STEEL BUILDINGS

1-Empire State Building 2- Steel Bridge 3-Cantilever Bridge

EXPLANATION
1- Empire State Building :-

Height (architectural) : 381.01 m Height (observation floor) : 320.04 m Height (observation deck) : 373.08 m Floors (above ground) : 102

*STRUCTURE IN GENERAL:
Construction type: skyscraper Current status : existing [completed] Structural system: rigid frame Structural material: steel Facade material : limestone Facade system : curtain wall Facade color : light brown Architectural style: art deco

*USAGE:

Main usages: commercial office Side usages: shop

*FEATURES AND AMENITIES:

~City landmark ~National landmark ~Observation deck on roof ~Observation floor is available ~One of the city's famous buildings

*SOME FACTS:
Built in: 1930 Constructed with: 60,000 tons of structural steel Construction took: just 18 months Composed of: more than 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite Excavation began: January 22, 1930 Construction started: March 17, 1930 Cornerstone was laid: September 17, 1930 by former New York governor Alfred E. Smith. Framework rose: at the rate of 4 1/2 floors per week The masonry was completed: November 13, 1930 President Herbert Hoover officially opened the building: May 1, 1931 by pressing a button from the White House that turned on the building's lights. Declared Landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission: May 18, 1981 Listed on State & National Register of Historic Places: December 20, 1982. Regained city's "tallest" title: September 11, 2001 Declared a National Historic Landmark: October 23, 1986

*ABOUT BUILDING:
^ The building incorporates 10 million bricks, 1,886 kilometres (1,172 miles) of elevator cables, 6,400 windows and weighs 331,000 tonnes ^ Initially the building was intended to have a flat roof until a "hat" or metal-plated tower on top of the building was designed. It initially served double duty as a zeppelin mooring mast and an observatory. ^ The metal-plated tower on top of the building was planned as a zeppelin port. Yet it was used for only one zeppelin landing because the winds were too strong at such heights making mooring dangerous and also because the golden age of zeppelins was quickly slipping into the past. ^ A broadcasting antenna was added to the building in 1951

putting the almost vacant metallic tower at the top to use as a storage area for broadcasting equipment. ^ During planning stages the construction death toll was estimated to be one worker per floor, or over 100 workers overall. However, only a handful of workers lost their lives during construction. ^ During construction of the steel frame, eating facilities were set up on appropriate floors to cater for the workers. ^ At least 32 people jumped to their deaths off the observation deck on the top during the deck's operation ^ Soon after opening it became a major tourist attraction, attracting many famous people, including the French Prime Minister, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Pope Pius XII, Fidel Castro and Queen Elisabeth II, to name a few The only one known to have refused Alfred E. Smith's invitation was Walter P. Chrysler. ^ As a popular symbol of the city and its spirit, the building has been featured on countless artistic impressions of the city; for instance, the building has been featured on album covers of music of nearly every genre, from jazz of the thirties to hip hop of the '00s. ^ The building was completed about a month and half ahead of schedule and about $5 million under budget. ^ The Empire State Building is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers.

2- Steel Bridge:-

*INFO:
Carries Upper: 2 outer traffic lanes and two inner lanes solely for MAX Light Rail

Lower: Union Pacific Railroad (incl.Amtrak toward Eugene) and walkway

Crosses

Willamette River

Locale

Portland, Oregon

Maintained by

Union Pacific Railroad

Design

Through truss with a double vertical

Width

71 feet (22 m)

Longest span

211 feet (64 m)

Clearance below

26 feet (7.9 m) closed, 72 feet (22 m) lower deck raised, 163 feet (50 m) fully raised

Opened

1912 (replaced 1888 bridge)

*H

ISTORY:

The 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 (on the Pacific, former Oregon Route 99W) and light rail (MAX), making the bridge one of the most multimodal in the world. It is the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world and the second oldest vertical in North America, after the nearby Hawthorne Bridge. The bridge links the Rose Quarter and Lloyd District in the east to Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in the west. The bridge was completed in 1912 and replaced the Steel Bridge that was built in 1888 as a double-deck swing-span bridge. The 1888 structure was the first railroad bridge across the Willamette River in Portland. Its name originated because steel, instead of wrought iron, was used in its construction, very unusual for the time. When the current Steel Bridge opened, it was simply given its predecessor's name. The structure was built by Union Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company at a cost of $1.7 million. It opened in July 1912

to rail traffic and on August 9, 1912 to automobiles. In 1950, the Steel Bridge became an important part of a new U.S. 99W highway between Harbor Drive and Interstate Avenue. Harbor Drive was removed in 1974 and replaced with Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Between 1984 and 1986 the bridge underwent a $10 rehabilitation, including construction of the MAX light rail line. million

In 2001, a 220-foot (67 m) long and 8-foot (2.4 m) wide cantilevered walkway was installed on the southern side of the bridge's lower deck as part of the East bank Esplanade construction, raising to three the number of publicly accessible walkways across the bridge, including the two narrow sidewalks on the upper deck. The bridge is owned by Union Pacific with the upper deck leased to Oregon Department of Transportation, and subleased to TriMet, while the City of Portland is responsible for the approaches. The upper deck was closed again for summer 2008 for maintenance and to allow a junction to be built at the west end for the MAX Green Line. The lower deck of the bridge was threatened by major floods in 1948, 1964, and 1996.

*STRUCTURE:
The lift span of the bridge is 211-foot (64 m) long. At low river levels the lower deck is 26 feet (7.9 m) above the water, and 163 feet (50 m) of vertical clearance is provided when both are raised. Because of the independent lifts, the lower deck can be raised to 72 feet (22 m), telescoping into the upper deck but not disturbing it. Each deck has it own counterweights, two for the upper and eight for the lower, totaling 9,000,000 lb (4,100 metric tons). The machinery house is above the upper-deck lift span with an operator's room suspended below the house so that the operator can view river traffic as well as the upper deck. The average daily traffic in 2000 was 23,100 vehicles (including many Tri Met bus lines), 200 MAX trains, 40 freight and Amtrak trains, and 500 bicycles. The construction of the lower-deck walkway connected to the East bank Esplanade resulted in a sharp increase in bicycle traffic, with over 2,100 daily bicycle crossings in 2005.

3-Cantilever Bridge:-

*ABOUT:
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from structural steel, or box girders built from prestressed concrete. The steel truss cantilever bridge was a major engineering breakthrough when first put into practice, as it can span distances of over 1,500 feet (460 m), and can be more easily constructed at difficult crossings by virtue of using little or no false work.

*ORIGINS:
Engineers in the nineteenth century understood that a bridge which was continuous across multiple supports would distribute the loads among them. This would result in lower stresses in the girder or truss and meant that longer spans could be built. Several nineteenth century engineers patented continuous bridges with hinge points mid-span. The use of a hinge in the multi-span system presented the advantages of a statically determinate system and of a bridge that could handle differential settlement of the foundations. Engineers could more easily calculate the forces and stresses with a hinge in the girder. Heinrich Gerber was one of the engineers to obtain a patent for a hinged girder (1866) and is recognized as the first to build one.

The Hapsburg Bridge over the Main river in Germany with a central span of 124 feet (38 meters) was completed in 1867 and is recognized as the first modern cantilever bridge. The High Bridge of Kentucky by C. Sheller Smith (1877), the Niagara Cantilever Bridge by Charles Conrad Schneider (1883) and the Poughkeepsie Bridge by John Francis O'Rourke and Pomeroy P. Dickinson (1889) were all important early uses of the cantilever design. The Kentucky River Bridge spanned a gorge that was 275 feet (84 meters) deep and took full advantage of the fact that false work, or temporary support, is not needed for the main span of a cantilever bridge. The most famous early cantilever bridge is the Forth Rail Bridge. This bridge held the record for longest span in the world for seventeen years only to be surpassed by the Quebec Bridge, still the current record holder. Benjamin illustrated the structural principles of the suspended span cantilever in the photo on the left. The suspended span, where Chichi Watanabe sits, is seen in the center. The need to resist compression of the lower chord is seen in the use of wooden poles while the tension of the upper chord is shown by the outstretched arms. The action of the outer foundations as anchors for the cantilever is visible in the placement of the counterweights.

*FUNCTION:
A simple cantilever span is formed by two cantilever arms extending from opposite sides of the obstacle to be crossed, meeting at the center. In a common variant, the suspended span, the cantilever arms do not meet in the center; instead, they support a central truss bridge which rests on the ends of the cantilever arms. The suspended span may be built off-site and lifted into place, or constructed in place using special traveling supports.

A diagram of the parts of a suspended-span cantilever truss bridge A common way to construct steel truss and prestressed concrete cantilever spans is to counterbalance each cantilever arm with another cantilever arm projecting the opposite direction, forming a balanced cantilever; when they attach to a solid foundation, the counterbalancing arms are called anchor arms. Thus, in a bridge built on two foundation piers, there are four cantilever arms: two which span the obstacle, and two anchor arms which extend away from the obstacle. Because of the need for more strength at the balanced cantilever's supports, the bridge superstructure often takes the form of towers above the foundation piers. The Commodore Barry Bridge is an example of this type of cantilever bridge. Steel truss cantilevers support loads by tension of the upper members and compression of the lower ones. Commonly, the structure distributes the tension via the anchor arms to the outermost supports, while the compression is carried to the foundations beneath the central towers. Many truss cantilever bridges use pinned joints and are therefore statically determinate with no members carrying mixed loads. Prestressed concrete balanced cantilever bridges are often built using segmental construction.

*CONSTRUCTION METHODS:
Some steel arch bridges (such as the Navajo Bridge) are built using pure cantilever spans from each side, with neither false work below nor

temporary supporting towers and cables above. These are then joined with a pin, usually after forcing the union point apart, and when jacks are removed and the bridge decking is added the bridge becomes a truss arch bridge. Such unsupported construction is only possible where appropriate rock is available to support the tension in the upper chord of the span during construction, usually limiting this method to the spanning of narrow canyons.