The world’s first 3D-printed stainless steel bridge is unjustly criticized

Queen Máxima of The Netherlands attends the official opening of the world’s first 3D-printed stainless steel bridge. MX3D

A bridge constructed across the Mississippi River in the late 1860s revolutionized bridge-building. Famed civil engineer James B. Eads designed and built the bridge, which connects St. Louis and East St. Louis, Ill.

The structure incorporates three spans that each exceed 500 ft. It was the longest bridge in the world at the time, and the first to span the Mississippi. The most extreme design element of Eads Bridge, however, was the then-new material used for its superstructure: steel. No other steel bridge existed.

“Eads’ folly,” as the project was known, elicited jeers from bridge-builders and raised safety concerns among the public. To allay people’s fears, Eads arranged to have an elephant cross the bridge prior to opening. The wisdom of the day held that elephants wouldn’t walk on an unstable surface.

The elephant ambled calmly from St. Louis to East St. Louis. It was followed a couple weeks later by 14 trains hauling coal and a 15-mile parade of people. Eventually the world’s bridge architects followed, too, as they made steel the material of choice for long bridges.

James B.’s impact on bridge-building came to mind while reading about the recent opening of a 3D-printed bridge in Amsterdam. The Dutch company MX3D built the bridge—the first such structure in the world to be 3D-printed from stainless steel.

The company used its robotic WAAM (wire arc additive manufacturing) system for the job. Four 6-axis robots worked six months to produce the 12-m-long, 4,500-kg pedestrian bridge, designed by Joris Laarman Lab. The robots laid more than 1,100 km of wire.

The bridge also features a network of sophisticated sensors. They collect structural data and measure environmental conditions like air quality and temperature. Imperial College London researchers analyze the data, comparing the information to a “digital twin” of the bridge that reflects the changes the actual bridge experiences. The data gathered reportedly will provide valuable insights to designers of future 3D-printed metallic structures.

In honor of MX3D’s and its partners’ achievement, Queen Máxima of The Netherlands unveiled the bridge at its official opening.

Pretty cool, huh? Not everyone thinks so.

As with Eads’ bridge, a lot of unwarranted criticism of the 3D-printed structure cropped up. Some of the jabs are because the Amsterdam bridge seems unnecessarily bulky. Other critics dinged its design, sensor network, and inappropriate modernity in a city founded in the 13th century.

Here’s a sampling of the responses to an article about the bridge that appeared on the website of the design magazine Dezeen:

• “Ostentatious and dreadfully designed. A waste of materials.”

• “The problem is the heaviness of the bridge in contrast to the rest of the surroundings.”

• “Out of place.”

• “This looks terrible.”

Granted, the bridge is on the horsey side and the design is incongruous with its surroundings. But that’s not the point. This is the point: MX3D printed a nearly 40-ft.-long stainless steel bridge. That has never been done before. The effort should be applauded instead of nitpicked because of design aesthetics.

Will the Amsterdam bridge transform bridge-building as Eads’ folly did? It’s highly unlikely. But it may. Change requires a starting point. The road—and bridge—to the future begins with a first step.