ASCE Metropolitan Section - Queens High School Excels in Bridge Building Competition

Queens High School Excels in Bridge Building Competition

The Met Section recently helped sponsor students from Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood to travel to Philadelphia and compete in the 2010 International Bridge Building Contest, which was held on May 1st. Having won the regional competition for schools in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, the students at Grover Cleveland were eligible to compete against other regional winners in the national contest.

The objective of the competition is to construct a lightweight bridge out of basswood that has a high carrying capacity.

Although Grover Cleveland is listed as a "persistently lowest achieving" school by the New York State Education Department, its top bridge placed in the top 25 and ranked ahead of entries from other schools in New York State including the Bronx High School of Science, Hunter College High School and Patchogue-Medford High School. Grover Cleveland's top bridge was built by Derlis Gutierrez, an eleventh grader that immigrated from Honduras two years ago. Weighing only 29.6 g (1 oz), his bridge was capable of supporting a load of 33.3 kg (73.4 lb).