I currently work as an Assistant Civil Engineer for the City of New York. Outside of the fact that Finite Element Modelling programs exist, I typically haven’t seen an overlap between my current field and my future career in Computer Science. However, just recently I had a volunteer high school intern in my office who was there mainly to learn about our field while also figuring out what she ultimately wanted to major in when she starts applying for colleges. During this time I learned a bit more about the technology (besides computer aided design programs) that existed on a handful of our city bridges.

There are four types of movable bridges: retractable bridges, swing span bridges, bascule span bridges and lift bridges. All four types can be found in the City of New York. According to the New York City Department of Transportation, the City of New York is home to 24 movable bridges. These movable bridges all had an Electrical Engineer or a programmer that would create the programs using languages such as FORTRAN that would both allow for the operation and synchronization of the mechanical parts that would control the movement of the bridge whenever some boat that was too large needed to pass through. The proper implementation of these programs was critical because if any one mechanism ran too fast or too slow relative to the other moving parts, the bridge could get stuck resulting in emergency closures just to resolve the situation. The parts needed to be in constant communication with each other by way of the software that was implemented.

We aren’t currently designing many movable bridges anymore due to the maintenance, critical failures that can cause heavy delays in traffic. We instead opt in for higher clearances to eliminate the need for the bridge to move out of the way. Despite this, moving structures aren’t a thing of the past and can still be seen on some of the most reputable structures, such as the Oculus Skylight at the World Trade Center. However, it does seem like a dying craft in some way due to the fact the main thing that goes on nowadays is repair of the movable bridges rather than anything programming-adjacent.

While the high school student who volunteered ultimately choose to pursue Aerospace Engineering at the end of her time with us, it was still a rather educational experience for her and for us as well. For me personally, I was able to see a glimpse of some adjacent work between Civil Engineering and Computer Science, even if I myself might never get a chance to work on the creation of a movable bridge in the future.

Reference:
https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/infrastructure/movable-bridges.shtml