USA WEEK//3//GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay onto the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and State Route 1, it connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County.

Photo: Jay Graham

 //BRIDGE

Although the idea of a bridge spanning the Golden Gate was not new, the proposal that eventually took hold was made in a 1916 San Francisco Bulletin article by former engineering student James Wilkins. San Francisco's City Engineer estimated the cost at $100 million. He asked bridge engineers whether it could be built for less and one who responded was Joseph Strauss, ambitious engineer and poet.

Source: http://www.brooklyn-art.com/product.php?productid=16369&cat=267&page=1

Construction began on January 5, 1933. The project cost more than $35 million, completing ahead of schedule and under budget. The project was finished and opened May 27, 1937.

Strauss was chief engineer in charge of overall design and construction of the bridge project. The final graceful suspension design was conceived by New York’s Manhattan Bridge designer Leon Moisseiff. Irving Morrow, a relatively unknown residential architect, designed the overall shape of the bridge towers, the lighting scheme, and Art Deco elements. The US Navy had wanted it to be painted with black and yellow stripes to ensure visibility by passing ships. Ellis was tasked with designing a "bridge within a bridge" in the southern abutment, to avoid the need to demolish Fort Point, a pre-Civil War masonry fortification viewed, even then, as worthy of historic preservation. He penned a graceful steel arch spanning the fort and carrying the roadway to the bridge's southern anchorage.

Source: http://blog.sheaapartments.com/SheaApartmentscom/bid/57171/CELEBRATE-THE-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-WITH-SHEA-HOMES

The Golden Gate Bridge has two main cables which pass over the tops of the two 746-ft-tall towers and are secured at either end in giant anchorages. The galvanized carbon steel wire comprising each main cable was laid by spinning the wire, using a loom-type shuttle that moved back and forth as it laid the wire in place to form the cables. The spinning of the main cable wires was completed in 6 months and 9 days. Main Cable bands are located every 50 feet along the main cables and the vertical suspender ropes are hung from the cable bands. The Golden Gate Bridge has 250 pairs of vertical suspender ropes that are spaced 50 feet apart across both sides of the Bridge. Photo: Mark Brodkin /dimensions -Total length of Bridge including approaches from abutment to abutment, plus the distance to the Toll Plaza, is 9,150 ft (2,788 m). -Length of suspension span including main span and side spans is 1.2 miles (6,450 ft or 1,966 m). -Width of Bridge is 90 ft (27 m). -Total weight of Bridge, anchorages, and approaches (1937) is 894,500 tons (811,500,000 kg). References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/golden-gate-bridge-is-born http://goldengatebridge.org/research/BridgeStructures.php http://goldengatebridge.org/research/factsGGBDesign.php http://goldengatebridge.org/research/Design.php http://goldengatebridge.org/research/factsGGBDesign.php by greathitecture.team

USA WEEK//2//UNITED STATES CAPITOL

The United States Capitol  is the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government, completed in the year 1800.

The Capitol was built after Thomas Jefferson held a design competition to elicit entries from some of the finest architects in America. The prize was $500, but the only one of the submissions that even came close to earning it was one by a French architect. His design would have been too expensive, though, and so the search continued. Finally, a late entry by William Thornton did the trick “ Washington and Jefferson both raved over it “ and the design was chosen.

Photo: Martin Falbisoner

/BUILDING

The construction preceded slowly under a succession of architects, including Stephen Hallet (1793), George Hadfield (1795-1798) and James Hoban (1798-1802).

The Senate north wing was completed in 1800. The Senate and House shared quarters in the north wing until a temporary wooden pavilion was erected on the future site of the southern House wing which served for a few years for the Representatives to meet in, until the House of Representatives south wing was finally completed in 1811, with a covered wooden temporary walkway connecting the two wings with the Congressional chambers where the future center section with rotunda and dome would someday rise. 

Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1861, before the partially complete Capitol dome

Not long after the completion of both wings, the Capitol was partially burned by the British on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812. George Bomford, and Joseph Gardner Swift, both military engineers, were called upon to help rebuild the Capitol.

Although the Capitol was considered completed in 1826, by 1850 the need to enlarge the building became evident following the enormous territorial growth of the nation. The 1850 expansion more than doubled the length of the Capitol. President Millard Fillmore selected architect Thomas U. Walter to construct large northern and southern wings containing new legislative chambers. As work progressed, Walter also designed a new cast-iron dome to better suit the enlarged building. By 1868 the larger building was completed, and the grounds were subsequently enlarged.  In the 20^th century, separate buildings were constructed to provide offices and committee rooms for the House and Senate.  In 1958–1962 the east central front of the Capitol was extended to add 90 new rooms. Opening in 2008, the Capitol Visitor Center fulfills the need as a place for visitors to gather and view exhibitions and films, participate in guided tours and special events, greet their members of Congress, and see up close their government at work.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmo-A_8HoOM

The U.S. Capitol’s length, from north to south, is 751 feet 4 inches (229 m); its greatest width is 350 feet (107 m). Its height above the base line on the east front to the top of the Statue of Freedom is 288 feet (88 m).

The first-floor plan of the United States Capitol
Source: Official Congressional Directory, 105th Congress 1997-1998, page 548
Author: Joint Committee on Printing, United States Congress

The second-floor plan of the United States Capitol
Source: Official Congressional Directory, 105th Congress 1997-1998, page 550
Author: Joint Committee on Printing, United States Congress

The third-floor plan of the United States Capitol
Source: Official Congressional Directory, 105th Congress 1997-1998, page 552
Author: Joint Committee on Printing, United States Congress

/materials

The building was constructed of cast iron, marble and sandstone. Cast iron was used extensively in the U.S. Capitol’s mid-19th century House and Senate extensions and new dome. In the extensions, it was used for roof trusses, plumbing and gas lines, and decorative window and door trim. Marble is used throughout the U.S. Capitol Building and many other government and commercial buildings for its beauty, durability and relative ease of carving. It forms exterior surfaces and such interior elements as floors, walls, columns and stairways. Builders originally used sandstone for the exterior of the Capitol as well as for interior floors, walls and other elements

/OTHER

- The U.S. Capitol is a landmark of neoclassical architecture. Its designs derived from ancient Greece and Rome evoke the ideals that guided the nation's founders as they framed their new republic. The heart of the Capitol is the Rotunda, a 96-foot-diameter circular hall surmounted by the Capitol’s inner dome.

- In its early days, the Capitol building was not only used for governmental functions. On Sundays, church services were regularly held there - a practice that continued until after the Civil War.

- Atop the U.S. Capitol dome is the Statue of Freedom, an allegorical female figure.

- The estimated historical cost of the United States Capitol as of 2003 was $133 million.

- Congress first meet in the Capitol Building on November 17, 1800.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol#Background

http://www.aoc.gov/history-us-capitol-building

http://www.aoc.gov/facts/capitol-hill

http://www.aoc.gov/materials

http://www.visitthecapitol.gov/about-the-capitol/evolution-the-capitol#.VSPTJfmUdbc

http://mentalfloss.com/article/22823/quick-10-10-facts-about-us-capitol-building

by greathitecture.team

USA WEEK//1//LINCOLN MEMORIAL

The Lincoln Memorial commemorates the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. It is located in Potomac Park, Washington, D.C.

Photo: Carol M. Highsmith

Source: Wikipedia

Two years after his assassination, Congress formed the Lincoln Monument Association. Its task was to build a memorial dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. It would take until 1901 before a Reflecting Pool site for the memorial was chosen.

/BUILDING

The Lincoln Memorial was designed by Henry Bacon in Greek Revival style with 36 columns. Inside the building is a statue of a Abraham Lincoln sitting. Over the statue is inscription:

"IN THIS TEMPLE
AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION
THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
IS ENSHRINED FOREVER."

Each column represents one state of the Union at the time of Lincoln's death. When the memorial was completed in May 1922, the Union had expanded with 12 more states, so the names of the 48 states were carved on the outside of the memorial's walls. After the admission of Alaska and Hawaii, a plaque was added with the names of the new states.

cliff1066 at Flickr
Source: Wikipedia

Building is 99 ft (30.2 m) tall and it is made of marble and limestone. Construction started on Lincoln’s birthday February 12, 1915 and was finished May 30, 1922.

The northern wall contains an inscription of  Lincoln's second inaugural speech, the southern wall has the Gettysburg address inscribed, considered one of the most important speeches in American history. 

The ceiling of the Memorial, 60 feet (18 m) above the floor, is composed of bronze girders, ornamented with laurel and oak leaves. Between the girders are panels of Alabama marble, saturated with paraffin to increase their translucency. Despite the increased light from this device, Bacon and French felt the statue required even more light. They decided upon an artificial lighting system in which a louvered lighting panel would be set in the ceiling with metal slats to conceal the great floodlights

/STATUE

The statue was carved by the Piccirilli Brothers under the supervision of the sculptor Daniel Chester French and the work follows in the Beaux Arts and American Renaissancetraditions. Statue is 19 feet tall (5,7 m) and it is made of georgia marble. The sculpture weighs 175 short tons (159 t). 

Photo: Jeff Kubina
Source: Wikipedia

Historian Gerald Prokopowicz writes that, while it is not clear that sculptor Daniel Chester French intended Lincoln's hands to be formed into sign language versions of his initials, it is possible that French did intend it, because he was familiar with American Sign Language, and he would have had a reason to do so, that is, to pay tribute to Lincoln for having signed the federal legislation giving Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf, the authority to grant college degrees.

/OTHER 

-The memorial is often used as a gathering place for protests and political rallies.

-Martin Luther King, Jr., made his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

-From 1959 to 2008, the Lincoln Memorial was shown on the reverse of the United States one cent coin, which bears Lincoln's portrait bust on the front. The statue of Lincoln can be seen in the monument. This was done to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

-The memorial also appears on the back of the U.S. five dollar bill, the front of which bears Lincoln's portrait.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_$5_series_2003_reverse.jpg

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by greathitecture.team

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Memorial#Statue

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/monuments/lincolnmemorial/

http://www.washingtondc-go.com/attractions/lincoln-memorial-facts.html

http://www.aviewoncities.com/washington/lincolnmemorial.htm