islands International Bridge. He was awarded the Franklin Institute's Louis E. Levy Medal in 1957. Steinman was a president of the American Association of Engineers and campaigned for more stringent educational and ethical standards within the profession.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Suspension Bridges and Cantilevers: Their Economics Proportions and Limiting Spans (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Suspension Bridges and Cantilevers: Their Ec...)

  • Suspension Bridges and Cantilevers, Their Economic Proportions and Limiting Spans

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • A Practical Treatise on Suspension Bridges, Their Design, Construction and Erection

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • A Practical Treatise on Suspension Bridges; Their Design, Construction and Erection. with Appendix : Design Charts for Suspension Bridges(Hardback) - 2015 Edition

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • Puentes Y Sus Constructores. El Precio Es En Dolares

    (Nuestro tema es la concepción y creación de puentes por e...)

  • Bridges & Their Builders. Revised & Expanded Edition

    (A Historical and Written Account With Black and White Pho...)

  • Miracle Bridge at Mackinac

    (By David B Steinman in collaboration with John T Nevill. ...)

  • A Practical Treatise on Suspension Bridges : Their Design, Construction and Erection (1922)(Hardback) - 2014 Edition

    (This Is A New Release Of The Original 1922 Edition.)

  • Miracle Bridge At Mackinac 1957 Hardcover

    (Lang:- English, Pages 232. Reprinted in 2016 with the hel...)

  • I Built a Bridge and Other Poems

Views

Quotations: "If you asked me which of the bridges I love best, I believe I would say the St. Johns bridge. I put more of myself into that bridge than any other bridge. "

Membership

He was a member of the Chi Epsilon National Civil Egineering Honor Society and of the Society for the History of Technology. He was a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers since 1934.

He was also a member of the American Association of Engineers.

Interests

• Steinman was a prolific writer. In addition to many technical articles, he wrote popular books on bridges and bridge building and two volumes of poetry.

Connections

On June 9, 1915, he married Irene Hofmann; they had three children.

Father:

Louis Kelvin Steinman

Mother:

Eva Scollard

collaborator:

Holton D. Robinson

Wife:

Irene Hofmann

colleague:

Gustav Lindenthal

colleague:

Othmar H. Ammann

References

• Catastrophe to Triumph: Bridges of the Tacoma Narrows by Richard S Hobbs (2006-12-01)
• Highways over broad waters;: Life and times of David B. Steinman, bridgebuilder
• Engineers Of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America by Henry Petroski (1995-10-03)
• SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY - Volume 5, number 4 - February Feb 1958: We The Marauders; Chip on the Shoulder; Mating Call; The Low and the Mighty; Kangeroo Court