Bridge at Quebec by Williamd. Middleton

Civil engineer William D. Middleton has been hardworking as a transportation historian and journalist for nearly 50 years. His books include breakthroughs on the metal street; yet There Isn't a Train I Wouldn't Take: Railway excursions; the second edition of South seashore: The Last Interurban; and the forthcoming second version of When the vapour trains Electrified (all Indiana University Press).

In this handsome work, municipal technician and historian Middleton traces the annals of the Québec (Quebec) connection across the St. Lawrence River from its early planning stages in the 1850s, through the construction phase that ended in 1917, and on to the present day (Middleton, 20).

The building task was a tremendous undertaking, engaging the erection of the world's longest cantilevered span. The project was laden with difficulties, including two of the inferior building accidents in bridge-building annals engaging the decrease of 86 lives. Amalfunction analysis of these collapses is apparently offered in a way that nontechnical readers can understand. The scribe, who has in writing a number of publications dealing with associated affairs, has done a methodical job of researching the historical facets of the Québec (Quebec) connection, with the annals of the connection being well showed by the large assemblage of images amassed by the author. The book should be of general interest, but particularly so to structural engineers seeking to learn more of the history of their profession (Middleton, 21).

The Quebec Bridge was twenty years in the making, from the origin of the Quebec connection business in 1887 to the bridge's disintegrate in 1907. A cantilever connection was suggested as the most feasible design to connection the rough, icy waters of the St. Lawrence River. The connection disintegrated during building on August 29, 1907, killing eighty-six workers. Only eleven of the employees on the span were recovered living, and some bodies were not ever found. A second try to bridge the St. Lawrence River was made. although, it furthermore endured a partial disintegrate when the middle span fell into the river. Thirteen workers were lost in the second collapse. The connection was finally accomplished in 1917, and stands today. Alatest reconsider of the history of the connection and the two collapses was written by Middleton (2001).

The seven-decades-long struggle to construct a bridge at Québec over the St. Lawrence River. Completed in 1919, it still stands as the utmost of its kind. In the middle of the 19th years the managers of the City of Québec dreamed of a large bridge across the St. Lawrence River. It would connection their city to the new trains lines evolving along the south shore, giving Québec a comparable edge in its long labour with Montréal for financial dominance.

The breadth and deepness of the St. Lawrence necessitated a connection of unprecedented scale, and many of the best engineers of the time turned their attention to the problem. Three grave suggestions for a connection not ever materialized. Afourth design finally moved ahead at the starting of the 20th years, only ...