MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

A pedestrian walks across the state's oldest remaining metal truss bridge, which is at the Ironto rest stop along Interstate 81. Virginia Tech engineering student Elaine Huffman recently proved through research that the bridge could still support some vehicle traffic.

MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Elaine Huffman says studying the old bridge at the Ironto rest stop has given her an appreciation for her predecessors. "They didn't have a lot of techniques we have today," she says.

| Tonia Moxley

tonia.moxley@roanoke.com, 381-1675

It carried horse and buggy traffic, then automobiles, for nearly a century. Today it's a nice diversion for weary interstate travelers.

But the Ironto wayside foot bridge, built in the 1870s, could still support some vehicle traffic, a Virginia Tech engineering student has proved.

Not that anyone will be allowed to drive on it. For one thing, it's no longer connected to a road.

But analyzing the bridge has given Elaine Huffman, 21, a student from Bowie, Md., studying engineering, an appreciation for her predecessors.

"They didn't have a lot of techniques we have today. Just seeing how an engineer in the 1860s would see the problems and come up with a solution without the computers we have ... was helpful," Huffman said.

Huffman spent two semesters assessing the state's oldest remaining metal truss bridge at the Ironto rest stop along Interstate 81. She and supervising professor Cris Moen issued a report on the project last month.

Built in 1878 and soon after moved to Virginia 637, the bridge spanned Roaring Run creek in Bedford County for nearly a century. It was replaced by a concrete culvert in 1972 and moved to the Ironto rest stop in 1976, the report stated.

The pair tested the bridge using a computer model developed by Huffman and found the bridge able to support vehicles weighing 5 to 8 tons, Huffman said.

Today it spans a small culvert and is open only to walkers.

Researching and testing the Ironto bridge is the third research project of Huffman's undergraduate career, putting her in small but growing category of students gaining advanced experience in their chosen fields.

Huffman has also worked in Spain with building inspectors to understand the differences between American and European building safety regulations and at the University of Notre Dame on a National Science Foundation project, she said.

Undergraduate research was added to the university's strategic plan in 2000 after Charles Steger was named president, Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said.

Steger has made the overall growth of research a signature part of his administration.

Currently, Tech's stated goal is to have 75 percent of graduates participate in some kind of research during their undergraduate career. During the 2008-09 academic year, 2,905 -- or 55 percent -- of undergraduates were reported to have done so -- that's up 34 percent over the previous year, according to Hincker.

"Self-learning is a powerful, powerful tool. We want to expose students to the concept of self-discovery," Hincker said. "There are different ways to learn than classrooms and textbooks."

"It adds variety ... to your semester, aside from classes and tests," Huffman said. "You learn more than the subject matter, learn more about yourself and how to keep yourself moving."

Such projects often pair students with their professors and encourage closer working relationships that invigorate learning for the student and teaching for the professor.

Moen said he took a liking to working with undergraduates on research while earning his doctorate. Today, he suggests ideas and projects to his own undergrad students, he said.

Having worked in the private sector for a decade before becoming a professor, Moen said it wasn't uncommon for firms to find that new hires out of college had little idea how to apply their classroom work to real-world projects.

Giving them experience in developing and executing projects during their education helps with the transition to professional work, he said.

And it can give students a boost as they apply for jobs or graduate school.

For Huffman, "building a relationship with a professor who can advise me on graduate schools has been very helpful."

The Ironto bridge is one of 30 historic metal truss bridges owned and maintained by the state, according to a 2006 report issued by the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Virginia Transportation Research Council.

These historic bridges were developed in the 1840s and 1850s, but they were not widely built in Virginia until the 1870s. They replaced wooden trusses but were by the early 20th century giving way to reinforced concrete bridges, the report stated.

The Ironto foot bridge was built before the 1909 standardization of designs for metal bridges, meaning the engineer/builder had leeway to create something unusual, Moen said.

Technically called a bowstring truss bridge, this designer combined arch and truss features to build what has turned out to be a very strong, long lasting bridge, Moen said.

Read the report at tinyurl.com/yk3g7zl.