Théophile Seyrig

Ponte Luís I in Porto, view upstream of the Douro

François Gustave Théophile Seyrig , Portuguese Teófilo Seyrig , (born February 19, 1843 in Berlin ; † July 5, 1923 ) was a Belgian civil engineer of German origin . Seyrig founded in 1869 together with Gustave Eiffel , the company Eiffel et Cie. , In 1879 they separated again.

Seyrig was involved in the construction of the Neuvial Viaduct (1868) and the Rouzat Viaduct (1869). In 1877 he designed the Ponte Maria Pia in Porto, executed by Eiffel .

He designed and built the Ponte Dom Luís I , also in Porto (1881–1886). With this bridge he further developed the arch construction in bridge construction by using a slimmer arch at the apex than at the supports. This arrangement was taken up by other designers in Sydney thirty years later for the Sydney Harbor Bridge , the largest arch bridge in the world. Today the Ponte Dom Luís I with the old town is part of the world cultural heritage . At that time, Seyrig was a member of the board of directors of Société de Willebroeck .

His temporary employee and successor at Eiffel et Cie. was Maurice Koechlin .

Other bridges that were created under the influence of Seyrig's constructions are

• the Hellgate Bridge (1918) in New York by Gustav Lindenthal , then the largest arch bridge in the world,
• and the Bayonne Bridge (1931), now the third longest steel arch bridge in the world between Bayonne, New Jersey and Staten Island (New York).

literature

• Heinrich Müller-Breslau : Eléments de statique graphique appliquée aux constructions. Baudry, Paris 1886.
• Théophile Seyrig: Pont d. Luiz I. à Porto. Librairie centrales des chemins de fer, Paris 1884.
• Martin Trautz: Maurice Koechlin. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , year 2002, issue 4 (April 2002), p. 136.