Squire Valleevue Farm Footbridge

During the Spring of 2002, civil engineering students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, designed, fabricated and built a 14m-span pedestrian bridge at Squire Valleevue Farm, a University research and recreational facility in Hunting Valley, Ohio. The bridge is a Howe truss. It uses 76 mm steel tubes for the diagonals and 16 mm Dywidag bars for the vertical elements and the chords. The truss was prestressed by tensioning the vertical elements. The prestressing precludes compressive forces in the top chords and tensile forces in the diagonals under a full gravity live load condition. Therefore it was possible to use Dywidag bars for the top chord and simple bearing connections, without bolting or welding, for the diagonals.

The design was chosen because it is historically significant for Case Western Reserve University. Amasa Stone and his brother-in-law and inventor, William Howe, built the first Howe trusses in 1840-41. In 1842, with the financial backing of Azariah Boody, Stone purchased the Howe patent rights for New England. Stone then established a firm, Boody, Stone and Company, to design, fabricate and erect Howe trusses as an integrated enterprise. It was one of the first bridge companies in the United States. Stone later formed a partnership with Stillman Witt and another bridge builder, Frederick Harbach, to build the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. With his wealth from building bridges and railroads, Amasa Stone endowed Western Reserve University, which federated with Case Institute of Technology in 1967 to form Case Western Reserve University.