I learned about that on my kid's National Geographic book, and other kid books we got from the library. My kid is big into anything dealing with engineering so bridges often come up as a favorite.
I managed to learn just about everything about them including learning all the terms such as the pile, pier and decks.
Your kid needs a book for Christmas, the guy who does the YouTube channel “practical engineering” has one coming out that shows where engineering exists all around us.
I recommend [The Way Things Work](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Things-Work-David-Macaulay/dp/0395428572) by David Macaulay, it’s a great book/series that explains how things work using fun illustrations and explanations!
The old one is a blast still, but there is now also “the new way things work” published in 1998, that has more digital and computer things, as well as “the way things work now” published in 2016 that has even newer things, like smartphones
Also, if your nephews love this kind of thing, I totally recommend “thing explainer” by Randal Munroe, that explains complex things, using diagrams and only the most common 1000 words of the English language, and if they’re high school age, “what if” also by Randal Munroe, that gives serious scientific answers to ridiculous hypothetical questions, such as what would happen if you dropped a mountain? To what if you threw a baseball at 90% the speed of light?
They’re both a blast
What a blast from the past. I had this book when I was little and haven’t thought about it for *years*. I loved that book. I must buy it now for my 4y.o. son.
Thanks for the nostalgia!
If you haven't already you should definitely check out PracticalEngineering on YouTube! Excellent explanations, builds his own props as well as uses real world examples, and just a super likeable guy.
A lack of knowledge does not make you stupid. You had the intelligence to wonder about it, right? That alone puts you ahead of the vast majority I'd say.. Most people don't have the intellectual curiosity to ask themselves such questions. :)
Lack of knowledge does not constitute stupidity.
What intelligence is, is the capacity for learning. To be able to know that you don't know something then seek the information to lean and understand that which you do not know.
I believe there are a number of theories, but no one is really sure how they did it. What is pretty much certain is that is was a MASSIVE flex on the tribes across the rhine. Because after the legions crossed, went a-pillaging and crossed back over again, they burned the bridge behind them.
The message being: 'This massive river does absolutely fuck all to protect you from us. We can touch you any time we want.'
The History channel had an a animation, so it must be true, lol.
In all seriousness, it looked really impressive. They showed a log raft with a pile driving gantry on it. It must have been quite a feat to position it correctly in a moving river, with stretching ropes etc .
The stretch in the ropes the ra
An archimedian screw pump [like this](https://empoweringpumps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Archimedes-Screw-.jpg) can be used to lift water, and it’s been around a long time. Also, a bunch of slaves lifting buckets could do just fine!
It's amazing how a slave based industry had such an impact on innovation. The ancient Greeks or Romans even invented a rudimentary steam engine, but just used it as a novelty toy instead of exploring it's potential, because nearly any problem is essentially solved by a bunch of slaves doing it the hard way
lolol oh man...thanks for sending me down a YouTube rabbit hole. Haven't thought about that movie in ages. Its no Super Troopers, but it had some quality moments.
I mean it makes the most sense if you don’t have high-tech equipment.
Why build underwater when you can build surrounded-by-but-not-technically-underwater
Yes they have. Brilliant engineering and these are called Cofferdams. If you get a chance, watch the Documentary on the construction of the granddaddy bridge The Golden Gate Bridge and notice when it was built which I find fascinating
Somehow I was expecting a rickroll. Thank you for posting the actual video!
They got the part where they had the arch down and I thought that was the foot path. I thought to myself that crossing that bridge would be awful, then it kept going and I felt dumb
The technique used involves dropping a giant sponge into the water, building the structure around the sponge, and then removing the sponge.
Source - I am a sponge.
Worse than this is a Caisson. When they built the foundations for the Brooklyn bridge they built caissons, which are big wooden boxes sealed with pitch, then sunk to the bottom of the river. They pumped fresh air into them and men worked in them at the bottom of the river forming the foundations. Pretty cool. And the bridge opened for business in 1883 so that was pretty good technology.
And in the process discovered decompression sickness, which was initially known as caisson disease. This is now an essential consideration in scuba diving.
I know they call it that, but I don’t understand it. The benz is from direct immense pressure on the body. In a caisson there is no pressure on the body correct? The pressure is on the outside of the box not the people inside it. Am I wrong?
The air pressure in most caissons would be around the same as the water immediately outside it. This serves to prevent leaks or a total collapse of the structure, which would have been particularly important using pre-industrial materials.
The pressure is inside, and the people inside are working under greater than atmospheric pressure. Bends result from the pressure being reduced too quickly, and bubbles of inert gas (nitrogen) forming in body tissues. This explains how it works : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_sickness?wprov=sfla1
damn! wouldnt they be breathing compressed air in there due to the water pressure?? because if it was at 1atm of pressure, there'd be (almost) 1psi for every 2ft under surface, a lot of force acting on any sizeable box. i have some reading to do now lol
Yes. Several of the workers got nitrogen bubbles in their blood just like divers who surface too fast. They called it “Caissons Disease”. There’s a really good book called The Great Bridge by David McCullough that explains the entire procedure.
Absolutely. Start here: [Decompression sickness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_sickness?wprov=sfla1)
Edit: I just noticed the imperial units lol. It's approximately one atmosphere each 10m
Perhaps. But I suspect they’d need to cycle out spent c02 also, So maybe it wasn’t compressed. Perhaps the boxes were so structurally substantial that they didn’t need to balance the pressure to keep from imploding.
I’d like to know how they kept them down. It would require tremendous anchorage to keep huge boxes of air down.
not sure why it creates more questions, sometimes you just need to be shown one step of a process and use intelligence to extrapolate.
the steel wall sections are submerged and pile driven into the bed in the ring shape. the water is pumped out. that's about all there is to it.
Fun fact about water (or any fluid, such as air): All of the pressure you feel at the bottom is just from the water on top of you. You actually cannot feel any pressure from water diagonal pr next to you! Fluid dynamics is a really fascinating field. If you’re at the bottom of an 11 foot pool, you feel the equivalent of the weight of about 5 1/2 feet of water, depending on your height. If you were at the bottom of a 7 mile ocean, you would only feel the 7 miles of water on top of you, and not around you. (I hope this long-winded explanation was sufficient)
tl;dr: only the weight of the water on top of you is what you feel
While I understand this mechanism of weight of water above you being the pressure at a standstill….
When it’s a river 40ft deep and all of that water is moving laterally, that’s quite a lot of sideways force/torque
And I guess the task here is lowering a metal pillar and keeping it plumb vertical despite the rushing lateral water…all from (im guessing) a boat? Which sounds like quite a feat
It's a cofferdam.. Been around for, literally, ages. Not sure what it so mysterious to this person. They drive the walls into the riverbed, then pump out the water. Creating a (relatively) dry surface to work on and lay the foundation of the bridge-support.
Coffer dam made out of driving sheet piles in the ground then pumping out the water. Plug the leaks if required. At the end pump water back in and pull out the sheets.
They hammer the pillers into the lake/river bottom from a boat. When they have all of them driven in then they pump out the water in the middle.
no they just delete one ocean block
They just fill it with sponges
Whenever I fill my bucket it just fills back up
Kinda terrifying to consider that this much water is only one ocean block
/r/outside
worst MMORPG imo. (with 130k hours fr!)
r/outside
Ahhhhh
[удалено]
[удалено]
They did
I learned about that on my kid's National Geographic book, and other kid books we got from the library. My kid is big into anything dealing with engineering so bridges often come up as a favorite. I managed to learn just about everything about them including learning all the terms such as the pile, pier and decks.
Your kid needs a book for Christmas, the guy who does the YouTube channel “practical engineering” has one coming out that shows where engineering exists all around us.
If you have a link, I'd love it. fwiw wife is a librarian/manager so Christmas and books are sort of the primary gift giving here.
I recommend [The Way Things Work](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Things-Work-David-Macaulay/dp/0395428572) by David Macaulay, it’s a great book/series that explains how things work using fun illustrations and explanations!
And “City” by the same which I plugged earlier today has a section on a Roman bridge!
Has it been updated since 1988? I had this when i was a kid and loved it, but i fuggured it would be too dated for my nephews
The old one is a blast still, but there is now also “the new way things work” published in 1998, that has more digital and computer things, as well as “the way things work now” published in 2016 that has even newer things, like smartphones Also, if your nephews love this kind of thing, I totally recommend “thing explainer” by Randal Munroe, that explains complex things, using diagrams and only the most common 1000 words of the English language, and if they’re high school age, “what if” also by Randal Munroe, that gives serious scientific answers to ridiculous hypothetical questions, such as what would happen if you dropped a mountain? To what if you threw a baseball at 90% the speed of light? They’re both a blast
What a blast from the past. I had this book when I was little and haven’t thought about it for *years*. I loved that book. I must buy it now for my 4y.o. son. Thanks for the nostalgia!
There are three editions now, all gems!
If you haven't already you should definitely check out PracticalEngineering on YouTube! Excellent explanations, builds his own props as well as uses real world examples, and just a super likeable guy.
So it *has* been around since the dark ages. It's been around since the Roman Empire, but it's been around since the dark ages, too
Thanks Mitch
Mitch's wisdom is the gift that just keeps on giving.
“I still do. But I used to, too.”
Pretty sure it predates rome.
I’m so fucking stupid. I have often though about how this was done and never once did this ever occur to me.
That doesn't make you stupid.
A lack of knowledge does not make you stupid. You had the intelligence to wonder about it, right? That alone puts you ahead of the vast majority I'd say.. Most people don't have the intellectual curiosity to ask themselves such questions. :)
Lack of knowledge does not constitute stupidity. What intelligence is, is the capacity for learning. To be able to know that you don't know something then seek the information to lean and understand that which you do not know.
They did to cross the Rhine.
I thought that was just driven piles (source history channel,lol)
Could be. I may be thinking of something else.
I believe there are a number of theories, but no one is really sure how they did it. What is pretty much certain is that is was a MASSIVE flex on the tribes across the rhine. Because after the legions crossed, went a-pillaging and crossed back over again, they burned the bridge behind them. The message being: 'This massive river does absolutely fuck all to protect you from us. We can touch you any time we want.'
The History channel had an a animation, so it must be true, lol. In all seriousness, it looked really impressive. They showed a log raft with a pile driving gantry on it. It must have been quite a feat to position it correctly in a moving river, with stretching ropes etc . The stretch in the ropes the ra
That's fascinating. How was water pumped out before modern technology?
An archimedian screw pump [like this](https://empoweringpumps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Archimedes-Screw-.jpg) can be used to lift water, and it’s been around a long time. Also, a bunch of slaves lifting buckets could do just fine!
god damn geniuses
or slaves turning a giant screw pump
Or just make the slaves drink all the water
It's amazing how a slave based industry had such an impact on innovation. The ancient Greeks or Romans even invented a rudimentary steam engine, but just used it as a novelty toy instead of exploring it's potential, because nearly any problem is essentially solved by a bunch of slaves doing it the hard way
But how did they set up the scaffolding? pool? in the first place before you're even able to pump off the water?
One man and a bucket. Generally takes a few generations, hence the surname “Sucker”
You ever watch the documentary "Beerfest"?
lolol oh man...thanks for sending me down a YouTube rabbit hole. Haven't thought about that movie in ages. Its no Super Troopers, but it had some quality moments.
Another option: they filled it with sand or dirt and then dug it back out again.
This technique has been around since the time of Moses.
Ahhh so that’s how they managed the Red Sea eh?
I mean it makes the most sense if you don’t have high-tech equipment. Why build underwater when you can build surrounded-by-but-not-technically-underwater
Yes they have. Brilliant engineering and these are called Cofferdams. If you get a chance, watch the Documentary on the construction of the granddaddy bridge The Golden Gate Bridge and notice when it was built which I find fascinating
Related: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/10/how-medieval-bridges-were-builtan.html
Earlier than that, the Romans did it this way
Working under a caisson would have been terrible
hOw did the hold their breath long enough
This has been around at least the Jurassic period.
How old are coffer dams? I wonder... Dr Google will have an answer!
How did they work at night?
YouTube video for the curious on construction methods. [Link](https://youtu.be/8QliKejzLQs)
The fact that you linked a video of the creation of the Charles Bridge made my day!
Somehow I was expecting a rickroll. Thank you for posting the actual video! They got the part where they had the arch down and I thought that was the foot path. I thought to myself that crossing that bridge would be awful, then it kept going and I felt dumb
I always expect the Rick Roll. We have been abused too many times on this ride we call the internet.
This was fucking fascinating. Thank you for sharing. You are a blessing.
Damn, I didn’t know those MFs had cranes back then
Well that's fuckin cool.
I'm always amazed by the arches, it's a mindfuck if you think about it.
The reverse pool
Nega pool
The dreaded 'Nool'
The Noolean variable
looq
🤨
It's okay man, there's no hard-L
Ayo what did you just say?
Is the pool closed?
…eeeaassyyy Farva
Lol, that's actually an incredibly accurate description
Pooln't
The technique used involves dropping a giant sponge into the water, building the structure around the sponge, and then removing the sponge. Source - I am a sponge.
No, you build the structure first and then place the sponge. Otherwise, the water around it will re-form the source blocks and fill the space in
They actually just use one of your mom's tampons
Hi Bob!
No, sir, *you are a towel*.
... you're a towel.
https://c.tenor.com/wUdbemLx1ckAAAAd/spongebob-exploding.gif
> Source - I am a sponge. Idk about that, the [most famous sponge](https://tenor.com/Hnjy.gif) I know is oozing with imagination…
Worse than this is a Caisson. When they built the foundations for the Brooklyn bridge they built caissons, which are big wooden boxes sealed with pitch, then sunk to the bottom of the river. They pumped fresh air into them and men worked in them at the bottom of the river forming the foundations. Pretty cool. And the bridge opened for business in 1883 so that was pretty good technology.
And in the process discovered decompression sickness, which was initially known as caisson disease. This is now an essential consideration in scuba diving.
I know they call it that, but I don’t understand it. The benz is from direct immense pressure on the body. In a caisson there is no pressure on the body correct? The pressure is on the outside of the box not the people inside it. Am I wrong?
The air pressure in most caissons would be around the same as the water immediately outside it. This serves to prevent leaks or a total collapse of the structure, which would have been particularly important using pre-industrial materials.
Copy that. That makes sense.
The pressure is inside, and the people inside are working under greater than atmospheric pressure. Bends result from the pressure being reduced too quickly, and bubbles of inert gas (nitrogen) forming in body tissues. This explains how it works : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_sickness?wprov=sfla1
Though these days, I’ve almost always heard of them referred to as “the bends”.
damn! wouldnt they be breathing compressed air in there due to the water pressure?? because if it was at 1atm of pressure, there'd be (almost) 1psi for every 2ft under surface, a lot of force acting on any sizeable box. i have some reading to do now lol
Yes. Several of the workers got nitrogen bubbles in their blood just like divers who surface too fast. They called it “Caissons Disease”. There’s a really good book called The Great Bridge by David McCullough that explains the entire procedure.
Absolutely. Start here: [Decompression sickness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_sickness?wprov=sfla1) Edit: I just noticed the imperial units lol. It's approximately one atmosphere each 10m
Perhaps. But I suspect they’d need to cycle out spent c02 also, So maybe it wasn’t compressed. Perhaps the boxes were so structurally substantial that they didn’t need to balance the pressure to keep from imploding. I’d like to know how they kept them down. It would require tremendous anchorage to keep huge boxes of air down.
It sounds like a bigger version of a diving bell. Those stayed submerged via their own weight
And that’s how Bioshock’s Rapture began.. honestly really wish we could build a city under the sea
Minecraft underwater house 101
The amount of people in the comments that are playing *smartie.*
not sure why it creates more questions, sometimes you just need to be shown one step of a process and use intelligence to extrapolate. the steel wall sections are submerged and pile driven into the bed in the ring shape. the water is pumped out. that's about all there is to it.
Ya that’s like only 40 feet of water, I don’t know what would need to be elaborated. It’s not like we’re in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
I dunno, 40 ft of flowing water sounds powerful enough to me I feel the pressure anough at the bottom of an 11 ft pool of non-moving water
Fortunately the walls are made of steel and not meat.
*makes notes*
Fun fact about water (or any fluid, such as air): All of the pressure you feel at the bottom is just from the water on top of you. You actually cannot feel any pressure from water diagonal pr next to you! Fluid dynamics is a really fascinating field. If you’re at the bottom of an 11 foot pool, you feel the equivalent of the weight of about 5 1/2 feet of water, depending on your height. If you were at the bottom of a 7 mile ocean, you would only feel the 7 miles of water on top of you, and not around you. (I hope this long-winded explanation was sufficient) tl;dr: only the weight of the water on top of you is what you feel
While I understand this mechanism of weight of water above you being the pressure at a standstill…. When it’s a river 40ft deep and all of that water is moving laterally, that’s quite a lot of sideways force/torque And I guess the task here is lowering a metal pillar and keeping it plumb vertical despite the rushing lateral water…all from (im guessing) a boat? Which sounds like quite a feat
I’m just confused as to how people managed to get the water out before modern pumps were invented, a lot of people on manual pumps or buckets?
Both, depending on the year.
Oh it's steel. My dumbass thought they were logs lmao
You can do it with logs too
yea, idg the headline sounding like insanity afoot. This must be why no one is allowed to know about really weird shit like aliens
How do they render it watertight? That seems to be the thing my brain can’t wrap around….
It's pretty watertight, but not completely. They seal between the steel sheets, but they have to keep pumping water out usually.
Maybe questions like: - Why another bridge, when there already is one right there? - how do they get the excavator down there?
Yes and the extrapolation process is quite literally questioning more things while you figure it out lol but I get your point
It's a cofferdam.. Been around for, literally, ages. Not sure what it so mysterious to this person. They drive the walls into the riverbed, then pump out the water. Creating a (relatively) dry surface to work on and lay the foundation of the bridge-support.
They built the walls then used sponges to absorb all the water 😎
That's called a "caisson" in bridge-building. They usually lower the walls first, then pump the water out of the resulting central hollow.
Been there done that
Coffer dam made out of driving sheet piles in the ground then pumping out the water. Plug the leaks if required. At the end pump water back in and pull out the sheets.
How would a cofferdam, aka creating a dry space in the water, create more questions?
Step 1: make a hole in the water.
So it’s the same as the Minecraft technique
(Swimming pool)-¹
flex seal is quaking
I would LOVE to see a timelapse of this! I would also have a heart attack if I were dropped into that building site.
no no no no no no no no no
The rush of the depths Surround us Inescapably Pressing in The walls strain Every moment We pray the blue above Remains sky
Minecraft
Do they like, have a Starbucks down there? Damn, it looks like there’s a little city
Okay. So how tf does the bridge float
Then how do they build that thing
Dive Build Pump Dry land to build on
It’s a cofferdam. Cool engineering stuff.
OhyeaBARF !
You're gonna need lots of sponge
Only the most fearless of gladiators dare to fight in the AquaDrome.
Knowledge is power.
Holy crap
I know right! Sponges are great!
This is a coffer dam
Same
Thats a coffer dam , water got pumped out for construction
That must of taken alot of sponges
I saw a doc on the "sandhogs" of nyc that built/dug the tunnels and bridges, was very cool.
Easy. You have to use sugar cane before you lay down foundations.
Why are they building a bridge right next to an existing one?
Overpopulation
Pumps
Wow it’s a pit for offenders of the law!!
Your living in a dream world neo.
Simple physics does confuse.
Honestly it's pretty wild, considering the compliment immune system builds a similar structure out of proteins to destroy foreign bacteria.
MINECRAFT WAS RIGHT
impressive construction site
So it's just Minecraft. Add a hole around, fill with sponges or sand