Othmar Ammann

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Bust of Othmar Ammann (Zurich, 1961)

Othmar Hermann Ammann (born March 26, 1879 in Feuerthalen , Switzerland ; † September 22, 1965 in Rye , New York ) was a Swiss-American engineer and an important bridge builder , particularly through the planning and construction of the George Washington Bridge and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge .

Life

Othmar H. Ammann was born in Feuerthalen near Schaffhausen , but soon moved with his parents to Kilchberg on Lake Zurich . After attending the industrial school in Zurich from 1894 to 1897 and possibly an internship at the construction site of the Langenargen suspension bridge (built in 1896/97), he studied civil engineering at what was then the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich , today's ETH Zurich . During his student days he was a member of the Utonia Academic Gymnastics Association in Zurich . His teachers included Wilhelm Ritter and Ludwig von Tetmajer . In 1902 he completed his studies with a civil engineering diploma.

First years in the USA

After his first activities in Switzerland and Frankfurt am Main , he moved to the USA in 1904, originally only for two years, in order to deepen his professional knowledge. In Joseph Mayer's large engineering office in New York City , he gained his first experience in building large bridges. When the engineering office had to reduce its staff, he moved to the Pennsylvania Steel Company in Harrisburg, where he gained insight into steel production and assembly, but continued to work for Joseph Mayer. In 1905 he returned to Zurich for a few weeks to marry his childhood friend Lily Selma Wehrli. He then worked for two months at McClintic-Marshall , after which he worked in the Chicago office of Ralph Modjeski , a respected bridge builder, and soon afterwards again at the Pennsylvania Steel Company as head of a planning group. In 1907 he met Frederic C. Kunz , who, along with Joseph Mayer and Ralph Modjeski, was one of the few experts in bridges with large spans. After the collapse of the Québec Bridge over the St. Lawrence River , which was under construction , the Kunz & Schneider office was commissioned to review the planning of the Queensboro Bridge , which Kunz had largely carried out by Ammann. Ammann then helped him investigate the collapse of the Québec Bridge. In 1909 he finally gave in to his insistence and joined his Philadelphia office . There he created, among other things, a design for the reconstruction of the Québec Bridge, planned various other bridges and helped draft the Design of Steel Bridges.

Work for Gustav Lindenthal

Gustav Lindenthal , who was involved in the planning and construction of the Hell Gate Bridge , which at that time was the largest arched bridge in the world, hired Othmar Ammann as first assistant in 1912 . That made it clear to Ammann that he would stay permanently in the USA. In Lindenthal's engineering office, he met the somewhat younger David B. Steinman . On August 6, 1914, he rushed to Switzerland because of the threat of war, but was released from his military duties after three months. In December 1914 he returned to New York. During his absence, Steinman had been named Lindenthal's first assistant . Ammann was given this position again immediately after his return, which was probably the starting point for a lifelong rivalry between the two great bridge engineers. In 1917 the Hellgate Bridge and also the Sciotoville Bridge were completed. When the USA declared war on the German Reich on April 6, 1917 , Lindenthal's office suddenly ran out of business. Through the mediation of Lindenthal, Ammann was able to take over the position of manager of Just Such Clay Co. in New Jersey , which he made profitable again in a short time. Othmar Ammann's tasks later included the design of a suspension bridge over the Hudson River , which at the time turned out to be too expensive.

First own engineering office

Differences with Lindenthal led Ammann to set up his own business in 1923. He made the first drafts for a bridge over the Hudson at another, narrower point. In order to further reduce the cost of the shorter bridge, it was initially to have only one level for six lanes and two wide walkways, but was designed in such a way that a second level could later be added for motor vehicles and railroad trains in suburban traffic. This enabled him to offer a bridge that cost significantly less than the bridges offered by Lindenthal and other competitors.

In 1924 Ammann became an American citizen.

Chief Engineer of the New York Port Authority

In 1925 he became chief engineer of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey , which was responsible for building bridges and tunnels in the New York harbor area. In this position he oversaw the completion of the planned Outerbridge Crossing and the Goethals Bridge , planned and built the Bayonne Bridge and received approval for his final plan and the construction of the bridge over the Hudson River, which was preferred to Lindenthal's design. It was his first independently planned and built suspension bridge. It eventually became the George Washington Bridge , which at 1067 meters had almost twice the span of the Ambassador Bridge , the longest suspension bridge to date. Under Ammann's direction, it was completed six months ahead of schedule in 1931 and the $ 60 million budget was missed. This bridge established Ammann's reputation as one of the most important bridge builders of the 20th century. The Lincoln Tunnel was also built under his direction.

His wife Lilly died in 1933 at the age of 55. She left him two sons and an 11 year old daughter. Two years later, Othmar Ammann married the Swiss Kläry Nötzli-Vogt, the widow of Fred A. Nötzli, an internationally known specialist in dams, with whom Ammann was friends.

Chief Engineer of New York Bridge Construction

In 1934, Robert Moses made sure that Ammann was appointed chief engineer of the Triborough Bridge Authority , which had just been founded, in addition to his work for the Port Authority . This independent building authority was initially only supposed to complete the construction of the Triborough Bridge , which was abandoned in 1929, but was soon transformed by Robert Moses into a town planning and building authority with broad responsibilities. In addition to the Triborough Bridge, Ammann was also responsible for the planning and construction of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and was later commissioned by Robert Moses to plan the Throgs Neck Bridge when he had already started his own business .

Othmar Ammann had earned a reputation as a bridge construction expert and was therefore repeatedly asked for advice outside of his New York area of ​​responsibility. He was instrumental in the design and construction of the Golden Gate Bridge from 1931 to 1937 as a consulting engineer. After the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, he was appointed to the commission to investigate the causes.

Ammann & Whitney engineering firm

In 1939, at the age of 60, he left his job with the New York authorities and opened his own engineering office, which he expanded into Ammann & Whitney in 1946 together with the well-known concrete construction engineer Charles Whitney . The partners and their office were involved in a large number of major projects around the world in the decades that followed. At the age of 86, Ammann saw the inauguration of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York, also commissioned by Robert Moses, in 1965 , which he had also planned and which set a new world record with a span of 1298 m.

Fonts

Othmar Ammann has written an abundance of manuscripts and publications on a wide variety of bridges and the related technical aspects. Among the best known are probably the long than in the US Bible of bridge current

  • Specifications for Design of Bridges Carrying Highway and Electric Rail Passenger Traffic, Port of New York Authority, Bridge Department, 1929
Bust of Othmar H. Ammann

Honors

Ammann was an honorary doctor from the ETH Zurich and numerous American universities. In 1962, a bronze bust of Othmar Ammann was unveiled in the bus station on the George Washington Bridge . In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded him the National Medal of Science , which he was the first civil engineer to ever receive. He received numerous other honors.

Buildings (selection)

bridges
tunnel

documentary

  • Martin Witz : Gateways to New York - Othmar H. Ammann and His Bridges. 2019, 88 min.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Today the Rämibühl Cantonal School
  2. ↑ a b c d Bernd Nebel: Othmar Hermann Ammann . At www.bernd-nebel.de
  3. ↑ a b c Cengiz Dicleli: Othmar Ammann, bridge builder of the 20th century in the USA ( Memento from December 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 888 kB) on db-bauzeitung.de - archive.org
  4. ↑ a b c Darl Rastorfer: Six Bridges - The Legacy of Ottmar H. Ammann . Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2000, ISBN 0-300-08047-6
  5. ↑ a b Gerhard Mehlhorn (Ed.): Handbook Bridges: Designing, Constructing, Calculating, Building and Receiving . 2nd edition Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007, 2010, ISBN 978-3-642-04422-9 . P. 70
  6. ^ FC Kunz, Design of Steel Bridges , McGraw-Hill, New York 1915
  7. ↑ a b c Thomas Fuchs: Othmar H. Ammann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . June 28, 2001 , Retrieved January 5, 2008 .
  8. ↑ Richard Scott: In the wake of Tacoma, suspension bridges and the quest for aerodynamic stability. ASCE Press, Reston, Va. 2001, ISBN 0-7844-0542-5 , p. 35 ff.
  9. ^ Ammann & Whitney: Our Founders on the website of the still existing engineering company.
  10. ↑ Verena Larcher (editor): Othmar H. Ammann, 1879-1965, documents on life and work. Directory of the OHAmmann archive in the ETH library, Zurich 1999
  11. ↑ The documents on the life and work of the OHAmmann archive in the ETH Library contain a more than two-page list of his honors and awards in Appendix 2.
  12. ^ Bridge building: For eternity . In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1964 ( online - Dec. 2, 1964 ).
  13. ↑ Description at swissfilms.ch. + Trailer .

Web links

Commons : Othmar Hermann Ammann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Ammann, Othmar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ammann, Othmar Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss-American engineer and bridge builder
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Feuerthalen , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1965
Place of death Rye , New York