Historical Perspective on Prestressed Concrete

The author, who speaks French and Flemish and spent some of the post-World War II years in Europe studying engineering, presents an essay on the origins and development of prestressed concrete. Three engineers are singled out for having had the most profound influence on the development of prestressed concrete - Eugene Freyssinet, Gustave Magnel, and Ulrich Finsterwalder. Unquestionably, it was the painstaking pioneering work of Freyssinet that convinced the engineering world of the viability of prestressed concrete as a competitive construction material. Throughout Freyssinet's life, there is one theme that keeps recurring time and again, namely, a simplification of forms and an economy of means. Magnel is noted as a great teacher and for communicating his ideas on prestressing to the English-speaking world. Finsterwalder pioneered the development of the double cantilever method of bridge construction. Several outstanding reinforced and prestressed concrete structures in the Americas and Europe are discussed and illustrated. In retrospect, the author regards the principle of prestressing as the single most important new concept in structural engineering during the last half of the twentieth century.