Arthur Gunderson Hayden

Class of 1902: Bridge engineer

An innovative new design for short-span bridges, still widely used today, was developed by Arthur Gunderson Hayden, a consulting civil engineer.

He was born Oct. 10, 1874, in Akron, Ohio. His father was Episcopal clergyman and the family came to Ripon when his father was assigned to St. Peter Episcopal Church.

Although he received his degree from Ripon in 1902, he considered himself in the Class of 1899. He began with that class, left Ripon to attain a degree in Massachusetts, then returned to Ripon to receive his degree in 1902.

At Ripon College, he was the top-finishing member of the track team and held swimming records in races across Green Lake. At St. Peter parish, he was the choir librarian and arranged orchestral instrumental scores for festival music.

For many years, Hayden was the chief design engineer for the Westchester County Parkway Commission in New York. In 1922, he developed the design and construction of a distinctly new engineering design using mathematics and applied mechanics. The rigid-frame bridge offered advantages in cost and aesthetics, and now is used extensively for short and medium spans throughout the world. However, it faced obstacles.

When he received an honorary degree from Ripon in 1951, it was stated: “Mr. Hayden’s persistent faith, backed by confidence in his knowledge of the forces of nature, led him to the development of the rigid-frame bridge. We take such ridged-frame bridges for granted now, but when he first presented the ideas, eminent consulting engineers said it would not work. We can bless the inquisitive and open-minded, for Mr. Hayden proved his point by analysis, argument and tests. In a liberal arts college … there is a tendency to imply that imagination is the exclusive possession of artists, musicians, writers. It is men like Mr. Hayden who remind us by their achievements of how large a part imaginative thinking plays in the field of scientific and technical effort.”

Hardon’s Mount Pleasant Bridge in Westchester County, a steel rigid-frame bridge, received the first prize of the American Institute of Steel Construction as the most notable and beautiful short span bridge built in the United States in 1930.

After 1937, he was a private consultant on the design of bridges and grade separation projects. Structures he worked with included simple span, cantilever, lift, bascule and draw bridges; dams, lockgates and aqueducts. He supervised the design of more than 100 highway and railroad grade separations and also directed general plans for several major parkway projects.
He also was active in promoting engineering research and cooperation among colleges and technical schools; and was author of the landmark handbook “The Rigid Frame Bridge” and numerous articles.

Each year, the International Bridge Conference presents the Arthur G. Hayden Medal for a single outstanding achievement in bridge engineering demonstrating innovation and design excellence in special use bridges.

Hayden kept in frequent contact with Ripon College and served as president of the Ripon Club of New York. He felt the College had become “top rank” and asked to kept appraised of how the sports teams were doing. “I am now approaching second childhood and am back to the period when I yelled on the sidelines at Ingalls Field,” he wrote in 1949. “I want to know what to yell about right now.”

He received an honorary degree from Ripon in 1951 and wrote he was moved to receive it because “the honor came from my own college which I love and which is my ideal of a college.”

Hayden died March 18, 1964, at age 89.