Comparing Varied Bridges And Suspension Bridge

960 Words2 Pages

The question of the century is what is a bridge? According to Google’s definition, it is “a structure carrying a road, path, railroad, or canal across a river, ravine, road, railroad, or other obstacle.” Looking further, it provides passage over obstacles such as valleys, rough terrain or bodies of water by spanning those obstacles with manmade materials. Another question is when did bridges erupt? It is said that the first bridges were believed to be made by nature itself. An example would be just as simple as a log that has fallen across a stream. Bridges would also be made by natural rock itself that laid across to lead you to another side. It is said that humans officially began constructing bridges in ancient times in Mesopotamia. From …show more content…

The classifications are cable-stayed bridges, suspension bridges, truss bridges, arch bridges, cantilever bridges and beam bridges. A cable-stayed bridge looks similar to a suspension bridge. They both have roadways that hang from cables and both have towers. But the two bridges support the load of the roadway in very different ways. The difference lies in how the cables are connected to the towers. In suspension bridges, the cables ride freely across the towers, transmitting the load to the anchorages at either end. In cable stayed bridges, the cables are attached to the towers, which alone can carry the load. The cables can be attached to the roadway in a variety of ways such as in a radical pattern or parallel pattern. A truss bridge is a bridge whose substructure is composed of a truss, which is a structure that contains connected material to form triangular shapes. The connected materials may be stressed with tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. An arch bridge is one of the most popular types of bridges which came into use over 3000 years ago and remained popular until the industrial revolution and advanced materials enabled architect to create other modern bridge designs. The basic principle of an arch bridge is that it has a curved design, which does not push load forces straight down, but instead they are conveyed along the curve of the arch to the supports on each end. These

Open Document