Jean Résal (22 October 1854, in
Besançon
Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland.
Capi ...
– 14 November 1919, in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) was a French
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
. He was a professor of
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...
at the
École polytechnique
(, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris.
The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...
, and designed several metal bridges in France, especially bridges above the
Seine in Paris:
The career of the brilliant student of the
École des ponts ParisTech
École or Ecole may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* Éco ...
was always an upward ladder: service in the Roads and Bridges Department at the Loire-Atlantique Département and thereafter in the shipping authority in Paris. Résal succeeded the student of
Saint-Venant, ''Alfred-Aimé Flamant'' (1839-1915), at the Chair of Strength of Materials at the École des ponts ParisTech in 1892. Although Résal had already published a two-volume work on arch bridges together with ''Ernest Degrand'' (1822-1892), he concentrated on the theory and practice of steel bridges from a very early stage and had a profound influence on steel bridges at the transition from the discipline-formation to the consolidation period of theory of structures.
* Nantes Résal Bridge (rail), destroyed during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, rebuilt in concrete
* Road bridge over the
Erdre (
Nantes
Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...
), appointed first bridge Barbin, then Pont du General de la Motte Rouge.
* Mirabeau bridge in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
(road bridge, 93 m range)
* Alexandre-III Bridge (Paris) (highway bridge, 107 m range)
*
Bercy bridge (Paris)
* Gateway Debilly (Paris)
* Bridge of
Notre-Dame (Paris)
The bold steel arches of the
Pont Général-de-la-Motte-Rouge (1885) in
Nantes
Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...
,
Pont Mirabeau (1896) in Paris,
Pont de l'Université (1899),
Pont Alexandre III
The Pont Alexandre III () is a deck arch bridge that spans the Seine in Paris. It connects the Champs-Élysées quarter with those of the Invalides and Eiffel Tower. The bridge is widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in the ...
(1900) and
Pont Notre-Dame (1914) in Paris set standards for steel bridges. All those bridges listed could only be built as a result of Résal’s research into elasticity and the strength of structural steels, work that he summarised in a monograph (1892). Furthermore, Résal made a lasting contribution to earth pressure theory (1903, 1910), which
Albert Caquot would use successfully as his starting point.
The
Résal effect is named after him.
Works
*''Ponts métalliques'', 2 Volumes 1885,
Online*With Ernest Degrand: ''Ponts en maçonnerie'', 2 Volumes, 1887,
Volume 1 OnlineVolume 2 Online
*''Constructions métalliques, élasticité et résistance des matériaux, fonte, fer et acier'', 1892
Online
*''Résistance des matériaux. Cours de l'École des ponts et chaussées'', 1892; 1922
Online
*mit Amédée Alby: ''Notes sur la construction du pont Alexandre III'', 1899
*''Stabilité des constructions. Cours de l'École des ponts et chaussées'', 1901,
Online
*''Poussée des terres, stabilité des murs de soutènement'', 1903,
Online
*''Cours de ponts métalliques professé à l'École nationale des ponts et chaussées. Ponts en arcs et ponts suspendus'', 3 Bände, 1912–1922
Online
Achievements
Image:pont_mirabeau_paris_close_up.jpg, Mirabeau bridge
Image:Pont_de_Bercy.jpg, Bercy bridge
Image:France_Paris_Pont_Notre_Dame_01.JPG, Bridge of Notre-Dame
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Resal, Louis-Jean
French bridge engineers
People from Besançon
1854 births
1919 deaths