Interesting Engineering

1. Henry Larcom Abbot- A military engineer, he served in the U.S. Army Engineers. He was responsible for creating the Army's Engineer School of Application and his influence can be seen in a lot of elements of the coast defense systems of the U.S., especially in the submarine mine system, and in the employment of seacoast mortars.

2. Duff A. Abrams- A researcher in the area of organization and properties of concrete, he was responsible for coming up with the necessary methods for testing concrete characteristics that we still use. President of the American Concrete Association for a year, he discovered the concept of fineness modulus and the definition of water-cement ratio.

3. Charles Adler- Charles Adler was an American inventor and civil engineer. An inhabitant of Baltimore, he invented several signals, some we still use today. He got a patent on an electric automotive brake, discovered modern traffic lights, and invented the first pedestrian-actuated signal.

4. Truman Heminway Aldrich- A civil engineer, Truman Heminway Aldrich was a mining company executive, as well as a paleontologist. He investigated the existing coal-mining operations around the Cahaba coalfield and provided fuel for the first triumphant coke-fired furnace in the Birmingham District.

5. Bernard Amadei- A professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado, Bernard is the creator of Engineers without Borders (USA) in addition to being the director of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities. Although it started out small, the Engineers without Borders organization now has more than 12,000 members in 225 chapters.

6. Sir David Anderson- A Scottish civil engineer and lawyer, he joined an enterprise with fellow engineers Basil Mott and David Hay and created the company Mott Hay and Anderson. He was ultimately elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

7. Othmar Hermann Ammann- A Swiss-born American structural engineer, he designed the Bayonne Bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and the famous George Washington Bridge. He also designed more than half of the 11 bridges that attach New York City to the rest of the country. During the Depression, he was able to cut costs with his bridge projects while still keeping them safe and this made him very popular and sought after. As well as his work on bridges, he planned the construction and directed the building of the Lincoln Tunnel.

8. Apollodorus of Damascus- A Greek civil engineer, sculptor, designer, and architect, he constructed Trajan's Bridge over the Danube, designed the Forum Trajanum in Rome, designed the triumphal arches of Trajan at Beneventum and is credited as the architect of the Pantheon.

9. William Armstrong- Armstrong was in charge of creating the hydraulic accumulator. He often built tall water towers when water pressure wasn’t available. He created the hydraulic accumulator which a cast-iron cylinder fitted with a plunger that supported a heavy weight.

10. Dr. John Job Crew Bradfield- Bradfield was a well-known Australian engineer who is most famous for designing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of Australia’s most illustrious symbols.