ABSTRACT
Engineer Anghel Saligny can be considered a promoter of civil engineering in Romania and beyond. He lived and activated in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the first quarter of the 20th century. Endowed with sparkling intelligence and exceptional creative skills, A. Saligny engineer has left the Romanian nation a lot of valuable constructions, unanimously both appreciated nationally and internationally, many of which are in operation today.Anghel Saligny was born on 25 April (2 May old style) in Şerbăneşti, Tulcea County (today Galaţi County). His father Alfred Saligny of French origin, after living for a while in Prussia, came to Moldova in the mid-eighteenth century and settled in Focşani.Here he married with a young lady of Polish origin named Ezarschi, making together three children: Alfonso, Anghel and Sofia. Both Alfred and his wife were educated, spicking well the German and French languages. They also knew the art of piano singing, so they dealt with the education of the children of the boyars (landowners) Ghica and Şuţu, on whose estates they lived. With the help of the boyar Şuţu, of the Moldovian schools, the family of Alfred Saligny opened a pension in Focşani, where their children were trained in the first four primary classes. Anghel and his older brother Alfonso continued the following four classes of gymnasium at the high school that had just begun in this town. The last high school classes continued with his brother Alfonso in Potsdam.Anghel, who was a very good mathematician, decided to pursue Astronomy with renowned professor Karl Theodor Weierstrass, but he soon realized that a technical profession was best suited to him, allowing him to free his creative imagination with which he was endowed. He gave up Astronomy and enrolled as a student at the Upper Technical School in Charlottenburg near Berlin.The new trainee engineer of 20 years age begun his professional activity at the works of the Cottbus-Frankfurt railway line with a great technician - Professor Mehrtens at the Polytechnic School in Dresden.In Cottbus he met Miss Thereza Köhna Kona of 15 years age, with whom he would marry and have two children unfortunately left out of life.Returning to the country at the end of 1875, he is immediately employed as a third-grade ordinary engineer at the Bridges and Roads Service. He runs quickly all the hierarchical steps, including general inspector, general manager and Minister of Public Works. He is received at the Romanian Academy, being elected president of the Academy.Anghel Saligny has created over the past five decades many original construction works of almost all kinds: roads and road bridges, railways and railway bridges, combined rail and road bridges, hydrotechnical works and land improvements, landscaping rivers and shorelines protection, ports and mooring berths, rope ways, metal and reinforced concrete silos, cultural and social buildings.However, the work that consecrated him remains “THE CAROL I” bridge, which consists of three main parts: the Bridge over the Borcea Arm in Feteşti, the Viaduct across the Iezer Valley and the Danube Bridge at Cernavodă, all having a total length of 4088 m, the longest bridge in Europe at that time. Numerous original solutions have been applied to these works, recalling the most important of them: the use of the world premiere of soft steel instead of puddle iron, which subsequently replaced the old material. More details about the conception, structures and construction of these interesting works will be presented in the full paper.Also, there will be presented many interesting insights about the life and rich activity of this pioneer of special constructions in Romania.
