Week 3

Last weekend I visited a bridge while going on a bike ride along the Schuylkill River.  The name of the bridge is the Strawberry Mansion bridge.  This bridge spans the Schuylkill River and is located in Fairmount park.  This bridge was built in 1896 which makes this bridge pretty old.  Originally the bridge only carried a trollies but is now open to motor vehicles.  The bridge is about 1242 feet long and 32.2 feet wide.  From 1991 to 1995 the bridge was closed down and restored.  When I visited this bridge it seemed old but I didn't notice any real dangers, just your every day rust.  But I would recommend that this bridge gets painted some time soon to prevent further rusting.

In last weeks lab we discussed important team work was and when our team got back together we discussed our personal responsibilities for the project.  One of the key things we went over as a class was how to compromise.  This is important because we will all have different ideas and we will only be able to use one idea.  After the class lecture finnish Robert and I work on the West Point Bridge Design while Oliver continued to work on the blog.  While playing around with the design for the first time we learned that a lot of thought needs to go into building a bridge.  One thing became clear while working on the bridge, every thing affects everything.  Our group is meeting today to discuss what our options are and what we will do moving on.  

-John Watson