Tung-Yen Lin

Born in Shanghai, Lin trained as an engineer. His passion was bridges, and to make them better he used prestressed concrete, which uses embedded high-tension steel cables to allow more economical and better-looking building techniques. During his career, he oversaw the constructions of thousands of bridges, including a thousand in China alone. His ideas spread when he turned to teaching: he was a professor at the University of California in Berkeley from 1946 to 1976 -- his alma mater (he got a graduate degree there in 1933). He also designed an elevated roadway into San Francisco International Airport. When President Ronald Reagan presented Lin the National Medal of Science in 1986, he shocked the President by presenting him with a design for an "Intercontinental Peace Bridge" across the Bering Strait, linking the U.S. with the USSR. "You spend money on bombs, and in 10 years they're out of date," he said later. "But you build bridges, they last forever." He died November 15 at home in El Cerrito, Calif. He was 91. From This is True for 16 November 2003 Suggestions for further reading: The Tower and the Bridge by David P. Billington Amazon Price: $27.28 Customer Review: From my own experience, I've always been frustrated with the tendency of the architecture community to either completely overlook the aesthetic works of the great structural engineers or shamelessly claim them as their own. This book is beyond a sim...   Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test (Kaleidoscope Kids) by Carol A. Johmann, Elizabeth Rieth Amazon Price: $9.32 Customer Review: This book is great- Good explanations on the building and design of bridges. I am using it in a homeschool co-op for activities for our group of kids. I saw it when I want to purchase The Art of Construction: Projects and Principles for Beginning Eng...   Design of Highway Bridges: An LRFD Approach by Richard M. Barker, Jay A. Puckett Amazon Price: $147.17 Customer Review: It took almost 21 days to receive the order, i.e., a book. That is a SNAIL SERVICE. No satisfaction to the customer!   The Japanese Tea Garden by Marc Peter Keane Amazon Price: $37.77 Customer Review: Keane has done a great service to both those who are interested in gardens and those who are interested in the Way of Tea. This is a beautifully designed and illustrated book that will fulfill every requirement for proud display on your coffee table....   A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics by Donald Richie Amazon Price: $9.95 Customer Review: This is a book that you can read very quickly. I read the whole book in half an hour. Contained in its 70-pages is volumes of content. It should be read slowly and carefully as you would drink a hot cup of green tea. Richie does an excellent j...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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