Hanging – suspension bridgeOriginal bridge was steel cantilver truss built 1927, dismantled 2007 Second similar parallel bridge built 1958 taking east bound traffic whilst first took west bound 2007 had seismic retrofit and upgrade

The three ways in which materials are strong are pulling, pushing and sliding. Engineers and scientists use the term tension for pulling, compression for pushing and shear for sliding. These three ways to be strong are expressed in BATS in different ways – so let’s look now at each one in turn. Imagine a tug […]

Golden Gate Bridge, USA Millau Viaduct France Cables enable us to build bridges with a lightness of touch that can be beautiful. Indeed they enable us to make bridges that are not simply beautiful but can lay claim to be conscious public works of art. The light and shallow curves of the cables of big […]

Beam: Front Street, Vancouver Arch: Bradford on Avon UK Bridges are built by people for people. Bridge builders must work with and through others – they have to work in teams. Teams work effectively when relationships are good. Relationships connect people – as do bridges – so I will call them people bridges. Bridge builders […]

  —Page 1 of 6—Next— Beam: Front Street, Vancouver Arch: Bradford on Avon UK Books and internet pages classify bridges in many different ways – some say there are 4, some 6, some even 21 types of bridge. If that isn’t confusing enough the descriptions don’t necessarily help you understand how the bridges work. To […]

Whenever you see a bridge, or indeed any structure, made of lengths of timber or steel joined together to form triangles then you are looking at a truss. Many small bridges around the world are of the form shown in the diagram below. The colours show the 3 main chapters of a Truss Bridge. Light […]

Until the 18th century the story of the arch bridge is the story of the stone or masonry arch. Modern arch bridges work differently – read more….. Stone arch bridges seem to have only three chapters – but in fact there are four. The first chapter contains the voussoirs which are the wedge shaped pieces […]

— Previous—Page 3 of 6—Next— The direct Purpose of a bridge, and the Materials from which a bridge is made, are reasonably easy to read – though the social consequences may not be easy to predict. The form of a bridge is not as easy to read so let’s now focus on that. Form is […]

A beam bends when it curves from an initially straight form. If we now think of a bridge consisting almost entirely of beams, such as the Front Street Bridge in Canada – shown in the picture to the right, then it will have just three chapters. The first chapter contains the main beams that span […]

Bridge Location Date Type Span Notes Alamillo Bridge Seville, Spain 1992 Hanging 200 m. Unusual leaning tower replaces back stays Albert Bridge London, England 1873 Hanging 122 m. A classic over the Thames Avignon France 1185 Masonry Arch ~33 m. Subject of famous song ‘Sur le pont d’Avignon Barqueta Bridge Seville, Spain 1992 Arch 165 […]

Golden Gate Bridge, USA Millau Viaduct France Mailart’s Billwil Bridge, Switzerland Story Bridge, Brisbane, Autralia Forth Bridge, Scotland Otira Viaduct, Arthur’s Pass, South Island, New Zealand Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol London Millennium Bridge Bridge builders have to create people bridges in order to create physical bridges. But there is a gap – indeed there is […]