IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING.
December 12, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
John Roebling was the engineer with the idea of bridging the river and tying Manhattan Island with Brooklyn. It was a fabulous idea, but all the bridge-building experts and structural engineers said it was impossible. Some agreed that the river might be spanned, but that a 1,595 foot span would never stand up against the winds and the tides. But John Roebling and his son, Washington, figured out how the problems could be solved and how the obstacles would be overcome. Roebling came up with, “an equilibrium strength approach, in which equilibrium is always satisfied but compatibility of deformations is not enforced.” This was essentially an approximation method similar to the force method. First, Roebling found the dead and live loads. Roebling then divided the load between the cables and the stays. Roebling added a large safety factor to the divided loads and then solved for the forces. This approach gave a sufficiently accurate analysis of the structure given the assumption that the structure was ductile enough to handle such deformation (Buonopane, 2006).
“Throw in the towel.
It’s no use.
It’s never going to happen.
Go ahead and quit.”
Impossible is nothing!
One day in 1869 John Roebling was standing at the edge of a dock, working on fixing the location where the bridge would be built, when his foot was crushed by an arriving ferry. His injured toes were amputated. He refused further medical treatment and wanted to cure his foot by “water therapy”. While in the hospital, John Roebling demanded constant updates on the progress of his greatest work and continued to help solve onsite problems. But his condition deteriorated until it was clear he had tetanus, and 24 days after the accident he was dead. In the same accident, Washington Roebling suffered the bends underneath the water. The son survived, but was left with permanent brain damage, so that he never walked or talked again.
Impossible is nothing!
Everybody said to forget the project. But not Washington. He developed a code of communication by touching one finger to the arm of his wife Emily Warren Roebling. And he communicated the dream through her to the engineers on the project. For thirteen years, Washington Roebling supervised construction that way. And finally in 1883 traffic streamed across the completed Brooklyn Bridge in New York.. When Washington Roebling was told the news, he wept for joy. The impossible dream became a reality!
Impossible is nothing!
Beware of crude, complaining voices of cynicism and scepticism that whisper to you:
Rather, plant your feet firmly on the high, hard, and holy road of faith. No matter how impossible the project may appear, keep on believing in your “second wind.” Tell yourself that breakthrough is going to happen! Wait for it, work for it, and be ready to receive the reward when it comes!
Simply because Impossible is nothing!
Copyright © Henry Akingbemisilu, All Rights Reserved.
