Alfred L. Rives and the Cabin John Bridge: Creating an Unprecedented 67m Masonry Arch at Mid-Nineteenth Century

The Cabin John Bridge is a masonry arch of 67m span, built from 1857 to 1863 to carry the Washington Aqueduct over the valley of Cabin John Creek. This paper examines the role of Alfred L. Rives, an 1854 graduate of Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, in the design and construction of the bridge. The inspiration for the long-span design of the Cabin John Bridge was the Grosvenor Bridge, completed at Chester, England in 1834. For structural analysis, Rives adopted the graphical statics method proposed by Mèry in 1840. Mèry's design acceptance criteria were based on a rigorous understanding of the lower bound theorem of limit state analysis. Rives designed the center for the bridge, devised the construction technology, and supervised its construction from 1857 until the keying of the arch on 4 December 1858.