User:Chocker1133/sandbox

The Sundial Bridge in Redding, California is an elegant structure that makes compromises to economy and efficiency in order to make an artistic statement and protect ecosystems. Located in the Turtle Bay Exploration Park, the Sundial Bridge is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge in the cantilever cable stay style. There is a large concrete pillar titled at 42 degrees that points skyward directly away from the walkway of the bridge that crosses a small river in the park. The concrete pillar has cables in the direction of the walkway and the leaning is balanced just so by the tension forces in the cables as to transfer the forces of the bridge and the leaning pillar directly downwards. (See Figure 1 & 2) The structure was designed by a Spaniard name Santiago Calatrava and built in 2004. The bridge type was not his first however, as he built a bridge in Spain called the Puente del Alamillo in 1992, of this exact same fashion. As with many suspension style cable stay bridges the structures can lack stiffness and in order to address this the bridge has a truss addition underneath it to add rigidity to the structure, as does the Puente del Alamillo. The Sundial Bridge was purposely built to celebrate “human creativity and ingenuity” and as such makes sacrifices to economy and efficiency. In Portland this past year a bridge named the Gibbs Street bridge was given the go ahead to built and will also be a pedestrian and bicycle bridge linking two parts of the city. The Gibbs Street bridge is identical in length at 700ft and cost exactly 18,000$ per foot to construct, compare this over 35,000$/ft of the Sundial Bridge and it’s easy to see economy was not the first goal in mind of the design of the bridge. In total the Sundial Bridge cost 26.3 millions dollars in 2010 dollars compared to only 12.6 for the Gibbs Street bridge, almost twice as much for the same distance spanned. The Sundial Bridge also was rather inefficient in its design, using far more material than necessary. A simpler bridge that simply had pillars at shorter spans in the river would have been far easier and more efficient with materials. However, there is a delicate salmon ecosystem where spawning occurs in the river below, and the design took this into account and opted to avoid disturbing the river ecosystem by avoiding building any part of the structure in the river at all. In this manner we see that the Sundial Bridge makes concessions to efficiency and economy but for the sake of elegance and a higher moral compass. Not only is the structure very interesting to look at, as the mind can easily enough visually understand the forces at work though it may take a moment, but it’s inline with the philosophy of the park. Combine the previous with the ethical consideration of being a steward of nature and ecosystems and the bridge is not only pleasing to look at but also pleases the mind in a responsible manner that is in accordance with the greatest good for future generations.

Figure 1 Figure 2 Bibliography "Architectural Record | Daily News | Calatrava's "Sundial Bridge" Opens In Redding, California." Architecture Design for Architects | Architectural Record. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. . Humphrey, Wm.Â™ Steven. "Meet Portland's New 700-Foot, $12 Million Pedestrian Bridge Over I-5 | Blogtown, PDX." Blogtown, PDX | Portland Mercury. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. . "Sundial Bridge - Turtle Bay Exploration Park - Redding, CA." Turtle Bay Exploration Park: Human. Nature. | Redding, CA. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. . "Sundial Bridge full on - Photos: Sundial Bridge a work of art - CNET News." Technology News - CNET News. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. . "The Inflation Calculator." The Homepage du jour of S. Morgan Friedman. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. . encouragement. "Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay | Flickr - Photo Sharing!." Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. .