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Centuries
of Civil Engineering
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Perronet, Jean-Rodolphe
(1708-1794)
Description des projets et de la construction des ponts de Neuilly, de
Mantes, d'Orléans & autres; du projet du canal de Bourgogne, pour la
communication des deux Mers par Dijon.
Paris, De l'Imprimerie royale,
1782-83.
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Jean-Rodolphe Perronet was the first director of the Ecole
des Ponts et Chaussees in Paris, and one of the first great masters of the
low-arch bridge. He was the first to recognize that for bridges of equal
spans, the intermediate piers carry only vertical loads and can be made
quite thin. His bridges were consequently quite light and elegant. The
Pont de Neuilly, built over the Seine by Perronet, has 5 arches of 128
feet span each, yet the piers are only 13 feet thick. So that the piers
did not thrust sideways during construction, all five arches had to be
constructed simultaneously. King Louis XV was impressed by all the
centering that had been erected to support the arches and wanted to see
the decentering process, so Perronet arranged for all the centering to
collapse simultaneously into the Seine before the eyes of the King and the
rest of Parisian society. It was quite an occasion.
The engraving shows the Pont de Neuilly just after the
centering had been released and fallen into the river.
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