Major Structures and Failures

Structural Engineering is the science and art of designing and making, with economy and elegance, buildings, bridges, frameworks and other similar structures so that they can safely resist the forces to which they may be subjected. In other words "Do with one what any idiot could do with two."

A showcase of some of the wonderful things designed by a structural engineer:

Clifton suspension bridge across the gorge of the River Avon near Bristol, England. Designed by I.K. Brunel in 1830,

Container crane, Port of Richmond

Space Needle. Built for the Seattle World Fair in 1962, the tower is 600 ft. high. Seattle, USA

World Trade Center in all its glory. Even after a great impact it stood up to save quite a few lives.

STRUCTURAL FAILURES:

Structural engineering has had a few failures too. The first things that come to our mind are the buildings in earthquake but there are quite a few historic collapses which have occurred due to human error. Being a man we are all prone to errors but Structural Engineers have learnt a lot through the failures and have developed several criteria to help them better design the projects.

Kansas City Hyatt Regency -In July 1981 two suspended walkways within the atrium of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed, resulting in the death of 114 people

Millenium Bridge, London

Tacoma Narrows, Washington, USA

Website Created and Maintained by Member:
Aswin Rangaswamy, P.E.