California Institute of Technology Cal Tech - Big T Yearbook (Pasadena, CA)

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CIVIL EXGINEERIXG DEPARTMENT To those men who have a desire to 1)uild things, the Civil Engineering course offers a tremendously interesting field of work, for no matter whether it be buildings, bridges, roads or dams, all these works come under the general head of Civil Engineering. For the student who doesn ' t know just exactly what his bent is, the civil course, next to a general course, offers the broadest and most representative group of subjects for his study. In the junior year, the men are given an insight into the type of work required of a sanitary engineer, a highway engineer and a railroad engineer. The senior work, while principally design, gives also some idea of the problems encountered in the water supply for cities, and irrigation i)rojects. The thesis work of the graduating Civils is especially interesting, for the thesis cover a wide range of topics, some of original design and some in the nature of extensive research into a subject of general and vital interest. For in.stance, last year several men did research work on the possibility of using the Colorado River as a water sup]jly for the city of Los Angeles, while others designed ware- houses. ele ators, chimneys and sim.ilar projects of great practical alue. The fact that civil engineering is a ' ery much alive profession is brought home to the men at Tech by the fact that the new Linda ' ista bridge over the Arroyo, built by the city of Pasadena, was designed by Professor R. R. Martel of the Institute. The bridge is not only of interest from a pure technical .standpoint, but is also of interest because it is a very beautiful structure. In the design, beauty was the first requisite and Mr. Martel was called upon to draw up specifi- cations for a bridge that would be sound technically and at the same time embody the particular lines as set down by the artists who were supjjosed to be authorities on the aesthetic properties of such structures. . ' Vnnther reason for the interest of Tech men in the bridge is that se eral old grads have been employed in its construction. The bridge has a central si)an of two hundred and forty feet, with a rise of forty feet and is one of the largest concrete spans in ilu- world. . n allowance was made for earthquake shocks in the design of the expansion joints so that the bridge has one inch of play laterally but will resist any further sideward motion. Since it was designed by a Tech man, and since Tech men ha e worked on its construction, the bridge can well be said to be a fitting reminder to all Ci ils of what they may some day be able to do. t-a ' cnty-jiiur

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