Toni Rüttimann
Beat Anton Rüttimann ( Toni Rüttimann; born August 21, 1967 in Pontresina, Graubunden Canton ) is a Swiss bridge builder, who has worked in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Thousands of people in South and Central America know him as Toni el Suizo.
Biography
After leaving school at the Lyceum Alpinum in Zuoz Rüttimann did in 1987 make a limited social use in a damaged by the earthquake region in Ecuador and can be then trained as a civil engineer at the ETH Zurich. However, poverty and the lack of natural disasters bridges were the catalyst to engage people in need for him. He builds since then simple suspension bridges, for use by pedestrians, bicycle and motorcycle riders. They arise from simple basic components in a modular system developed by him. Serve as building materials discarded tubes and unneeded ropes of Swiss cable cars. Under his guidance, the locals build bridges together yourself. After Rüttimann 2002 fell ill on Guillain -Barre syndrome, he developed during two years of therapy to a computer program with the aid of dozens of bridges can be built simultaneously.
Until March 2014 Rüttimann has built 648 bridges for about 1.9 million people (mostly poor farmers ) in 13 countries. Nearly 40 percent of the bridges are in Ecuador. Other major bridge construction areas are Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Argentina.
Quote
"Not I build the bridges, but the people with me. It is hard work. But in these moments is a bridge more than just a building. It is hope and progress ... Happy I see that the language of the bridges knows no boundaries "