Suspension Bridge: The George Washington Bridge

1512 Words4 Pages

vBridge is a structure that allows you to go over obstacles such as valleys, rough terrain or water by spanning those obstacles with natural or manmade materials. In the past people invented bridges to cross small distance over simple obstacle such as a pond, they used a simple logs or two vines and put it over the distance they wanted to cross. However, today bridges are much more complex. Todays bridges are made of stone, wood, steel, and reinforced concrete. Metals such as aluminum, titanium. Using these material, our modern brides are much more durable than the ones made in the past. Today, bridges are used similarly, but the only difference is that we now make bridges to make crossing lage distance faster and more convenient rather than …show more content…

Known for being the busiest bridge in the world because of the traffic it encounters during rush hours. The advantage for George Washington Bridge was that, two lanes were added to the original six on the upper deck. Then the upper-deck median barrier was added in 1962. For safety reasons workers wear two harnesses and everything is securely attached, because if anything were to fall then it will create a traffic accident and sudden weather can change everything. The Disadvantage was that the speed limit on the bridge is 45 mph (70 km/h), though heavy traffic is common and frequently it makes it difficult to reach such speeds when crossing it. The workers that painted the bridge had to go all the way to the top to paint, they have to look straight when going up. If there is a mistake there is a net below that will catch them if they fell. The dangerous part is the barrels of the bridge is round and sloping. The George Washington Bridge was completed eight months ahead of schedule and under budget. Also when it was completed in 1931 the George Washington was the longest suspension bridge in the world. But was eventually displaced as the longest bridge by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in …show more content…

The bridge collapsed december 16, 1967, and killed about 46 people and seriously injured 9 others. The bridge collapse was due to the defect of a single bridge support link, which was “a brittle fracture of the lower half of the eye, then a ductile fracture of the upper half,…resulting in pulling…the companion eyebar off the pin which had connected it with the fractured eyebar”, this caused an inevitable failure of the bridge. Overall, a major factor in this bridge collapse was was the bridges design in general. “The eyebar chains supporting the bridge deck were made up of long, twelve inch wide, and two inch thick steel beams that had circular “eyes” at each end. Each chain had two eyebars in parallel. When chains met, the two eyebars in parallel were connected to the next two eyebars in parallel in the chain via a single pin. Each chain had two eyebars in parallel. When chains met, the two eyebars in parallel were connected to the next two eyebars in parallel in the chain via a single pin.” In the end, the bridge had many factors that caused it to collapse, but people do learn from accidents like this, and continue to improve what still

More about Suspension Bridge: The George Washington Bridge

Open Document