{"id":265525,"date":"2024-11-29T01:34:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T01:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/29\/the-forgotten-civil-engineer-with-a-vision-we-could-all-learn-from\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:19","slug":"the-forgotten-civil-engineer-with-a-vision-we-could-all-learn-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/29\/the-forgotten-civil-engineer-with-a-vision-we-could-all-learn-from\/","title":{"rendered":"The forgotten civil engineer with a vision we could all learn from"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"ArticleImage\">\n<div class=\"Image__Wrapper\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Name Wilbur, John \" bud=\"\" benson=\"\" occupation=\"\" department=\"\" of=\"\" civil=\"\" engineering:=\"\" assistant=\"\" instructor=\"\" faculty=\"\" acting=\"\" head=\"\" inventor=\"\" the=\"\" wilbur=\"\" simultaneous=\"\" equation=\"\" calculating=\"\" machine=\"\" designed=\"\" lake=\"\" champlain=\"\" bridge=\"\" and=\"\" bridges=\"\" over=\"\" cape=\"\" cod=\"\" canal=\"\" at=\"\" bourne=\"\" sagamore=\"\" as=\"\" well=\"\" central=\"\" artery=\"\" in=\"\" boston=\"\" co-author=\"\" with=\"\" frank=\"\" d.=\"\" gage=\"\" song=\"\" mit.=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1288px) 837px, (min-width: 1024px) calc(57.5vw + 55px), (min-width: 415px) calc(100vw - 40px), calc(70vw + 74px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=837 837w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=900 900w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1003 1003w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1100 1100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1300 1300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1400 1400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1500 1500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1600 1600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1674 1674w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1700 1700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1800 1800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=1900 1900w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/27110006\/SEI_230294058.jpg?width=2006 2006w\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-image-context=\"Article\" data-image-id=\"2457975\" data-caption=\"John \u201cBud\u201d Benson Wilbur\" data-credit=\"MIT\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ArticleImageCaption\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImageCaption__CaptionWrapper\">\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Title\">John \u201cBud\u201d Benson Wilbur<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Credit\">MIT<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>You have probably never heard of John \u201cBud\u201d Benson Wilbur, but he is a low-key civil engineering legend. In the mid-20th century, he was chair of the civil and sanitary engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He built some major bridges in Massachusetts and helped prototype the first wind power systems in Vermont. But I first encountered his work in a silly-but-serious essay called \u201cWhither civil engineering?\u201d, published in the March 1952 issue of <i>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/magazines\/mit-technology-review-march-1952\/\">Technology Review<\/a><\/i>. In it, Wilbur claimed he and his colleagues had invented a crystal ball\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg26435192-400-the-forgotten-civil-engineer-with-a-vision-we-could-all-learn-from\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=home\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] John \u201cBud\u201d Benson Wilbur MIT You have probably never heard of John \u201cBud\u201d Benson Wilbur, but he is a low-key civil engineering legend. In<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":265526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}