Moiseev Leon (1872-1943)

Moiseev (Moisejev) Leon Solomon (1872, Riga — 1943) — bridge engineer.

Leon Moiseev completed three years at the Riga Polytechnic Institute and, in 1891, emigrated to the United States due to political persecution. In 1895 he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in civil engineering. In 1898 he joined the New York City Department of Bridges and became one of the most prominent practitioners and theorists of bridge engineering.

He was among the designers of the Manhattan Bridge over the East River (opened on December 31, 1909). He designed suspension systems for some of the most famous American bridges, including the Benjamin Franklin Bridge over the Delaware River (1926) and the George Washington Bridge (1931). Together with Charles Ellis, he designed and built the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (opened in 1937). He also supervised the construction of the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge in Washington State (1940), which collapsed in a storm four months after completion.

A connoisseur of the Yiddish language and Yiddish literature, he published the Yiddish literary journal Freie Gesellschaft (“Free Society”). For twenty years he was a member of the editorial board of the Jewish Publication Society of America and served as chairman of the scientific committee of the American Friends of the Hebrew University.

Work.: Suspension Bridges Under the Action of Lateral Forces Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 1933. Lit.: Petroski H. Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America. New-York, 1995.