Joseph Strauss (engineer)

Joseph Baermann Strauss (January 9, 1870 – May 16, 1938) was a German-American structural engineer who revolutionized the design of bascule bridges. He was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

Early life and education

Strauss was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to an artistic family of German-Jewish ancestry. His mother was a pianist and his father, Raphael Strauss, was a writer and painter. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1892 with a degree in civil engineering. He served as both class poet and class president, and was a brother of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Strauss had many hobbies, including poetry. After completion of the Golden Gate Bridge, he returned to his passion of poetry and wrote his most recognizable poem, "The Mighty Task is Done". He also wrote "The Redwoods" and his "Sequoia" can still be purchased by tourists visiting the California redwoods.

He died in Los Angeles one year after the Golden Gate Bridge's completion. His statue, the Joseph Strauss Memorial, can be seen on the San Francisco side of the bridge. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

Early career and the bascule bridge

Strauss was hospitalized while in college and his hospital room overlooked the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. This sparked his interest in bridges. Upon graduating from the University of Cincinnati, Strauss worked at the office of Ralph Modjeski, a firm which specialized in building bridges. At that time, bascule bridges were built with expensive iron counterweights. He proposed using cheaper concrete counterweights in place of iron. When his ideas were rejected, he left the firm and started his own, the Strauss Bascule Bridge Company of Chicago, where he revolutionized the design of bascule bridges.

Bridge designs

Strauss was the designer of the Burnside Bridge (1926) in Portland, Oregon and the Lewis and Clark Bridge (1930) over the Columbia River between Longview, Washington and Rainier, Oregon. Strauss also worked with the Dominion Bridge Company in building the Cherry Street Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge (1931) in Toronto, Ontario. In 1912 he designed the HB&T Railway bascule bridge over Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas (now hidden under an Interstate 69 bridge in the shadow of downtown Houston). His design was also exported to Norway, where Skansen Bridge (1918) is still in daily use. He also designed the Palace Bridge (Dvortsovy), a double-leaf Strauss bascule bridge over the Neva River in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd), Russia, near the former czar's winter palace.

The Strauss bridge design was also copied and used in other places in Europe. Two bridges are still in daily use in Sweden – the railway bridges over Trollhätte canal in Vänersborg and Danviksbron in Stockholm. In Sête, France, over Canal du Midi, another copy of Strauss-designed bridges is to be found.

Golden Gate Bridge

Strauss is credited as the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge but Charles Alton Ellis is responsible for most of the structural design. Because of a dispute with Strauss however, Ellis was not recognized for his work when the bridge opened in 1937.
A plaque honoring Ellis was installed on the south tower in 2012 to acknowledge his contributions.

As chief engineer on the project, Strauss faced numerous problems. He had to secure funding and support for the bridge from citizens and the U.S. military. There were also innovations in the way the bridge got constructed. It had to span one of the greatest distances ever, reach heights that had not been seen in a bridge and hold up to the forces of the ocean.

Strauss was concerned with the safety of his workers. During the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, he required that a safety net be installed beneath the bridge, which saved a total of 19 lives.

Other works

* FEC Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge (Jacksonville, Florida)
* Isleton Bridge
*Johnson Street Bridge
*Kinzie Street railroad bridge
* Mystic River Bascule Bridge
* St. Charles Air Line Bridge
* Lewis and Clark Bridge (Columbia River)
* Thames River Bridge (Amtrak)
* Outer Drive Bridge
* HX Draw
* Lefty O'Doul Bridge

Personal life and death

Strauss had many hobbies, including poetry. After completion of the Golden Gate Bridge he returned to his passion of poetry and wrote his most recognizable poem, "The Mighty Task is Done". He also wrote "The Redwood” and his "Sequoia" can still be purchased by tourists visiting the California redwoods.

Strauss died in Los Angeles one year after the Golden Gate Bridge's completion. His statue, the Joseph Strauss Memorial, can be seen on the San Francisco side of the bridge. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

References

Further reading

*

External links

*

Biography: Joseph Strauss
The American Experience, PBS

Joseph Strauss quotations

Joseph B. Straus online exhibition
by Dr. Dorothy Byers, University of Cincinnati Libraries

Joseph Strauss Bridge Plans
housed at Stanford Libraries

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strauss, Joseph
1870 births
1938 deaths
People from Cincinnati
American bridge engineers
American civil engineers
19th-century American engineers
20th-century American engineers
American structural engineers
History of San Francisco
Engineers from San Francisco
American people of German-Jewish descent
University of Cincinnati alumni
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Engineers from California
Engineers from Ohio
Sigma Alpha Epsilon members