Ambassador Bridge and Ralph Modjeski

Ralph Modjeski’s Contributions to the Field of Engineering and Bridge Building

You are looking at the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest commercial border crossing between the US and Canada. When it was completed in 1929 this was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Although the McClintic-Marshall Company designed the bridge, a Polish-born engineer, Ralph Modjeski was a consultant, project verifier and construction supervisor of the bridge. Modjeski, who was in his sixties at the time, was considered the leading bridge designer in the country and was at the very peak of his spectacular career as a builder of rail and highway bridges in the US and Canada. Modjeski built 40 large bridges in his lifetime; in the years 1927-29 along, when the Ambassador Bridge was being built, he was simultaneously building three other bridges in Louisiana, Kentucky and New Jersey.

Who was Ralph Modjeski? He was born in 1861 in the Polish city of Bochnia (then under Austrian rule), as Rudolf Modrzejewski, to a 20-year-old aspiring actress Helena Modrzejewska and Gustaw Zimajer, her partner and mentor at the time. In a few years Helena became the most famous Polish actress. In 1876 Helena, together with her aristocratic husband and son, set off for America to seek a fresh start. They settled on a farm in California. Soon both Helena and Rudolf shortened their last names; in addition Rudolf became Ralph. But neither mother nor the son were meant to become orange growers. Helena, enormously talented and ambitious, was soon acting in English language productions and travelled all over the US achieving huge success playing Shakespearean roles, while Ralph, with his interest in engineering, was sent to Paris to study bridge and road construction. As stated by one of Modjeski biographers, Professor Jozef Glomb, young Ralph Modjeski in addition to being well-educated, talented and industrious, had to have been also very courageous, as at the time of his education 40 bridges on average collapsed yearly in the U.S.

During an over 50-year-long career as a bridge builder Ralph Modjeski not only created some of the most-travelled bridges such as the Quebec Bridge, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, the Blue Water Bridge in Michigan and the Oakland Bay Bridge in California, but also pioneered the use of new materials, such as steel and reinforced concrete, and developed ground-breaking techniques in bridge building. He was also a very talented musician who at one point in his life seriously considered becoming a professional pianist

Modjeski’s work was highly appreciated during his lifetime. In addition to medals and Honorary Doctoral Degrees, in 1931 Ralph Modjeski received the coveted Washington Award, the highest American recognition awarded for engineering accomplishments, which promote the happiness, comfort, and well being of humanity.

Ralph Modjeski died in 1940, but Modjeski and Masters Company still builds bridges across the US.

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