Hardy Cross by Richard G

Hardy Cross A Man Ahead of His Time By Richard G. Weingardt Professor Cross, the first American Moment-Distribution or Hardy awarded the highly coveted Gold Medal Cross Method–first introduced of the British Institution of Structural in 1930, made use of converging Engineers, was a far-seeing innovator approximations to rapidly distri- and structural engineering superstar bute fixed-end moments. (A basic who always thought outside the box. and simple example of the Method He received the celebrated British award is illustrated in Figure 1.) when was 73 years old, during the Essentially, what Cross’s methods Institute’s 50th anniversary celebrations did was simplify the monumental in 1958. During the Gold Medal mathematical task of calculating ceremonies, at the group’s convention innumerable equations to solve in Manchester, England, Cross delivered complex problems in the fields of a stirring keynote address exalting the structural and civil engineering, merits of engineering in forwarding long before the computer age. It societal progress. revolutionized how the profession © During the latter half of his Copyrightcareer, addressed complicated problems; Hardy often stated, “People [mistakenly] whenever engineers in the latter take for granted that an engineer is part of the 20th century talked by definition a technocrat, somebody about methods for designing stumbling across campus with a pen- difficult structures, the name of protector in his front pocket and a satchel Hardy Cross was always invoked full of calculations.” The classically with awe. educated Cross, however, was far from According to Old Dominion fitting that mold or any other. He was University Professor Zia Razzaq, one of a kind–a philosopher as well as “In Hardy Cross’s day, if you wanted Hardy Cross (William J. Hall is the owner and “keeper” an engineer, who meshed humanities to design a highway bridge or of the Cross materials at the University of Illinois.) and engineering ideas in his teachings, high-rise building, you would end often sprinkling in his lectures quotes up with several thousand simultaneous a very complex structure and calculate from the Bible and the classics. Many mathematical equations. And there were all the stresses in it.” Without Cross’s budding engineers were inspired to no computers of the kind we have today. methods, many engineering projects greatness by Cross’s high-spirited words He developed a procedure by which, in a would have remained dreams and not and his actions. very short time, you could actually analyze have become reality when they did. It was under his tutelage that the likes of Holly Cornell, co-founder of STRUCTUREthe engineering giant CH2M-Hill, developed a “great love for engineering.” Hardy always challenged his pupils to constantly ask,magazine “Why, why, why, and dig until the problem is clearly defined.” Because he was deaf in one ear, eager students–and his colleagues–quickly learned which was his best side when they wanted his full attention. Cross was without question one of the most important figures in American structural engineering in the mid-to-later- half of the 20th century, world renowned for his innovations as an educator and structural theoretician. His engineering books and papers were widely translated. They contained new and practical methods of structural analysis–at a time when complicated and highly indeterminate structures using reinforced-concrete were coming into vogue–that greatly simplified the way stresses could be calculated for continuous beams and frames. The most significant of these methods, the Figure 1 – A basic application of the “Hardy Cross Moment-Distribution” Method. great achievements 40 STRUCTURE magazine • March 2005 Born on February 10, 1885 in Nanse- projects on the east coast and served as engineering/construction failures, includ- great achievements mond County, Virginia, Hardy was assistant engineer to the well-established ing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the younger of two sons of Thomas H. Charles T. Main. Charity Hospital in New Orleans. In his Cross and Eleanor Wright, both from On September 5, 1921, 36-year-old later years, Professor Cross was a much prominent southern families. His father Hardy married Edythe Hopwood Fenner in demand speaker as well as engineering Thomas H., a student at the University from Providence, Rhode Island. They consultant. of Virginia when the Civil War broke would have no children, and she would Cross was the recipient of honorary out, dropped out of college and joined precede him in death by three years. degrees from Yale (1937), Lehigh (1937) the Confederate Army. He served in it for The year 1921 also marked Cross’s return and Hampden-Sydney (1934), and nu- its entirety, even though he was wounded to fulltime teaching when he took a posi- merous prestigious engineering honors during several bloody battles. tion as professor of structural engineering including ASCE’s Norman Medal (1933) A dozen-and-a-half years after the at the University of Illinois. By then, he and the ACI’s Wason Medal (1936). war was over (and shortly before Hardy’s was well known for his insightful writings, As the first award-winner of the Am- older brother Thomas Peete was born including a voluminous report “River Flow erican Society of Engineering Education’s in 1879), Thomas H. was elected to Phenomena and Hydrology of the Yellow Lamme Medal in 1944, Hardy was cited the Virginia House of Delegates. He River, China” and a popular monograph for “his insistence on the great respon- and Eleanor then permanently re- sibilities of the individual teacher located to Norfolk, Virginia, to raise and for his scorn of the superficial their family, which would include in education–and for his pre- only two boys. eminence in building men who © Both of their sons–Thomas and Copyright are carrying forward his own high Hardy–were excellent students. standard for straight, hard thinking Hardy followed in his older in the teaching and practice of brother’s footsteps, graduating from engineering.” Norfolk Academy and then attending In his book Engineers and Ivory Hampden-Sydney College to become Towers, a collection of his talks, Cross a schoolteacher. He was just 17 when stated that what man wants and what he graduated as valedictorian from he needs are not always identical. Hampden-Sydney with a bachelor’s “Engineering does not tell men of arts degree in 1902. One year what they should want or why they later, he received a bachelor’s of want it. Rather it recognizes a need science degree. That same year, his and tries to meet it.” His advice to 62-year-old father, who had recently would-be professors was, “One who been appointed the local postmaster is to become a teacher of engineering after serving as a Deputy U.S. should be trained primarily to be an Marshall, died. engineer, and association with the Young Cross immediately took a profession outside the ivory towers of position with his local alma mater, learning is absolutely essential.” Norfolk Academy, teaching English Tattered dust cover of one of Cross’s well-read books attests Less than a year after his triumph and mathematicsSTRUCTURE so he could be near to his longtime popularity as an author. in England in 1958, Professor Cross his newly widowed mother to comfort received the Benjamin Franklin her – and help her run a boarding house. on the graphic analysis of arch structures, (scientific) Institute of Philadelphia’s cel- Three years later, Hardy magazinewas found at which was being used as a text at Harvard’s ebrated Gold Medal. It would prove to Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate school of engineering. be a final tribute to a great career and a (MIT) studying civil engineering. Within In 1937, Cross left the mid-west and great engineer, for soon after, on February two years, in 1908, he had earned an returned to the east coast, accepting his 12, 1959, the 74-year-old engineering MIT bachelor’s of science degree. final academic position as Chair of the educator extraordinaire quietly passed After working briefly as a bridge Department of Civil Engineering at Yale, away in Virginia Beach, Virginia. engineer for the Missouri-Pacific Railway a position he held until his retirement in As a lasting tribute to the American from1908 until 1909, Hardy migrated the early 1950s. icon–and in recognition of his wide- back to Norfolk to teach for one more Over his career, Cross was especially reaching influence–an in-depth “Hardy year. He returned to Boston and, in 1911, active in several professional groups: the Cross: Illustrious Citizen” exhibit was received a master’s of science degree in civil American Society of Civil Engineers established in 1997, at the Isle of Wright engineering from Harvard University. (ASCE), American Concrete Institute County Museum in Virginia.▪ Taking an assistant professor’s position (ACI), American Academy of Arts and at Brown University shortly after, he Sciences, American Institute of Consult- Richard G. Weingardt, PE, CEO taught civil engineering at Brown for ing Engineers, American Railroad En- of Richard Weingardt Consultants, Inc., seven years. In 1918, he left the Un- gineering Association, Connecticut Society Denver, CO, is the author of eight books. iversity to get involved in the practice of of Civil Engineers, Royal Society of Arts His latest Engineering Legends, being structural and hydraulic engineering in and Western Society of Engineers. published by ASCE Press, is due out the Boston and New York areas. During He was also prominently involved in early 2005. Many of the book’s this period, he worked on a number of in the investigation of several historic featured engineering greats are U.S. structural engineers. STRUCTURE magazine • March 2005 41.

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