Ferdinand Joseph Arnodin (9 October 1845 – 24 April 1924) was a French
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
and industrialist born in
Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon
Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon (, literally ''Sainte-Foy near Lyon'') is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France.
Geography
It is a suburb of the city of Lyon, located to the west of the city.
It is loc ...
,
Rhône
The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
who died in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire in
Loiret
Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434. . Specialising in cableway transporters, he is regarded as the inventor of the
transporter bridge
A transporter bridge, also known as a ferry bridge or aerial transfer bridge, is a type of movable bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river. The gondola is slung from a tall span by wires or a metal frame. The design has been u ...
, having been the first to patent the idea in 1887.
[Troyano, L.F., "Bridge Engineering - A Global Perspective", Thomas Telford Publishing, 2003] However, the first such bridge was in fact designed by
Alberto Palacio
Alberto de Palacio y Elissague (1856-1939) was a Spanish engineer and architect born in Sare (Northern Basque Country) and grown up in Gordexola.suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical ...
s and