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The First Bridges
Types of Bridges
The Simplest Bridge—The Beam
The Graceful Arch Bridge
The Suspension Bridge
The Cable-Stayed Bridge
The Bascule, or Seesaw, Bridge
The Rotating Swing Span Bridge
The Vertical Lift Bridge
The Floating Pontoon Bridge
The Transporter Bridge
How Bridges Are Built
Falsework
Cantilevering
The Long History of Bridge Building
Early Bridges—Wood, Stone, and Brick
Bridge-Building Monks
Bridge Building Becomes a Science
Era of Iron and Steel
Modern arch bridges
Cantilever bridges
Giant suspension bridges
Other Bridge Achievements
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Any supported horizontal structure that spans an open space may be termed a bridge. While some bridges are simple structures, others are masterpieces of engineering. All of them must be able to support the weight of the bridge materials themselves as well as of the traffic on top. They must also be able to withstand winds and other environmental stresses, such as earthquakes. Many of the majestic structures seen today span vast distances and support great weights, a tremendous technological advance in comparison to the simple bridges first devised by the earliest humans.
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To cross a stream, prehistoric people probably took advantage of trees that the wind had blown down over the water. Later, people imitated nature by chopping down trees and placing them across streams. Sometimes logs or stone slabs were placed from rock to rock in the water to serve as bridges. In tropical areas people could cross rivers by climbing hand over hand on vines that hung from a tree on one bank to a tree on the opposite bank. In some places people could use natural bridges carved by streams through clay or rock.
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In time people learned to build bridges with materials other than those found in nature. Today, bridges are made throughout the world from a great variety of materials and in many shapes and sizes.
The loads that bridges transfer to their vertical supports are of various kinds. Dead load is defined as the weight of the bridge. Live load is the weight of the traffic—human or otherwise—on it. Wind load is the pressure of the wind against the bridge. Engineers usually assume this pressure to be 30 pounds per square foot (146 kilograms per square meter) of exposed surface including live load or 50 pounds per square foot (244 kilograms per square meter) without live load.
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Bridges are divided into two general classes according to the way that they provide clearance for navigation under them. A fixed bridge is sufficiently high to permit ships or vehicles to pass under it. A movable bridge swings up or sideways to allow passage. The two classes may be further divided into different types. The basic kinds of fixed bridges are beam, arch, suspension, and cable-stayed. The types of movable bridges include bascule, swing span, vertical lift, floating, and transporter.
A log placed across a stream is an example of a beam bridge. A simple beam is a horizontal member, such as a girder, resting on a vertical support at each end. Plate girder bridges over highways are a good example of this. A plate girder is a built-up beam consisting of a steel plate to which angles are riveted or welded. A simple beam tends to bend down at its middle. Its lower part is subjected to tension, or pull, while its upper part is subjected to compression, or squeezing. To bridge a wide expanse, the beam may rest on more than one support. This is a continuous beam.
Another beam bridge is the truss. It is made up of many small beams joined together to form a framework of rigid triangles, a shape that resists being distorted by stress. Trusses use relatively small amounts of material to support relatively large weights.
A variation of the beam principle is used in the cantilever bridge. A cantilever is a beam that is supported only at one end and that extends beyond its support, like a diving board. Sometimes two cantilever arms meet at mid-span. Usually they do not meet but are connected by a light suspended span.
A different principle is used in the arch bridge. In the beam bridge the load is transmitted vertically to the supports. The arch bridge pushes outward against its supports. They must be heavy to resist the horizontal thrust of the arch.
The arch may be fixed, with each end rigid, two-hinged, with a hinge at each support, or three-hinged, with a third hinge at its crown. The hinges permit movement because of loads or temperature changes.
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Arch bridges differ according to the way in which they carry the horizontal roadway. In the deck arch the road is carried above the arch that supports it. In the half-through arch the road cuts through the arch. Its middle section is hung from the arch, and its outer sections are supported by the arch. In the through arch the entire road is suspended from the arch.
The world's longest main bridge spans are achieved with suspension. Engineers compare the lengths of bridges by their main spans—not by the distance between anchorages or by the total length including approaches. Building a long main span requires great skill. In the suspension bridge huge cables are hung over one or more high towers. The cable ends are fastened to heavy concrete or masonry anchorages. Suspender cables hanging from the main cables support the roadway. As in the arch, the thrust on the suspension bridge is horizontal. Instead of horizontal compression, or push, however, there is horizontal tension, or pull, upon the anchorages.
The cables are now usually made of steel. They may be parallel wire, wire rope strand, or eyebar (chain). The parallel wire cable is best for long spans. Thousands of wires are laid side by side, then squeezed together and wrapped with wire to protect them. For example, each cable of the Golden Gate Bridge, at San Francisco, is 36.5 inches (92.7 centimeters) in diameter and contains 27,572 wires; each wire measures 0.2 inch (0.5 centimeter) in diameter.
The wire rope strand cable consists of prestressed twisted wire strands. Its great advantage is that it is ready for erection without spinning. Each cable of the St. Johns Bridge, at Portland, Oregon, has 91 wire rope strands, each measuring 1.25 inches (3.18 centimeters) in diameter.
An eyebar is a flat piece of steel with a circular head at each end in which there is a hole. Pins connect the eyebars. The Florianópolis Bridge, in Brazil, is an example of a suspension bridge made with eyebars.
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Like a suspension bridge, a cable-stayed bridge supports the main span using towers and many strong steel cables. In a cable-stayed bridge, however, nearly straight diagonal cables stretch from the towers to the roadway. There are no anchorages to help support the load. This type of bridge requires less cable than a suspension bridge, though it cannot span as great a distance.
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A good example of a type of movable bridge is the drawbridge over the moat of a medieval castle (see castle). The bascule bridge is the modern-day version. Bascule in French means "seesaw." A counterweight balances the span in every open position. The bascule may be single-leaf or double-leaf.
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The swing span bridge turns on a vertical axis to allow ships to pass. It is balanced on a support called a pivot pier, usually in its center. Its span is measured by including the length of both arms.
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The vertical lift bridge has a tower at each end of its span. Cables attached to ends of the span pass over pulleys at the top of the towers and are fastened to counterweights that equal the weight of the span. The span moves up and down like an elevator.
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In the floating bridge, boats or pontoons support the road. The bridge retracts or swings aside to allow ships to pass. The Allies crossed the Rhine on pontoon bridges in World War II (1939–45).
The transporter bridge ferries passengers or vehicles across a waterway. It has two towers supporting a fixed span from which a moving platform or car is hung. The transporter of the Sky Ride at the Century of Progress Exposition at Chicago in 1933–34 had a 1,850-foot (564-meter) span. Suspended from it, 215 feet (66 meters) above the ground, were 10 cars, each carrying 36 passengers.
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The design that engineers select depends upon many considerations. The location is important—is it a high, narrow canyon, a wide, marshy bay, or an earthquake-prone area? A higher bridge may be built if ocean liners will pass under it than if only river barges will. The foundations may rest on bedrock close to the surface or under many feet of soft mud. Other factors are appearance and the costs of construction, operation, and maintenance. The method of erection is also considered.
Bridge construction begins with the substructure, or foundation. Then the superstructure, or span, is erected. The foundation consists of abutments and piers. An abutment is a support at the end of a bridge. A pier is an intermediate support.
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Timber or concrete piles may be used to support light bridges. For heavier bridges, concrete or masonry supports may be built. Planks or steel pilings are used to form a cofferdam, or watertight enclosure at the bottom of a body of water. After the water is pumped out, the ground is excavated and concrete is poured.
If the bedrock is deep or quicksand is encountered, a caisson may be used. This is a large bottomless box or cylinder made of timber or concrete. Weights force it down through the soil. Workers dig out the ground inside. Compressed air may be used to keep out the water. The excavated caisson is filled with concrete. A pier of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, in California, is 242 feet (74 meters) below water, a world record. (See also caisson.)
Many methods of erecting the superstructure have been developed for the different types of bridges and site conditions. The six main methods are falsework, flotation, hoisting, cantilevering, suspension, and rolling (or sliding).
Temporary scaffolding built of timber or steel that holds the bridge up until it is self-supporting is called falsework. It is well suited to truss bridges because of the many pieces that have to be assembled. The riverbed must be suitable for driving piles, and the river must be free of traffic, floods, swift currents, and ice.
In the flotation method the span is either constructed on barges or constructed on shore and transferred to barges. It is then floated into position. The span is lowered into place by flooding the barges or waiting until the tide goes out.
Hoisting is generally used to erect girder spans. A crane mounted on the bridge, on shore, or on a barge lifts the span into position.
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Several instances in bridge building require cantilevering. For cantilever bridges, the arms are built out piece by piece. Then the suspended span is raised into place from barges by jacks or cables or built out until the halves meet. For steel arches, tieback cables extending from the shore to the unfinished sections hold up the bridge until it is finished. Cantilevering does not halt navigation.
The towers of a suspension bridge are built first. After the towers are built, the wires for the cables are strung over them from anchorage to anchorage by spinning wheels that travel back and forth. Suspender cables are hung from the main cables. The floor and stiffening trusses are fastened to them.
Military engineers commonly use rolling, or sliding, to construct bridges. The bridge is constructed on shore and rolled endwise into position. A new span may be built next to an old one and moved sideways into place to reduce interruption of traffic. The portable Bailey bridge was invented in World War II by British engineer Donald Coleman Bailey. Its small truss sections look like a toy Erector set. It is moved out over the stream on rollers. One of Bailey's bridges spanned 4,000 feet (1,200 meters).
The earliest bridges were made from materials at hand. Some of the oldest known bridges in many parts of the world were long thin slabs of stone placed over piers of large rocks or blocklike piles of stones.
In warm parts of the world bridge builders erected suspension bridges using ropes of vines and grasses. In one Chinese type the traveler sat in a basket or saddle suspended from a cable and slid to the opposite bank. Bridge makers in the Himalayas threw ropes across a chasm and from these hung thinner ropes to carry the road. This was the origin of the modern suspension bridge. The cantilever bridge also originated in India. Wooden planks weighted down by abutment stones were projected from the two banks until they met in the center.
The principle of the true arch was discovered by the Babylonians in Mesopotamia before 5000 bc. The Chinese used the method for bridges after ad 100.
In the 9th century bc the Greek poet Homer spoke of the use of pontoon bridges by soldiers. In the conquest of Babylon in 537 bc the Persian army under Cyrus the Great built a bridge across the Euphrates River that was supported by inflated animal skins.
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The Romans were great bridge builders. Six of their masonry arch bridges over the Tiber River still stand in Rome. The most beautiful of the existing Roman bridges is the Ponte di Augusto, built at Rimini in about 5 bc.
During the Middle Ages the Christian church became the chief builder of bridges in Europe. Churchmen formed the Brotherhood of Bridge Builders in Italy and France at the end of the 12th century. St. Bénézet built a beautiful stone bridge over the Rhône River at Avignon, in southern France. Four of its arches still remain.
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Monks also built the old London Bridge, completed in 1209, over the Thames River, in London, England. This is the bridge of nursery-rhyme fame. By the 16th century more than a hundred shops and dwellings had been erected on it. It served London for 600 years. Another covered bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, still stands over the Arno River, at Florence, Italy. Built in 1345, it has shops along both sides.
A major contribution of the Renaissance was the theory of the truss. Andrea Palladio, an Italian architect, published a treatise that applied four different trusses to bridge building.
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Typical of the bridge design of this period is the stone arch Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. The marble Santa Trinità Bridge over the Arno at Florence, completed in 1569, was destroyed in World War II but rebuilt. A number of Renaissance stone bridges remain over the Seine in Paris, though most have been rebuilt. A notable exception is the Pont Neuf, which was completed in 1606 and remains intact. At the time of its completion, it was the newest bridge in Paris, hence its name, which means "New Bridge." Today, however, it is the oldest bridge in the city. Ottoman Turks built the landmark stone arch Mostar Bridge in 1566, in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was destroyed during a civil war in 1993 but was completely restored.
In the 18th century bridge design became a science. Hubert Gautier, a French engineer, wrote the first treatise on bridge building in 1717. The first engineering school was founded in Paris at about this time. Its director, Jean Perronet, is called the father of modern bridge building. He perfected the masonry arch, using a flat arch and slender piers. One of his finest bridges is the Pont de la Concorde in Paris. A great English builder, John Rennie, designed the new London Bridge over the Thames.
Also in the 1700s, the wooden truss bridge was rediscovered. The covered wooden bridge was probably invented in Switzerland. The Grubenmann brothers, Swiss carpenters, built a 200-foot (60-meter) span at Wettingen.
The picturesque covered bridge, which resembles a house or barn, was highly developed in the American Colonies. Col. Enoch Hale built the first framed timber bridge in the United States, over the Connecticut River at Bellows Falls, Vermont, in 1785. The era's greatest single span built of wood was that of the "Colossus"—340 feet (104 meters) over the Schuylkill River at Fairmont, Pennsylvania. It was the work of Louis Wernwag in 1812. It combined the arch and truss.
The invention of the steam locomotive changed bridge building because stronger spans were needed. Iron was first used for chain cables of a suspension over the Tees River, in England, in 1741. The flooring was laid directly upon the cables. Abraham Darby and John Wilkinson built the first iron bridge, over the Severn River at Coalbrookdale, England, in 1779. This 100-foot (30-meter) arch bridge is still in service.
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Thomas Telford built the first modern iron arch bridge, Craig Ellachie Bridge, over the Spey at Banffshire, Scotland, in 1813. It has a 150-foot (46-meter) span. It was not built up of cast-iron blocks in imitation of masonry, as were previous iron arch bridges, but was the first to use an arch made up of iron trusses. In 1819–24 Telford built the forerunner of the modern suspension bridge—the 570-foot (174-meter) span over Menai Strait in Wales. It had wrought-iron chains for cables.
The first to design railroad bridges was George Stephenson, who with his son Robert invented the Rocket, the first practical locomotive. Robert Stephenson built the Britannia Tubular Bridge over Menai Strait in 1846–50. Its two boxlike tubes were made of iron plates riveted together. Many truss designs were patented in the 1850s for railroad bridges. After numerous failures of cast-iron bridges, wrought iron was used, then steel.
The first bridge to make extensive use of steel and pneumatic caissons was the triple-arched Eads Bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis, Missouri. Finished in 1874, the bridge was an important link in the transcontinental railroad and made St. Louis a crossroads. Its builder, James B. Eads, became the first engineer in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.
The modern era of steel arch building began in the 20th century. The Bayonne Bridge, completed in 1931 over Kill van Kull between New York and New Jersey, has a 1,652-foot (504-meter) span. Australia's Sydney Harbour Bridge, finished in 1932, is only 2 feet (0.6 meter) shorter.
At the turn of the 20th century, the use of masonry to construct arch bridges reached its peak. Masonry was replaced by the more economical and easier to use concrete, and later by reinforced and prestressed concrete.
A.F. Kersting
The first modern cantilever was built in 1867 by Heinrich Gerber over the Main River at Hassfurt, Germany. It had a main span of 425 feet (130 meters). The first major example of the cantilever, however, was the Firth of Forth Bridge in Scotland. It was built in 1882–90 with two 1,709-foot (521-meter) spans. Its steel truss members are tubular in shape. The Quebec Bridge, completed in 1917 over the St. Lawrence River in Canada, has an even longer main span, at 1,800 feet (549 meters).
The greatest triumph of bridge engineering is the suspension bridge. As the suspension bridge began to largely replace the cantilever, the United States became the world leader in building this new type of long-span bridge. One reason was the peninsula sites of two of its greatest cities—New York and San Francisco.
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John A. Roebling perfected the suspension bridge. He developed the modern method of stringing parallel wire cables and of stiffening suspension bridges. His greatest achievement was his design of the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River in New York City. It has a span of 1,595 feet (486 meters). While making his final surveys, Roebling had an accident and died. His son, Washington A. Roebling, completed the bridge. He was paralyzed during the sinking of a pneumatic caisson but continued to direct construction from his room. The bridge was finished in 1883.
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For 20 years the Brooklyn Bridge span was the longest in the United States. Then the Williamsburg Bridge over the East River in New York was completed in 1903 with a main span only about 5 feet (1.5 meters) longer. In the 1920s and 1930s even longer bridges were built. The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson linking New York and New Jersey was completed in 1931 with a main span of 3,500 feet (1,067 meters). This was almost double the former record. In 1937 San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was completed with a span of 4,200 feet (1,280 meters).
This record span went unchallenged until 1964, when the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was completed. Its two 690-foot (210-meter) towers support a 4,260-foot (1,298-meter) center span over New York Harbor, linking Brooklyn with Staten Island. It was designed by Othmar H. Ammann, who also participated in the building or planning of the George Washington, Golden Gate, and Bayonne bridges.
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, completed in 1936, is more than 8 miles (12.9 kilometers) long. It includes two suspension bridges, each with a 2,310-foot (704-meter) main span, and a cantilever bridge with a 1,400-foot (427-meter) main span.
In 1940 the Tacoma Narrows Bridge—then the world's third longest bridge—was built across the Narrows of Puget Sound, in the state of Washington. Four months later a 42-mile-per-hour wind caused the flexible 2,800-foot (853-meter) span to twist until it tore loose. Its failure spurred research in aerodynamic design. "Galloping Gertie," as bridge was nicknamed, was replaced in 1950 with a structure that incorporated stiffening girders. These components reduce the vertical and torsional, or twisting, movements that can result from high winds or other forces.
The Ponte 25 de Abril (originally Salazar Bridge), over Portugal's Tagus River, was completed in 1966. Its main span of 3,323 feet (1,013 meters) made it the longest suspension bridge in Europe until the Humber Bridge in England, with a main span of 4,626 feet (1,410 meters), was opened in 1981. The central span length of Denmark's Great Belt East, completed in 1998, surpassed that of the Humber by about 700 feet (215 meters).
Japan's Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, however, which was also completed in 1998, has the world's longest main span. Measuring approximately 12,828 feet (3,910 meters) in total length and with a center span of roughly 6,532 feet (1,991 meters), the bridge links the city of Kobe, on Honshu Island, with Matsuho, on Awaji Island. Its towers soar 928 feet (283 meters) in height. The bridge is part of an extensive project involving some 17 bridges that form three separate routes to link the islands of Honshu and Shikoku.
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For many years Europe's highest bridge was the Europabrücke, opened in 1965, a plate-girder bridge that towers 623 feet (190 meters) over the Austrian Sill River. The Millau Viaduct bridge, west of Millau, France, became the world's highest bridge when it opened in 2004. The cable-stayed bridge soars 886 feet (270 meters) over the Tarn Gorge.
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In addition to building longer and higher bridges, engineers have also sought to build cheaper, lighter, and stronger ones. For example, in a method called orthotropic construction a stiffened steel plate acts as both the road deck and the top flange of the main lengthwise girders. This design, first used in Europe, cuts costs and reduces the weight of the bridge. Many of the world's longest bridges, including the Akashi Kaikyo and Great Belt East, have been built using this method. Some older bridges, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, have had their aging concrete decks replaced with orthotropic ones. Many older bridges, especially in California, have also been retrofitted with new structures and technology to help them better withstand earthquakes.
Adkins, Jan. Bridges: From My Side to Yours (Roaring Brook, 2002).Curlee, Lynn. The Brooklyn Bridge (Atheneum, 2001).Graf, Bernhard. Bridges That Changed the World (Prestel, 2005).Johmann, C.A., and others. Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build and Test (Williamson, 1999).Macaulay, David. Building Big (Houghton, 2000).