Engineering Education “Today in History” Blog: One-Billionth Car Crosses the Golden Gate Bridge
by Alice Agogino
closeAuthor: Alice Agogino
Name: Alice Agogino
Email: agogino@berkeley.edu
Site: http://www.me.berkeley.edu/faculty/agogino/
About: Alice M. Agogino is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and is affiliated faculty at the Haas School of Business in their Operations and Information Technology Management Group. Her research interests include: community-based design; sustainable engineering; intelligent learning systems; information retrieval and data mining; multiobjective and strategic product design; nonlinear optimization; probabilistic modeling; intelligent control and manufacturing; sensor validation, fusion and diagnostics; wireless sensor networks; multimedia and computer-aided design; design databases; design theory and methods; MEMS/NEMS synthesis and computer-aided design; artificial intelligence and decision and expert systems; and gender/ethnic equity.
She has served in a number of administrative positions at UC Berkeley, including Chair of the Faculty Senate, Associate Dean of Engineering and Faculty Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost in Educational Development and Technology. Prof. Agogino also served as Director for Synthesis, an NSF-sponsored coalition of eight universities with the goal of reforming undergraduate engineering education, and continues as PI for the NEEDS (www.needs.org) and SMETE.ORG digital libraries of courseware in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.
Prof. Agogino received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico (1975), M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering (1978) from the University of California at Berkeley and Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University (1984). Prior to joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, she worked in industry for Dow Chemical, General Electric and SRI International. She has authored over 150 scholarly publications; has won numerous teaching, best paper and research awards; and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). At NAE she served on the Committee on Engineering Education, working on the Technologically Speaking and the Engineer 2020 projects. She is currently a member of the National Research Council's Board on Education and the Women in Academic Science Engineering Committee. She has supervised 66 MS projects/theses, 26 doctoral dissertations and numerous undergraduate researchers.See Authors Posts (863) · February 22nd, 2013 · Add a Comment
Today in History – February 22, 1985 – one billionth car crosses the Golden Gate Bridge, the bridge crosses the Golden Gate Strait between San Francisco and Marin County to the north. Construction began on January 5, 1933. The bridge was open to pedestrian traffic on May 27, 1937, but was not open to automobile traffic until a day later on May 28. The one-billionth car crossed the bridge on February 22, 1985 and the bridge gets its own U.S. postage stamp on September 3, 1998. The American Public Works Association ranks the bridge one of the Top Ten Public Works Projects of the Century on September 19, 2000. The Golden Gate bridge has been declared one of the modern Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers and may have the distinction of being the most photographed bridge in the world.
After years of gathering support and funding for the bridge, Joseph Strauss oversaw its construction. The project was so massive that a Golden Gate District was formed to build the bridge. All in all the bridge ended up costing about 27 million dollars. One of the most innovative parts of the bridge’s construction was Strauss insistence on safety. Workers wore protective headgear, glare-free goggles, and even a special lotion that helped protect against the harsh winds. There was also a large net that was placed beneath the workers. When construction was completed in 1937 the net had saved nineteen lives. At the time of completion the bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. And today it is still as iconic as it was when first constructed.
It was only fairly recently that the Golden Gate Bridge district recognized the contribution of long-ignored bridge engineer Charles Ellis, who is now considered the chief designer of the bridge but was fired by Strauss before completion of the construction.
For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on the Golden Gate bridge and bridge design and construction. For related educational resources, visit the Civil Engineering Education or Construction Engineering Education disciplinary communities.
Tags: Civil Engineering · Construction Engineering · Engineering Management · General Engineering, Engineering Science
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