Testing Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge

I wasn't sure where to put this so I figure I'll put it here as it kind of relates to "technology".

MIT researchers dug into one of Da Vinci's previous bridge designs to see if it would work. Apparently, it would have!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ars Technica According to a team of researchers at MIT, who built a detailed scale model to test that hypothesis, the answer is yes. ... Sultan Bayezid II of Turkey in 1502...wanted a bridge to span a river estuary known as the Golden Horn to connect Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the neighboring town of Galata—a bridge span of about 919 feet (280 meters), roughly ten times longer than a typical bridge of that era, according to co-author Karly Bast, a graduate student at MIT. ... The group first determined how best to slice up the shape of the bridge into individual blocks and then used a 3D printer to make 126 blocks to build a scale model, the better to recreate the complex geometry of Leonardo's original design. They used a scaffolding structure to support their bridge as it was being assembled, removing it once the keystone at the top of the arch was in place. And the structure was stable, just as Leonardo envisioned.

Anyway, I don't want to quote the whole article. It's rather lengthy but it was worth the read to me. I'm not an architecture or engineering junkie or anything, but I do like seeing old\historic\ancient theories tested.

Da Vinci was an absolute genius to me for several reasons, and this just proves he was far, far ahead of his time.

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