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John Alexander Low Waddell

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J.A.L. Waddell
Order of the Rising Sun
John Alexander Low Waddell (portrait)
John Alexander Low Waddell
BornJanuary 15, 1854
Port Hope, Ontario, Canada
DiedMarch 3, 1938
New York City, United States
Resting placeFairview Cemetery, Council Bluffs, Iowa
NationalityCanadian
EducationC.E., B.A.Sc., Ma.E., D.Sc.
Alma materRensselaer Polytechnic Institute
McGill University
Notable workDe Pontibus
Bridge Engineering (two volumes)
SpouseAda Everett (m. 1882)
Children3
Engineering career
DisciplineCivil Engineering
InstitutionsRensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Imperial University at Tokyo
Practice nameJ.A.L. Waddell, Consulting Engineer
Significant designWaddell "A" Truss Bridge
Vertical-lift bridge
AwardsASCE Norman Medal (x3)
AAE Clausen Gold Medal
Signature

Dr. John Alexander Low Waddell (January 15, 1854 – March 3, 1938, often shortened to J.A.L. Waddell and sometimes known as John Alexander Waddell) was a Canadian-American civil engineer and prolific bridge designer, with more than a thousand structures to his credit in the United States, Canada, as well as Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, and New Zealand. Waddell’s work set standards for elevated railroad systems and helped develop materials suitable for large span bridges. His most important contribution was the development of the steam-powered high-lift bridge. Waddell was a widely respected writer on bridge design and engineering theory, as well as an advocate for quality in higher education engineering programs. The company he founded in 1887, 'J.A.L. Waddell, Consulting Engineer,' would eventually become the modern day Hardesty & Hanover, a leading moveable bridge engineering firm. Many of Waddell's surviving bridges are now considered historic landmarks.

Early life and education

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John Alexander Low Waddell was born on January 15, 1854, in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, to Robert Waddell (b. 1815) and Angeline E. Jones. His mother was the daughter of William Jones, late colonel of the 27th regiment and sheriff of the city of New York and a member of the State legislature in 1844.[1][2] Waddell was the oldest child of eight.[3]

Homeschooled to nine years of age, Waddell was reportedly in poor health throughout his youth.[4]: 62  He later attended Trinity College School in Port Hope until turning sixteen,[5][6] when his parents sent him on a ten-month voyage to Hong Kong and Shanghai on the clipper ship N.B. Palmer. In 1875, Waddell obtained his first degree, in civil engineering, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.[7] In 1882 he married Ava Everett of Council Bluffs, Iowa, the daughter of prominent lawyer Horace Everett.[4] In 1904 he earned a Doctorate of Science (D.Sc) from McGill University.

Career

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Waddell began his career by returning to his homeland as a draftsman in Canada's Department of Marine and Fisheries in Ottawa, where he spent a few months designing buoys, lanterns, and similar marine appliances.[6] His next position came as a 'rodman' (surveyor's assistant)[8] on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

He returned to the United States where he designed mines for a West Virginia coal company. In 1878, he returned to Rensselaer and taught mechanics courses until 1880. Waddell then traveled west, obtaining additional degrees from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and spending some time working at the Raymond & Campbell firm in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In July 1882, he was hired as a foreign advisor by the Meiji government of the Empire of Japan and taught at the Tokyo Imperial University while writing two books. That same year, he was also awarded an honorary Bachelor's and Master's of Science each by McGill University.[9]

Private practice

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Waddell returned to the United States in 1886, and one year later established a private engineering practice in Kansas City, Missouri, as J.A.L. Waddell, Consulting Engineer. The firm would later evolve over the decades with various junior partners, including Ira G. Hedrick in 1899, John L. Harrington in 1907, Waddell's own son Needham Everett in 1915, and Shortridge Hardesty in 1927. After Waddell's death, the company became, and continues today as, Hardesty & Hanover.[10]

The company enjoyed great success with railroad clients in particular during its early years; in addition to the wide adoption of Waddell's "A" truss design along the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and Nippon Railway, one 1906 newspaper article from Brownsville, Texas, reported that Dr. Waddell had been responsible for all the bridges on the International–Great Northern Railroad.[11]

Midway through his consulting career, Waddell opened a New York City office, which soon became the firm's headquarters in 1920 amidst the economic boom of the Roaring Twenties. Many of metropolitan area's most important postwar infrastructure projects were awarded to the company, including the Goethals Bridge and Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge.

Waddell was also an adviser to the Ministry of Railways, Republic of China. When in China he along with Meloy was entrusted by MIT and Harvard University to talk over with National Southeastern University (later renamed National Central University and then Nanking University) and reached the agreement on founding Sino-American joint engineering college in Shanghai, but it soon ceased due to the wars outbroken in the area.

He was widely recognised, being awarded honours by Japan, Russia, China, and Italy, holding five honorary doctorates (including those from Japan, Canada, and Puerto Rico) and being elected an Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1936.[12]

Notable works

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Patent schematic of the Waddell Truss Bridge
Waddell "A" Truss Bridge Patent (1894)

Truss bridge

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One of Waddell's earliest contributions to the field of civil engineering was the "A" Truss bridge. Patented in 1893, the cost-effective design allowed for cheap and rapid construction, and could easily carry the heavy loads generated by steam locomotive-powered trains. Replicated throughout the Empire of Japan and the American West and Midwest, this basic design contributed to the rapid expansion of several railway companies during the Second Industrial Revolution.

Vertical-lift bridge

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Lifting and swinging bridges had been used for generations, but not on the scale that they exist today. Waddell was the first to invent a modern design, originally intended to span a short channel across Minnesota Point in the harbor of Duluth, Minnesota. His design won a city contest in 1892, but the War Department objected to the proposal. The city built an aerial transporter bridge in that location in 1905. In 1929, it was remodeled into the Aerial Lift Bridge, similar to Waddell's design.[13]

Waddell adapted his vertical-lift concept in 1893 and it was finally built as the South Halsted Street Lift-Bridge over the Chicago River. While the city of Chicago was the first to build a lift bridge of Waddell's design, the second had to wait for his partnership with mechanical engineer John Lyle Harrington, formed in 1907. Waddell & Harrington designed a vertical lift bridge (since demolished) for the Iowa Central Railway over the Mississippi River at Keithsburg, Illinois, in 1909. The pair designed more than two dozen more vertical lift bridges over the next five years before Harrington left in 1914,[14] among them the ASB Bridge in Kansas City Missouri.

South Halsted Street Lift Bridge, Chicago
ASB Bridge in Kansas City, Missouri

List of major projects

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Death

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Four years after the death of his wife Ada, Waddell died on March 3, 1938, in his Manhattan apartment at the Hotel Earle. According to an obituary his death was caused by complications from a stroke, suffered 3 months prior.[17] Waddell is memorialized with his wife at Fairview Cemetery in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Partial bibliography

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ New York (State) Legislature Assembly (January 27, 1844). "Communication from the Commissary-Generay to the Assembly". Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York. 3 (50): 210. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  2. ^ Weingardt, Richard G. (2002). "Henry John Degenkolb and John Alexander Low Waddell". Leadership and Management in Engineering. 2 (2): 44–46. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)1532-6748(2002)2:2(44).
  3. ^ "Census of Canada, 1881". Library and Archives Canada. 3293294. Statistics Canada. 1881. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Weingardt, P.E., Richard (2007). "John Alexander Low Waddell: Genius of Moveable Bridges" (PDF). STRUCTURE Magazine. Feb. 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  5. ^ Leonard, John W. (1922). Who's Who in Engineering: A biographical dictionary of contemporaries (1922-1923). Brooklyn, NY: John W. Leonard Corporation. p. 1314. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Panchyk, Richard. MOVABLE BRIDGE HALL OF FAME: J.A.L. Waddell (PDF). Heavy Moveable Structures. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  7. ^ "Alumni Hall of Fame - John Alexander Low Waddell". rpi.edu. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  8. ^ "Past and Present Railroad Job Descriptions". www.up.com. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  9. ^ Waddell, J.A.L. (1908). De Pontibus: A Pocket-Book for Bridge Engineers (Second ed.). New York, New York: J. Wiley & Sons. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  10. ^ "Firm Overview/Timeline". Hardesty & Hanover. Archived from the original on August 6, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
  11. ^ "Dr. J. A. L. Waddell and brother Robert W. Waddell, of Kansas City". The Brownsville Herald. January 13, 1906. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  12. ^ "Victoria Street Bridge, Leamington". www.heritage.org.nz. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
  13. ^ "Aerial Lift Bridge: National Register of Historic Places". Minnesota Historical Society. Archived from the original on December 22, 2004. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  14. ^ See list of Waddell & Harrington bridges in Appendix A of Spivey, Justin M. (January 2001). "Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, Calumet River Bridge" (PDF). Historic American Engineering Record. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. pp. 50–52. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  15. ^ The Loop: The "L" Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago, by Patrick T. Reardon,2021, Southern Illinois University Press
  16. ^ "Waddell "A" Truss Bridge, Spanning Lin Branch Creek, Trimble, Clinton County, MO". Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MO-8. Library of Congress. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
  17. ^ "JOHN A. L. WADDELL, A BRIDGE ENGINEER" (PDF). The New York Times. March 3, 1938. p. 21. Retrieved October 31, 2024.
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