The History of Wrought and Cast Iron

The purpose of this thesis was to document the history, use and early application of cast and wrought iron in Structural Engineering from its beginnings in the mid eighteenth century to the early twentieth century.

Iron, like most historical building materials, has gone through a transformation from limited use and application based on availability, workability, and practical engineering knowledge, to wide use and applications through greater knowledge of engineering properties, to a decline at the advent of lighter, stronger, more efficient materials. Although many structures employing the material properties of cast and wrought iron are still in use today, lighter, stronger, more efficient materials have replaced iron.

The history of iron as an engineered material is as varied as the type of structures it supported. The industrial revolution of Great Britain in the 1800’s brought iron from the tracks of the railroads and bridges that spanned that country into the buildings and roofs that covered the landscape, to the great suspension bridges that defined a new era of structural engineering. Cast and wrought iron made its mark in the United States during the industrial revolution of the late 1800’s in the first tall buildings of what was to become some of the major cities of this country. Iron eventually found its final place in the decorative and ornate designs of buildings and bridges in America in the mid 1900’s.

To trace the history of iron in structural engineering is to view the progress of mankind’s imagination in engineering and achievements in order to build higher, span greater distances, and test the limits of science.