Leon Moisseiff

Leon Solomon Moisseiff (November 10, 1872 – September 3, 1943) was a leading suspension bridge engineer in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. He was awarded The Franklin Institute's Louis E. Levy Medal in 1933.

His developments of the theory of suspension bridges are eclipsed by the dramatic failure of the Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge, his design, four months after its completion in 1940. The event was filmed and is shown to engineering students as a reminder of the possibility of failure and the importance of avoiding hubris.

Biography Manhattan BridgeMoisseiff was born in Riga, Latvia (at the time, Russian Empire), to a Jewish family. He started his education there and studied at the Baltic Polytechnic Institute for three years; he emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 19, in 1891, because of political activities. In the US, he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in civil engineering in 1895. elaborated on Moisseiff's theories, and applied them in the design of the famed Golden Gate Bridge. Moisseiff served as a consulting engineer on the bridge, but declined to speak up for his colleague Charles Ellis

On occasion, Leon Moisseiff was involved in resolving tensions between workers and their employers. In 1914, Benjamin Schlesinger of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) contacted Leon Moisseiff to assist in convincing the clothing manufacturers of Philadelphia to come to an agreement with the union before a major strike broke out. (Lorwin, pp. 277–278)

Death and legacy In 1941, the U.S. Public Roads Administration established the Advisory Board on the Investigation of Suspension Bridges, which hired Moissieff as a consultant. He was asked to chair one of the board's 5 subcommittees, but due to his failing health he did not actively participate.

Moisseiff died of a heart attack in 1943. His son felt that the bridge failure contributed to his death.

In 1947, board members and the American Society of Civil Engineers established the Moissieff Award to be given to an exemplary paper in the field of structural design. The award, including a bronze medal showing Moisseiff's profile and a cash prize paid out by the fund's trust, have been given out by the ASCE every year since.