John Alexander Low Waddell
Encyclopedia
- For the American sculptor, see John Henry Waddell
John Alexander Low Waddell (1854- March 3, 1938, often shortened to J.A.L. Waddell and sometimes known as John Alexander Waddell) was an American civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
and prolific bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
designer, with more than a thousand structures to his credit in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, as well as Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Waddell’s work set standards for elevated railroad systems and helped develop materials suitable for large span bridges. His most important contribution was the development of the steam-powered
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
high-lift bridge
Lift bridge
A vertical-lift bridge or lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck....
. His design was first used in 1893 for Chicago's South Halsted Street Lift-Bridge over the Chicago River
Chicago River
The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of the same name, including its center . Though not especially long, the river is notable for being the reason why Chicago became an important location, as the link between the Great Lakes and...
; he went on to design more than 100 other movable bridges, and the company he founded continues to make movable bridges of various types. Waddell was a widely respected writer on bridge design, and an advocate of quality training of engineers. Many of Waddell's surviving bridges are now considered historic landmarks.
One of his most notable works is the ASB Bridge
ASB Bridge
The Armour-Swift-Burlington Bridge, also known as the North Kansas City Bridge, is a rail crossing over the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri that formerly also handled car traffic....
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.
Biography
Waddell was born in Port Hope, OntarioPort Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1854. He obtained his first degree in civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
in Troy, New York
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
in 1875, 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
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
.
He returned to the United States where he designed mines
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
for a West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
n coal company. In 1878, he returned to Rensselaer and taught mechanics courses until 1880. Waddell then traveled west, obtaining additional degrees from McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
in Montreal, Quebec and spending some time working at the Raymond & Campbell firm in Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs, known until 1852 as Kanesville, Iowathe historic starting point of the Mormon Trail and eventual northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trailsis a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States and is on the east bank of the Missouri River across...
.
O-yatoi gaikokujin
The Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan, known in Japanese as oyatoi gaikokujin , were those foreign advisors hired by the Japanese government for their specialized knowledge to assist in the modernization of Japan at the end of the Bakufu and during the Meiji era. The term is sometimes...
by the Meiji government of the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
and taught at the Tokyo Imperial University for a few years while he wrote two books.
Waddell returned to the United States in 1886, founding a new design company the next year in 1887 and establishing himself in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. That company continues to exist today as Hardesty & Hanover and HNTB Corpation founded in 1914. 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 across Minnesota Point
Minnesota Point
Minnesota Point, also known as the Park Point neighborhood of Duluth, Minnesota, United States; is a long, narrow sand spit that extends out from the Canal Park tourist recreation-oriented district of the city of Duluth...
into the harbor of Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...
. His design won a contest put on by the city in 1892, but the War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
objected to the design. The city built an aerial transporter bridge in that location in 1905. In 1929, it was remodeled into the Aerial Lift Bridge
Aerial Lift Bridge
The Aerial Lift Bridge is a major landmark in the port city of Duluth, Minnesota. The span is a vertical lift bridge, which is rather uncommon, but it began life as an extremely rare transporter bridge—the first of just two such bridges ever constructed in the United States...
, similar to Waddell's design.
While the city of Chicago was the first to build a lift bridge of Waddell's design, completed in 1893, the second had to wait for his partnership with mechanical engineer
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
John Lyle Harrington, formed in 1907. The firm of Waddell & Harrington designed a vertical lift bridge (since demolished) for the Iowa Central Railway over the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
at Keithsburg, Illinois
Keithsburg, Illinois
Keithsburg is a city in Mercer County, Illinois, United States. The population was 714 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Keithsburg is located at ....
, in 1909. The pair designed more than two dozen more vertical lift bridges over the next five years before dissolving their partnership in 1914.
In 1920, Waddell moved to New York, New York, and consulted on various projects there including the Goethals Bridge
Goethals Bridge
The Goethals Bridge connects Elizabeth, New Jersey to Staten Island , near the Howland Hook Marine Terminal, Staten Island, New York over the Arthur Kill. Operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the span was one of the first structures built by the authority...
and Marine Parkway Bridge.
His wife died in 1934, and he died four years later, in 1938, in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Notable works
- South Halsted Street Lift-Bridge (1893)
- Waddell "A" Truss Bridge (1898) http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.mo0162
- Hawthorne BridgeHawthorne BridgeThe Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical-lift bridge in operation in the United States and the oldest highway bridge in Portland...
(1910) - Armour-Swift-Burlington Bridge (1911)
- Steel BridgeSteel BridgeThe Steel Bridge is a through truss, double lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries road traffic and light rail , making the bridge one of the most multimodal in the world...
(1912) - Colorado Street Bridge (1913)
- 11th Street Bridge (aka Murray Morgan Bridge) Tacoma, WAMurray Morgan BridgeThe Murray Morgan Bridge, also known as the 11th Street bridge or City Waterway bridge, is a lift bridge in Tacoma, Washington. It was built in 1913 to replace an 1894 swing-span bridge. The bridge connects downtown with the tideflats, it spans the Thea Foss Waterway, originally known as the City...
(1913) - Snowden BridgeSnowden BridgeSnowden Bridge is a high-clearance, vertical-lift railroad bridge, built in 1913, that spans the Missouri River between Roosevelt and Richland Counties in Montana, USA, between Bainville and Fairview, Montana, and near Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site and the ghost town of Mondak near...
(1913) - Caddo Lake DrawbridgeCaddo Lake DrawbridgeThe Historic Caddo Lake Drawbridge at Mooringsport, Louisiana is a lift bridge built in 1914 to replace the ferry by the Midland Bridge Company of Kansas City, Missouri under authority of the Caddo Parish Police Jury....
(1914) - Twelfth Street Trafficway Viaduct (1915)
- Detroit-Superior Bridge (1917)
- Interstate BridgeInterstate BridgeThe Interstate Bridge is a pair of nearly identical steel vertical-lift, through-truss bridges that carry Interstate 5 traffic over the Columbia River between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, in the United States...
(1917) - Washington Bridge (Connecticut)Washington Bridge (Connecticut)The Washington Bridge carries U.S. Route 1 over the Housatonic River in the U.S. state of Connecticut, connecting the city of Milford to the town of Stratford. Its geographic location is N 41.20037 by W -73.11039...
(1921) - CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge (1926)
- Outerbridge CrossingOuterbridge CrossingThe Outerbridge Crossing is a cantilever bridge which spans the Arthur Kill. The "Outerbridge", as it is commonly known, connects Perth Amboy, New Jersey, with the New York City borough of Staten Island and carries NY-440 and NJ-440, each road ending at the respective state border.The bridge was...
(opened June 29, 1928) - Goethals BridgeGoethals BridgeThe Goethals Bridge connects Elizabeth, New Jersey to Staten Island , near the Howland Hook Marine Terminal, Staten Island, New York over the Arthur Kill. Operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the span was one of the first structures built by the authority...
(opened June 29, 1928)
Partial bibliography
- The Designing of Ordinary Iron Highway Bridges, [1884] (1891), 5th edition (in English). New York: John Wiley & Sons, 252 pages.
- System of Iron Railroad Bridges for Japan (1885). Tokyo: Tokyo University, 258 pages.
- De Pontibus: A Pocket-book for Bridge Engineers, (1898) 1st edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 403 pages.
- Bridge Engineering, Volume I and Volume II, (1916). New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2,177 pages.
- Economics of Bridgework: A Sequel to Bridge Engineering (1921). New York: John Wiley & Sons, 512 pages.
- Memoirs and Addresses of Two Decades, with Frank Woodward Skinner, edited by J.L. Harrington (1928). New York: Mack Printing Company, 1,174 pages.
- Vocational Guidance in Engineering Lines (1933) by the Committee on Engineering Education of the American Association of Engineers. Waddell was a contributor.