And also, you totally can build a bridge without knowing the tensile strength of steel or the compressive strength of concrete!
Trial and error works, and with scale models (plus awareness of square/cube scaling etc) it’s cheap too
Bridges can also be made out of stone, wood, rope, iron, living roots, …
Engineering regularly works with materials and processes where we don’t understand the relevant underlying science—for example, we spent most of the 20th century doing aerodynamics with wind tunnels and test flights rather than fluid dynamics.
And also, you totally can build a bridge without knowing the tensile strength of steel or the compressive strength of concrete!
Trial and error works, and with scale models (plus awareness of square/cube scaling etc) it’s cheap too
Bridges can also be made out of stone, wood, rope, iron, living roots, …
Engineering regularly works with materials and processes where we don’t understand the relevant underlying science—for example, we spent most of the 20th century doing aerodynamics with wind tunnels and test flights rather than fluid dynamics.