historic wrought iron
Historic Bridge 411
140-year-old bridge getting new lease on life
Structure being moved today for repairs
by Abbey Roy
No worries — it’s not for good, and local builders and historians will be working diligently in the next few months to build it up with whatever materials necessary.
The historic post-Civil War cast-iron and wrought-iron bridge, also known as Bridge 411, will be moved today from its position over Rocky Fork Creek near Camp Falling Rock for repairs.
Once the work is complete, the bridge will be moved to a location about 300 yards down the creek — not far from a historic covered bridge of a similar vintage.
The bridge is one of three surviving cast-iron post truss bridges in the United States, said Dave Fryman, an active Camp Falling Rock volunteer and member of the camp’s properties committee who will be involved in the project.
“Since it’s historic, we’re rescuing it and restoring it,” Fryman said.
The bridge was built in 1872 and stood in Perry Township before being moved to Hebron and, in 1931, to Licking County, where it was placed along the road that at the time served as the entrance to Camp Falling Rock.
Over time, the stretch of road was abandoned and the creek washed out the bridge’s abutments. The structure became rusted in places and needs a number of repairs, Fryman said, which will be assessed and administered as necessary after the bridge is moved to solid ground today.
Dingey Movers, a Zanesville company with experience moving bridges much larger than this — it weighs in at between 20 and 30 tons, Fryman estimated — on Monday had begun preparing for the move.
The bridge has been raised with hydraulic jacks to steady it as it moves off the creek onto steel plates that will prevent it from sinking, Fryman said. After the move, the bridge will be examined to determine what portions of it will need to be repaired and which can be replaced.
“We just need to get it to where we can see everything and what’s the best way to go about it,” said Fryman, who specializes in lumber for historical projects. “(We want to) try to replace as little as possible and try to repair everything we can.”
The Rock Foundation, which supports activities at Camp Falling Rock, is funding the project and has consulted with historians from the Ohio Historical Society and a bridge restoration expert from Michigan in preparation for the move and restoration.
After repairs are completed and preparations are made at the bridge’s future home — pouring of concrete pads and some excavation of dirt, Fryman said — the bridge will be re-situated and used once more.
Though Fryman was uncertain about the timeline because of weather conditions and yet-to-be determined repairs, he conservatively estimated April or May.
The foundation also is considering adding to the property another similar-vintage bridge in Hanover, one with two lanes and that is slightly longer, Fryman said.
from newarkadvocate.com
Armistice Day and wrought iron gates
Gates restored in time for Armistice Day
By Diana Henderson
A BEAUTIFUL pair of wrought iron gates have been painstakingly restored at a traditional Dorset forge and replaced in time for Armistice Day.
Unusually, the gates, which stand in Upton Country Park, Poole commemorate two soldiers who survived the carnage of the First World War.
Made in 1919 they were originally erected by William Llewellin, owner of Upton House until 1957, in gratitude at the return of both of his sons from the Great War.
An inscription on a small metal plaque fixed to the gate reads: “In thankfulness to God for the safe return from the Great War of his sons William Wigan Capt. 4th Battn. Dorset Regt. from India and Mesopotamia and John Jestyn M.C. Major 52nd Siege Battery from France. These Gates were erected by William Llewellin, Sheriff of Dorset. August 1919.”
Major Llewellin won his MC in 1917, became MP for Uxbridge in 1929 and was a Minister in Winston Churchill’s Second World War government before becoming Baron Llewellin in 1945.
The ornate scrolled gates stand at the north-west corner of the walled garden and took five weeks skilled work to restore.
“We stripped them back to the bare metal, coated them to prevent them rusting, completely redecorated and hung them,” said Giles. “I had to replace one or two of the scrolls.”
These are the oldest gates on the estate and he is also renovating some of the others. “I have done a few memorial benches, including one for the Rifle Brigade at Chepstow, at Verwood and Winton. They are commemorating the loss of someone,” he said.
“It’s quite nice to see something written where they survived.”
Quaint mural in Orchards Plaza falls into disuse
Orchards Plaza, with its quaint mural, falls into disuse
By Zachary Kaufman
What time is it in Orchards? Any old time.
What time is it, over in Orchards?
When a Columbian reporter swung by on a recent lunch hour, the impressive wrought-iron quadruple-faced timepiece at the very visible corner of Fourth Plain and Covington roads said: 11:56, 12:04, 7:38 and 11:55.
The actual time was 12:40 p.m.
“My question is, why can we not keep the clock at the right time?” a reader named Tony wrote to ask us. “Also, why do we not use the square to promote community actions? How about some entertainment? How about anything? This seems like a lot of money went to, well, nothing?”
Here’s a quick answer to the easier question — about the profusion of time zones at the spot known as Orchards Plaza.
“The clock has some major flaws that prevent it from being maintained either in the traditional fashion or remotely,” Vancouver public works spokeswoman Loretta Callahan said in an e-mail. “Due to the way it was designed and built, resetting or correcting the clock takes a series of service visits by a licensed maintenance electrician. The city is looking at whether this can be corrected, or whether it should no longer be maintained due to budget and staffing constraints.”
Which leads us to Tony’s broader question about expense. Most of Orchards Plaza’s homey trimmings were donated by local businesses and residents. The community square cost a lot to build only if you include the cost of the overall roadway realignment that spurred its existence.
That $8.5 million project took years of planning and construction before it was done in the summer of 2002. At that time, the property was outside the Vancouver city limits, in unincorporated Clark County. The upgrade brought curbs, left-turn lanes, concrete-block retaining walls, traffic signals, sidewalks, new lighting, bike lanes and more to a rural crossroads that was overwhelmed by the growing onrush of modern urban traffic.
As part of that modernization plan, Clark County bought up some local real estate and demolished a little Flower Express shop — leaving a sliver of unoccupied real estate.
“It was not large enough to do anything with. We agreed it would make a great community plaza,” county public works director Pete Capell said at the time. “It’s really a community feature and meeting place — just someplace that can create more of an Orchards presence.”
So the brick plaza got built, with its clock, benches and mural. Clark County contributed $82,000 for textured asphalt that mimics paving stones and planters — and for the mural, which was just a small slice of that figure. The benches and clock were all donated.
Diana Shaw, onetime leader of the defunct Evergreen Business Association, recalled working with Capell, Bunch Construction and dozens of volunteer groups to get it all done.
“We had Pete up on a ladder, we had schoolchildren, and then we had a neighborhood celebration to dedicate it,” Shaw said. “The following year, there was a Christmas celebration and a huge tree was put up. That was our dream.”
But inertia set in at the Evergreen Business Association, and Shaw gave up trying to keep it alive. “Nobody wanted to step forward and keep those Christmas celebrations going anymore,” she said. Hence the lack of events or programming that Tony complained about.
“It’s still nicer than it would have been if it was just an empty, weedy spot,” Shaw said.
from columbian.com
Historical apartment in Lisbon
A TWO-BEDROOM APARTMENT IN AN 18TH-CENTURY BUILDING WITH RIVER VIEWS IN LISBON
This apartment, one of six in its 18th-century building in the Lapa district, was restored three years ago using antique materials salvaged from other historic buildings. The apartment has prime views of the Tagus River and the dark red 25 de Abril Bridge, which is often compared to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Other windows in the apartment, set on the third floor, overlook historic buildings and Lisbon’s cobbled streets.
The entryway provides access to a bathroom and a galley kitchen, which has a gas stove and brushed steel hardware and countertops. The living/dining room is 750 square feet in size, with a painted wood ceiling and recessed lighting. The dining room has a chandelier and wide-plank floors.
Both bedrooms have built-in window seats and closets, as well as en-suite baths; the master bath is tiled with pink marble. Walls in both rooms are lined in antique tile.
The building has an elevator and a marble staircase with ornately wrought railings. This apartment shares the third floor with another unit.
Lapa is one of Lisbon’s most affluent areas, known for its well-preserved architecture. Because it sits on top of a hill, it survived floods that submerged much of the city in the 18th century. The neighborhood is home to several embassies, as well as a thriving arts community. The upscale shops and nightclubs of the Chiado district are a five-minute walk; the airport is a 10-minute drive.
The property market has been buffeted by the global economic downturn, according to Paul Houston, who manages Portuguese operations for the Barcelona-based real estate firm Lucas Fox. Prices have been flat over the past year, and tight lending restrictions continue to suppress the market, he said.
In Lisbon, the average price per square meter is about 2,100 euros ($260 per square foot, at 0.75 euros to the dollar). Upscale apartments in Lapa run about 4,500 euros per square meter; this apartment, priced at 7,500 euros per square meter, is much more expensive because of its restored historic building and views of the river, according to the listing agent.
Georgina Richards, a sales associate with the London real estate company Knight Frank, says prices have fallen 30 percent in the western Algarve region, and slightly less than that in the central Algarve; both are popular second-home destinations along Portugal’s southern coast. She says that while foreign sellers tend to lower prices in response to market conditions, Portuguese buyers are more likely to stick to their prices and wait for the market to recover.
from nytimes.com
Tribute to Eiffel Tower
Hi tech pays tribute to Eiffel Tower’s origins
By Laurent Banguet
Arguably the most widely recognised structure in the world, the Eiffel Tower was designed to stand for only 20 years — and some predicted it would collapse long before then.
Even as it was being built for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, a professor of mathematics sagely calculated that when the tower was two-thirds complete, its legs would buckle and the whole thing would come tumbling down, crushing workers and houses alike.
Today, the Eiffel Tower is not only standing but remains in rude health, testifying to the soundness of Gustave Eiffel’s design and the strength of “puddle iron,” the hand-made wrought iron of the late 19th century, say engineers.
Specialists at the Technical Centre for Mechanical Industries, or CETIM, have put together a high-powered computer model based on the 18,000 pieces that comprise the world’s greatest iron edifice and the emblem of Paris.
On screen, the tower has been exposed to hurricane-force winds, lashing rain, extreme heat, cold and thick snow, and each time emerges unbowed, they say.
“We have applied the most demanding test standards currently set in Europe and have found that the tower is in excellent shape,” said Stephane Roussin, a former French naval officer in charge of structural safety at Eiffel Tower Operating Co., or SETE.
“We have even doubled its weight to see what happens. The tower moves but is not destroyed.”
SETE commissioned the model in 2008 to fine tune its maintenance programme — to get a better idea of the 324-metre (1,063-feet) tower’s weak and strong points as important projects are carried out.
In 2011, the tower will get its 19th coat of paint, and next year sees an overhaul of structures on its first floor. The tower itself weighs around 8,500 tonnes, to which some 3,000 tonnes (restaurants, lifts, TV antenna and so on) have been added.
Computer simulation has become standard practice for modern-built buildings, such as the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and for bridges, such as the Millau viaduct in southwestern France.
But creating the model for the Eiffel Tower presented a technical challenge of a completely new kind.
One thing was that the realisation that its materials — puddle iron (iron that is super-heated, beaten by hand and then folded over) and rivets — perform quite differently from modern-day steel, concrete and bolts.
“We had to start from scratch,” said Roussin.
Materials scientists carried out mechanical and chemical tests on samples of puddle iron to assess its resilience, and stress engineers revisited Eiffel’s own drawings to calculate how the tower would perform under load from the natural elements.
Outwardly simple, the geometry of the tower itself posed some mighty number-crunching problems.
The programme had to take into account a range of weather conditions on a latticework of 18,000 metal pieces and the tower’s additions, calculating the load vertically, horizontally and in 3D: in all, the model has an astonishing million variables.
The tower has shrunk by some 13 centimetres (5.5 inches) over the past 120 years because it has settled under its own weight, says Roussin.
Looking to the future, the experiments show the tower’s sensitivity to higher temperatures, so global warming is likely to become a bigger source of concern in decades to come.
Even so, the specialists say they are highly confident Paris’ “Old Lady” will be around for the next two or three centuries.
from AFP
