ABSTRACT
A friend of the writer, a successful business man and much interested in things artistic, when informed of the choice of subject for this paper, gave expression to a feeling of surprise, doubting if there was any relation between engineering and aesthetics. The American bridge satisfies the conditions of stability and least cost, but of beauty of line or balanced proportion that makes it fit into and harmonize with the landscape, or even that makes it considered by itself attractive, it has little. In 1896, the Scientific American reported on Marvin’s paper to the Association explaining how Prof. Marvin defined the three elements of design as the scientific, the aesthetic, and the financial. The article concluded by confirming that American engineers although masters of the science of design, need also to develop a taste for the elegant and graceful in engineering projects.
