Thanks in great measure to an 80-ft x 20-ft falsework platform that rose 50 ft from the bottom of a deep fissure in Syracuse, N.Y., Onondaga Community College will soon have its new music building and bridge its gorge, too.
The design architect's idea to span a two-story building across a 200-ft-wide fissure and link the east and west sides of the State University of New York campus was music to the ears of college officials, who initially had conventional sites in mind. But crossing the 60-ft-deep Furnace Brook Gorge with a structural-steel bridge-building—abutments and all—was not as easy at it sounds.