HIST 100: Engineering The Past

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Bridges

The Brooklyn Bridge of New York and the Golden Gate Bridge of California are both remarkable accomplishments of American architects and engineers. Both of the bridges are beautiful, complex and incredibly useful and impressive. Since the two bridges were built at different points in time, in different places, and by different people, the structural design of the two bridges are each unique in their own way. The fact that each bridge still stands today in the same form and design, with only renovations and reinforcements when necessary, says a lot about how present day citizens of New York City and San Francisco value their bridges.

The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883. It is a suspension/cable-stay bridge. It was 50% longer than any bridge of that type that had been built before, measuring at 5,989 feet. I think that says a lot about the time in which this bridge was created. People were wanting to stretch the bounds of what they knew to be as bridges, and they wanted it to be astonishing. A lot of pain, hardship and suffering was endured by those who wished to see the success of the construction. I think that may be a large part of the reason the bridge stands as a symbol of pride, hope and awe to the people who live around it and to those who travel to come see it. The style of the bridge gives a dark and eerie feeling, like the color scheme they chose for it. Perhaps the most amazing spectacle of the bridge is the network of cables used as supports. The photography that has been captured of the bridge seems to really show the complexity of all the cables and wires and how they cross and connect. People don’t want to change the design of this bridge, even though it’s dated, because it remains an outstanding feat even to this day. It reminds the citizens of the dreams that architects and engineers before them had for the city.

The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937. The structural design of the bridge is very similar to the Brooklyn Bridge. The big issue with the construction of this bridge was the natural weather patterns in the San Francisco area that could be hazardous to the design, like super strong wind and fog. The bridge itself is much slimmer than the Brooklyn Bridge, and much longer at 8,981 feet, stretching well over one mile. This probably means that a bit more knowledge concerning bridge building was circling around at this time, and engineers were beginning to learn how to make a bridge more efficient with less material. One of the designers suggested a thin roadway that would flex with the wind and allow the bridge to be more stable. The huge towers and bright orange color reveal that the people wanted it to be iconic, and it sure is. Photos that are taken of the Golden Gate are angled to showcase the bright color and the height and size of the bridge. The persistence of this bridge’s design, and in this case especially the color of it, shows the pride that is invested in this architectural landmark. After all, every visitor to San Francisco has got to get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Logan Tueller
History 100
Dr. Madsen-Brooks
10 April 2016
Incan and Aztec Civilizations and Their Demise
In Central and Southern America, two unique civilization prospered and grew to be some of the most mathematically and astronomically inclined cultures ever seen in the world at that time. With massive temples and cities erected so perfectly in the middle of the jungle, both the Incas and Aztecs lived in massive areas and supported populations in the millions.
At its peak, the Incan Empire stretched over current day Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador and had anywhere from 4 to 37 million inhabitants, this number has such a wide range is because the Spanish Conquistadors destroyed hundreds of years of Incan census records which had information on every citizen that belong to the empire (1). The Incas had the largest pre-Columbian Empire in the Americas, with their capital was located in Cuzco, Peru which is where their well-organized imperial government was based along with their strong central administration, intricate political system and military powers. All was going well for the Incas until Francisco Pizarro arrived from Spain conquered Cuzco with less than 200 conquistadors in 1533. Once the capital was captured, Pizarro’s men surrounded the 13th and final Incan Emperor, Atahuallpa, and Francisco Pizarro strangled him to death (2). The Incan Empire lasted right around 200 years, until it came to a swift end due to the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors and their European disease which wiped out almost 95% of their population. Similarly, the Aztecs were also wiped out from being conquered by the Spanish and then further destroyed by small pox, measles, typhus, influenza and diphtheria. Although they came to the same demise, The Aztec Empire had many key features that differentiated it from the Incan Empire.
The Aztec empire was located in present day Mexico and had a triple alliance between the three city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoc and Tlacopan, which differs from the Incan Empire which had an imperial government ran out of one capital. The Aztecs controlled vast parts of Mesoamerica between the 14th and 16th centuries and based their government off a type of feudalism where the outlying villages paid tribute, gave supplies, and offered warriors to the capital cities. This system set up an imperial center with a political reach that extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and as far south as Guatemala. In 1519, Corte reached the Mesoamerica and allied with the Nahautl, who were enemies of the Aztecs (3). In order to dismantle the Aztec Empire, Cortez’s men and the Nahautl warriors attacked the Aztecs and conquered Tenochtitlan for Spain. At that time, one of the Spanish soldiers had contracted smallpox and spread it throughout the empire, which killed more than 3 million Aztecs. Once the city had fallen, Cortez began building Mexico City on the ruins which quickly became a pre-eminent city in the Spanish colonies and King Charles I of Spain appointed Cortez as governor of New Spain. Although they were both wiped out from European diseases that they had never encountered before, the Incas and Aztecs had grown to be economic super powers in the Americas. Although the Aztec Empire was smaller than the Inca Empire in population, 5 million to 37 million respectively, they both developed their own governmental systems that were capable of supporting massive populations, creating large public work projects, developing calendars based off astronomy that were accurate for thousands of years, and even building massive temples made with precisely cut stones in the middle of the jungle or high up at the top of the Andes Mountians.

Works Cited
1) Seaman, Rebecca M. 2013. Conflict in the early Americas: an encyclopedia of the Spanish Empire’s Aztec, Incan, and Mayan conquests. http://ebooks.abc-clio.com/?isbn=9781598847772. (188-189)
2) History.com Staff, Pizarro Executes Last Inca Emperor. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pizarro-executes-last-inca-emperor.
3) Sandine, Al. 2015. Deadly Baggage What Cortes Brought to Mexico and How It Destroyed the Aztec Civilization. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=213008

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