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Paola N. De Lon
Mr. Gonzalez
Design Y2
February 4, 2015

Bridges
Bridges actually start really way back when people needed to get
themselves over impossible obstacles like rocks, rivers, etc and
practically they needed something to go over those obstacles the
bridges were invented because those obstacles without bridges
would have taken ages and ages to cross them over.

Now the thing is, before bridges what was used to get over
oceans, river and lakes? Well ferries (They are really big boats)
were used before bridges and they were really handy because the
cars would get on the ferries and wait until the ferries had already
crossed the rivers, oceans and lakes.

But, before we had diverse types of bridges today, back then a

beam bridge, a log, or two vines may be woven fibrous ropes will
work as a bridge, but obviously stone bridges came later on time.

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But, now we have different types of bridges diverse thats good

but the different types of bridges have their advantages and
disadvantages like anything else thats normal so lets get to their
advantages and disadvantages, also their brief description of
each, for example the Truss bridge its structure is mainly based
on triangles that makes them really strong but, they are really
complex to build, another example would be the suspension
bridge like the golden gate bridge
The reason why its called suspension is because they suspend on
stretchy cables
And two towers to hold the cables its a convenient because last
longer, they are really expensive to build, Cantilever is another
their design is based on structures that project horizontally into a
space they are really easy to build in a hard crossing but a really
bad thing is that they can be really difficult to maintain
Last but not less important is the beam bridge is the oldest type
of bridge they are really easy to build but they have a limited
span.

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There are also real world examples some have really interesting
facts some have been used in wars, or they are a nationally
protected or even have the shortest or longest span but, some
are just normal bridges with no history to tell but they are
fascinating. An example is the Alcantara Bridge but is better
known like the Trajan is located in Spain; the interesting fact
about this one is that the emperor Trajan ordered to build it. Also
my personal favorite the Akashi Kaiky Bride in Japan
This is a suspension one, what makes interesting is that is that it
has the longest span limit in the world! , The Pulaski skyway in
Jersey City, its functionally design makes the skyway the most
unreliable bridge in the United States, the Anping in china does
this one is another personal favorite this bridge is nationally
protected.

Now we have some poorly constructed bridges around the world

like the following three the Tacoma Bridge in Kitsap peninsula, the
Rialto Bridge in Italy,
Or the Stirling bridge in Stirling, Scotland.

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How they collapsed is the interesting thing and I am about to tell

how,
The Tacoma bridge in the Kitsap peninsula collapsed because of
the harmonic of the wind running at about 40 miles per hour, the
Rialto bridge in Italy was made out of wood (now in present day is
made out of stone) it jammed because too many people were
planning a parade to celebrate the just married couple and finally
the Stirling bridge was made out of stone why it collapsed was
because the Scottish and the British were in a war the Scottish
were fighting for their independence which they won .

Finally I have decided the type of bridge that Im going to be

working on after days of work and research; I have come to the
decision of constructing a Truss Bridge because its design
includes triangles makes the bridge rigid; Now a Truss bridge is a
structure of connected elements forming triangular units, the
triangular units must be stressed from tension.
SITE:
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/bridge-structureearly-bridges.html

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http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/questions-andanswers/bridges-common-ferries-used-transport-cars-acrossrivers-river-ferries-unlike-larger-cousi-q4946688
http://www.historyandheadlines.com/10-famous-bridge-collapses/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anping_Bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulaski_Skyway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashi_Kaiky%C5%8D_Bridge
http://www.ehow.com/info_8554425_advantages-disadvantagestypes-bridges.html
http://theconstructor.org/structures/history-of-bridges/5491/