James Finley (engineer)
James Finley (* 1756 in Ireland; † 1828), and Judge James Finley, was a bridge builder and politician. He is considered the first designer and builder of modern suspension bridges.
Life
Born in Ireland, Finley moved to a 1.16 km ² large farm in Fayette County ( Pennsylvania) at Uniontown. In 1784 was elected justice of the peace, he was county commissioner in 1789 a member of the House of Representatives and Senate of Pennsylvania. From 1791 until his death he was associate judge in Fayette County.
Bridges
His Jacob 's Creek Bridge, built in 1801 for $ 600, and destroyed in 1833, was the first example of a suspension bridge with chains made of wrought iron and a deck slab. It connected with Uniontown Greensburg, had a wingspan of 21 meters, and was 3.8 m wide ..
Finley has 1809 a chain suspension bridge over Dunlap 's Creek in Brownsville, Pennsylvania designed and built. 1820 but the bridge collapsed under a heavy snow load together at the crossing of a vehicle combination with six horses. 1835, the bridge through the Dunlap 's Creek Bridge was replaced, the nation's first cast iron bridge.
Other bridges that were built according to his patent are:
- On the Potomac River, in 1807, 39 meter span
- Chain Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill, Philadelphia, 1808; 2 yokes, eastern span of 60.96 meters, western span approximately 30.48 meters; collapsed in January 1816 under a heavy snow load
- In Newburyport (Massachusetts ) over the Merrimack River, in 1810, 74 meters span collapsed in 1827
- On the Lehigh River in Northampton (Pennsylvania ); remained in service until 1933
Although more than forty bridges are attributed to them, were only twenty are identified. None of them still exists today.
Finley left his system patented in 1808 and published a treatise on the principle of the suspension bridge with stiffened roadway.