David B. Steinman - Start at Bridge Building

Start At Bridge Building

After contacting Gustav Lindenthal about working on the Hell Gate Bridge, he returned to New York City to become a special assistant to Lindenthal, along with Othmar Ammann of Switzerland, another young bridge builder. It was said this experience of working together led to their 40-year professional rivalry. Pay was typical for the era, 200-225 USD/month. Lindenthal gave his protégés advice about engineering such as, “Steinman, bridge engineering is easy. It is the financial engineering that is hard” (Petroski 327). While working with Lindenthal, Steinman also worked on the Sciotoville Bridge, a crossing of the Ohio River. After this work Steinman sought other employment, working as assistant engineer on the Rondout Creek Bridge, and as an assistant engineer for the New York Central Railroad.


Read more about this topic:  David B. Steinman

Famous quotes containing the words start, bridge and/or building:

    “When the typewriter stops in a New York office everybody’s embarrassed; men start to quarrel or to make love to the stenographer or drop lighted cigarettes in the wastebasket.”
    —John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    “I was at work that morning. Someone came riding like mad
    Over the bridge and up the road—Farmer Rouf’s little lad.
    Bareback he rode; he had no hat; he hardly stopped to say,
    “Morgan’s men are coming, Frau, they’re galloping on this way.”
    —Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894)

    “Notice how he has numbered the blue veins
    in my breast. Moreover there are ten freckles.
    Now he goes left. Now he goes right.
    He is building a city, a city of flesh.
    He’s an industrialist.”
    —Anne Sexton (1928–1974)