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Da Vinci Bridge Built
cluening writes: "A bridge designed about 500 years ago by Leonardo Da Vinci has finally been built. It's mighty cool that something envisioned so long ago has actually been created with relatively little trouble." See also the project's home page.
Personally, I quite like the idea of a highly engineered, aesthetically pleasing footbridge. It's good to get away from the car (this from a man who cycles 3.5 hours a week just to get to lectures, rehearsals etc). The beauty of such a design is in the concept, and the realisation of such a concept seems well-suited for non-motorised forms of transport. Cars would probably just get it dirty anyway ;)
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman Rushdie
I know it's a cliche, but it sure is nice to see it applied to something other than the return of bell-bottoms, hip-huggers or platform shoes.
Genius if forever.
Fashion can make a day seem forever.
This may not be the vindication everybody thinks it is.
/.'ed, so I cannot see if they factored these into the design, and I didn't see the Nova special. Does anybody know if they took these factors into account?
First, the actual bridge is much smaller than the bridge that DaVinci envisioned. When you scale things down, they get stronger due to the cube/square law (strength varies as the square of size, mass as the cube - halving the size of an object reduces strength to a quarter, but reduces mass (and thus needed strength) to an eighth).
Second, the actual bridge is using laminated lumber, rather than the stone DaVinci specified. Wood is a very strong substance, and will flex rather than crumble like stone.
The project page is
www.eFax.com are spammers
A year ago to the day I was in Istanbul, on my way to Italy. In Italy (Florence, to be exact) I had the luck to visit an exhibition of Da Vinci, complete with models. This bridge was the most impressive, both mechanically and historically, due to the fact that I crossed the Bosporus bridge over the Golden Horn just a few days back. The design was so far ahead of it's time (although at the time I thought it was just about ready for today for construction in ALUMINUM) I had wondered how many other Da Vinci projects would yet see the light of modern technology, far after Da Vinci had passed.
His ideas are bizarre at best. Yet we already have the Helicopter. We now also have his Bridge. And some people think he was the father of photography. I have seen his paintings, his sketches, and models of his projects. They never cease to amaze me.
Perhaps he was a genius. Perhaps he was a lunatic. Either way, I wish someday I could have the insight that he had, and be as absolutely "crazy" as he was.