Flyover bridge in Ames
When you’re driving around Iowa, do you ever wonder why certain bridges or pieces of the transportation system look different than others? Did you know that many times there is public art built into these structures that have meaning? A recent project connecting northbound Interstate 35 to U.S. 30 near Ames tells an interesting tale of the connection between a university, technology, and transportation.
Now that the project is complete and traffic is flowing over the bridge, it’s time to decipher the code. Continue your journey into the history of the ABC and the messages embedded in the flyover bridge.
As you may know, the world’s first electric digital computer was built at Iowa State University by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. This Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) propelled the world into the digital age.
Punchcard machine
When a new flyover bridge connecting northbound I-35 to westbound U.S. 30 was proposed, the Iowa Department of Transportation devised a plan to incorporate the invention of the ABC into the art of the structure.
In the early days, punch cards were used to code computer programs. A person would very carefully punch specific areas of one card, then the next and the next, just like lines of computer code today, but in a paper format. These cards would be processed through a machine that ‘read’ the code and performed the task the punches dictated.