Types of Bridges

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Bridge is basically a structure that is built over a road, river, railroad/railway etc so that people can cross from one side to another. The basic concept or idea behind constructing a bridge is to cross large bodies of water or land. Bridge is a mean to join the two afar areas mostly over masses water or land so that it become easy for people to move across from one side to another quite easily. There are so many types of bridges which are based on the techniques used in construction. Different Types of Bridges Below are some of the different types of bridges: Beam Bridge: A beam bridge is basically drawn from the log bridge. Its construction relies on low steel beams, concrete and box grinders. It is said that the construction of beam bridge is the technically the easiest and uncomplicated among all the other types. Some of the bridges of this type include highway overpasses, flyovers or walkways. In this type of bridge a flat beam is supported on its both ends on piers.

Truss Bridge: This type of bridges is constructed by joining straight elements. These elements are often joined by means of pin joints. There is an abundance of forests in United States and hence of wood as well. Due to this fact, a lot of truss bridges were made in the past with timbers iron rods. Timbers were used as a source of compression and iron rods were used handle the tension. In the course of history, the truss bridges became popular from 1870s to 1930s. One such popular bridge is Deck truss Railroad Bridge constructed on the Erie Canal.

Arch Bridge: Arch bridges are called arch bridge because of having a shape similar to arches. These bridges are normally constructed with weight equally distributed into the ropes or chains at both the ends. The oldest arch bridge that still exists is the Mycenaean Arkadiko Bridge constructed in Greece somewhere around 1300BC. Although, Greeks and Etruscans were familiar with the arches, Romans were known to be the first who discover the art of constructing an arch bridge. Present day arch bridge are the modified from as they have become compression arch suspended deck bridge which rely on light but stronger tensile construction material. Suspension Bridge: A suspension bridge is a bridge that hangs from steel cables which are supported by towers on each end. Technically, the load of the bridge is transformed into the stretchiness in the cables. Some of the popular suspension bridges include the Golden Gate Bridge of United States, the Humber Bridge of England and the Tsing MA Bridge of China. Cable-stayed Bridge: These are almost similar to suspension bridge in their structure but with few exceptions. The major differences between the two exist in the quantity of steel cable used. In the cable-stayed bridge, the towers used to support cables are relatively shorter and require less amount of cable as compared to suspension bridge. Cable-stayed bridge has two different versions: the harp design and fan variant design. Cables are connected to several points in harp design while in fan variant, the cables are attached to the tower. In United States, Cable Bridge has the reputation of first of this type. Other popular bridge is Centennial Bridge.

Cantilever Bridge: These are the bridges which are constructed in such a way that they stand out in the direction of horizontal-axis in space. These bridges are supported just on one end. The bridges for low traffic are simply based on beams whereas the bridges for heavy traffic are comprised of box grinders or trusses. Two of the most popular cantilever

bridges include the Quebec Bridge of Canada (1800 feet long) and Oakland Bay Bridge of Sans Francisco (1400 feet long). Bridges are surely a great way to reach the places which people never think of by any other simple mean. Bridges not only connect far-off lands but also provide opportunity to the mankind to explore different aspect of new technology. A bridge may be a an inspiration of a man who saw a block of wood floating on a water surface or perhaps the urge to come in contact with people living far-off ends. Whatever the reasons, the bridge is surely a great way to defeat the physical hindrances.

Arch Bridge

Arch bridges date back to ancient times, when they were constructed from stones or bricks. Bridges built during the Middle Ages usually rested on basic stone arches with heavy support structures. Children can learn about the structure and design of arch bridges by making their own using a piece of cardboard about 1 inche by 11 inches. The cardboard is positioned on a table to resemble an arch and a stack of books placed at each end. This helps children understand how arch bridges withstand compression and distribute weight.

Beam Bridge

A beam bridge is basically a horizontal beam supported by piers that takes the weight of the beam and traffic passing over it. Concrete is often used in making beam bridges because it isn't expensive and withstands compression, which happens when weight pushes down on the beam, pushing the beam's top edge together. Children can make a beam bridge using a flat eraser or a small sponge and slicing a shallow V-shaped indentation at the top and bottom of the sponge or eraser. Place stacks of books at each end for support, then press down on the center of the bridge and see what happens. The Lake Ponchartrain Causeway is the world's longest beam bridge. It is 24 miles long and the beams are joined together in what is known as a continuous span.

Suspension Bridge

Suspension bridges are lightweight but strong and can 2,000-7,000 feet long. They are held together by cables extending the full length of the bridge. Early suspension bridges were made with twisted grass. Children can better understand the concept of suspension bridges using a simple experiment with a newspaper and a book. Folding the newspaper twice lengthwise and folding it into a tube should make it strong enough to hold the book. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge near Washington is a famous suspension bridge.

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Bridges are defined as a structure that is used to cross an area that might otherwise be hard to cross. There are many types of bridges. There are what we call Ethernet bridges which have to do with computer, and there is the bridge to terabithia which isnt even a bridge, but a book. There are bridges like the Clifton suspension bridge, and the golden gate bridge. Soon we will even have the skywalk bridge in the grand canyon. The Clifton suspension bridge The idea of building this great bridge that is located in Bristol, England came about in 1754 but, was never finished until 1864. They had lots of starts and stops. The bridge was closed to all traffic in 2003 because of the weight caused by people arriving to the Bristol festival. The golden gate bridge - A bridge that was designed by Joseph Strauss in 1921. The bridge spans the golden gate straight of San Francisco and was completed in 1937. The skyway bridge - A bridge made of glass that is suspended above the grand canyon. Its objective is to let people have a better view of the majesty of the grand canyon. The above are the actual great bridges that have been built by a bridge builder using great bridge design. Of course there are other types of bridges if you prefer, like the bridge game (a card game played by four people) or even a bridge loan (a loan to tide you over in difficult times). These types of bridges just don't seem as impressive as the former ones, do they?

1.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California bridges over bay image by Albert Lozano from Fotolia.com When bridge building actually started is unknown. One of the first documented bridges is a relief showing Seti I (1,291 to 1,279 BCE) crossing a bridge, while returning victorious from fighting in Canaan, in the first year of his reign. The beginning of bridge building engineering, to cross longer distances than just a few feet, is generally credited to the Romans. Their construction of permanent roads with bridges were created for the movement of troupes. A few of these structures still stand today.

2. Beam

Beam bridge over a waterfall sunny waterfall, lazarevskoe, sochi, russia image by Denis Babenko from Fotolia.com The beam type of bridge is the easiest construction to understand; these include when a tree that has fallen, or been cut to cross a small creek. The stacking of stones on each end to support a slab of stone is a beam type or span bridge. Multiple upright beams supporting a single or multiple decks allows this type of bridge to span distances more than just a few feet.

3. Arch

Stone arch bridge Twin arched bridge on Dartmoor image by Andrew Real from Fotolia.com The Roman's primary bridges were arch type constructed from heavy stone blocks. These bridges were engineered by wedging stones against another forming an arch. The last stone to be put into place, completing the arch, is called the keystone. Some of these bridges contained many arches to transverse further distances. Many of the Roman built bridges still stand today. Some are still carrying pedestrians and other traffic, while some were constructed to carry water.

4. Truss

Truss bridge construction Bridge image by Luke Haverkamp from Fotolia.com The rigidity of a triangle that is anchored at each joint is the basic configuration used in the construction of truss bridges. One triangle attached to another, making a straight line in single or multiple layers can be constructed to span long distances. A king post truss bridge is two right triangles attached at the 90 degree angles, with the one end of the hypotenuse attached at a beam, and the other attached to the post in the middle of the bridge. A queen post adds a horizontal top span, and can transverse even longer distances.

5. Suspension

Example of suspension bridge over a river menai suspension bridge. image by Harvey Hudson from Fotolia.com Suspension type bridges are the longest in the world. They are similar with cable-stayed wire type bridges, and are capable of spanning over a mile. Cables are hung from suspenders to support the deck from one pier to another, and are anchored at the end pillar or post. Multiple combinations of these engineering techniques are utilized to construct some of the most famous bridges in the world.

6. Cantilever
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The cantilever bridge is engineered where the deck projects farther than its support and is anchored only at one end. These bridges can be designed in conjunction with arch, truss and suspension engineering for a multitude of construction arrangements. The terrain and materials used will dictate the construction array.

Movable Bridges

Draw bridge in up position draw bridges of chicago image by Alexey Stiop from Fotolia.com Movable bridges are made up of two types: the draw bridge, and the swing bridge. The draw bridge is hinged on one end and cables or tresses hold

the other end in place when the bridge is down. Raising and lowering the bridge is performed by either gears cranking the bridge up, or the use of cable pulleys. The other type of movable bridge is a swing bridge. It can be moved from a center pivot or pivoted to the side with the aid of floating pontoons.

Pontoon Bridges

Pontoon deck bridge for floating dock rusty metal ladder image by GeoM from Fotolia.com All pontoon bridges are temporary bridges supported by boats, barges or pontoons. The rigid deck spans from one pontoon to another so that no one floating support the traffic load. Pontoon bridges are primarily used by the military, and for temporary traffic while the main bridge is repaired or a new bridge is constructed.

A bridge is a structure built to span a gorge, valley, road, railroad track, river, body of water, or any other physical obstacle. Designs of bridges will vary depending on the function of the bridge and the nature of the terrain where the bridge is to be constructed. History

The Si-o-se Pol bridge over Zayandeh River is the epitome of Safavid

dynasty (1502-1722 ) bridge design. Esfahan, Iran. The first bridges were made by nature, as simple as a log falling across a river. The first bridges made by humans were spans made of wooden logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support and crossbeam arrangement. Most of these early bridges were very poorly built and could rarely support heavy weights. It was this inadequacy which led to the development of better bridges. The arch was first used by the Roman Empire for bridges and aqueducts, some of which still stand today. These arch based bridges could stand in conditions that would damage or destroy more primitive designs.

An English 18th century example of a bridge in the Palladian style, with shops on the span: Pulteney Bridge, Bath.

An example is the Alcntara Bridge, built over the river Tagus, near Portugal. Most earlier bridges would have been swept away by the strong current. The Romans also used cement, which reduced the variation of strength found in natural stone. One type of cement, called pozzolana, consisted of water, lime, sand, and volcanic rock. Brick and mortar bridges were built after the Roman era, as the technology for cement was lost then later rediscovered. Although large Chinese bridges existed in wooden construction since the ancient Warring States, the oldest surviving stone bridge in China is the Zhaozhou Bridge, built from 595 to 605 AD during the Sui Dynasty. This bridge is also historically significant as it is the world's oldest openspandrel stone segmental arch bridge. European segmental arch bridges date back to at least the Alcontar Bridge (approximately 2nd century AD), while the enormous Roman era Trajan's Bridge (105 AD) featured open-spandrel segmental arches in wooden construction. Rope bridges, a simple type of suspension bridge, were used by the Inca civilization in the Andes mountains of South America, just prior to European colonization in the 1500s. During the 18th century there were many innovations in the design of timber bridges by Hans Ulrich, Johannes Grubenmann, and others. The first engineering book on building bridges was written by Hubert Gautier in 1716. With the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, truss systems of wrought iron were developed for larger bridges, but iron did not have the tensile strength to support large loads. With the advent of steel, which has a high tensile strength, much larger bridges were built, many using the ideas of Gustave Eiffel. Etymology

This Y-shaped bridge in Zanesville, Ohio, United States is the only one of its kind except for the older Margaret Bridge.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word bridge to an Old English word brycg, of the same meaning, derived from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic root brugj. There are cognates in other Germanic languages (for instance Brcke in German, brug in Dutch, brgv in Faroese or bro in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish).

Tower Bridge, London Another theory suggests that "bridge" comes from Turkish "kpr" (lit. bridge). It is highly possible that Turkish lent this word to Eastern European languages and then, in time, it arrived in English. "Kpr" itself is derived from "kprk (kpk)" which literally means "foam". The word for the Pope, pontiff, comes from the Latin word pontifex meaning "bridge builder" or simply just "builder". The word "Pope" however comes from "papa" meaning "father".

Millenium Footbridge, London Types of bridges

Charles Bridge in Prague. There are six main types of bridges: beam bridges, cantilever bridges, arch bridges, suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges and truss bridges. By use A bridge is designed for trains, pedestrian or road traffic, a pipeline or waterway for water transport or barge traffic. In some cases there may be restrictions in use. For example, it may be a bridge carrying a highway and forbidden for pedestrians and bicycles, or a pedestrian bridge, possibly also for bicycles. A Road-rail bridge carries both road and rail traffic. The area underneath several bridges have become makeshift shelters and homes to homeless people. The undersides of bridges all around the world are spots of prevalent graffiti. An aqueduct is a bridge that carries water, resembling a viaduct, which is a bridge that connects points of equal height. An unintended consequential use of a bridge is as a suicide bridge.

New Year's Eve on Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney, Australia. Decorative or ceremonial To create a beautiful image, some bridges are built much taller than necessary. This type, often found in east-Asian style gardens, is called a Moon bridge, evoking a rising full moon. Other garden bridges may cross only a dry bed of stream washed pebbles, intended only to convey an impression of a stream. Often in palaces a bridge will be built over an artificial waterway as symbolic of a passage to an important place or state of mind. A set of five bridges cross a sinuous waterway in an important courtyard of The Forbidden City in Beijing , the People's Republic of China. The central bridge was reserved exclusively for the use of the Emperor, Empress, and their attendants.

Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge) near Beijing

Puente Romano, Cordoba, Spain

Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy Structural and evolutionary taxonomy

A bridge taxonomy showing evolutionary relationships. Bridges may be classified by how the four forces of tension, compression, bending and shear are distributed through their structure. Most bridges will employ all of the principal forces to some degree, but only a few will predominate. The separation of forces may be quite clear. In a suspension or cable-stayed span, the elements in tension are distinct in shape and placement. In other cases the forces may be distributed among a large number of members, as in a truss, or not clearly discernible to a casual observer as in a box beam. Bridges can also be classified by their lineage, which is shown as the vertical axis on the diagram to the right. Efficiency A bridge's structural efficiency may be considered to be the ratio of load carried to bridge weight, given a specific set of material types. In one common challenge students are divided into groups and given a quantity of wood sticks, a distance to span, and glue, and then asked to construct a bridge that will be tested to destruction by the progressive addition of load at the center of the span. The bridge taking the greatest load is by this test the most structurally efficient. A more refined measure for this exercise is to weigh the completed bridge rather than measure against a fixed quantity of materials provided and determine the multiple of this weight that the bridge can carry, a test that emphasizes economy of materials and efficient glue joints (see balsa wood bridge). A bridge's economic efficiency will be site and traffic dependent, the ratio of savings by having a bridge (instead of, for example, a ferry, or a longer road route) compared to its cost. The lifetime cost is composed of materials, labor, machinery, engineering, cost of money, insurance, maintenance, refurbishment, and ultimately, demolition and associated disposal, recycling, and replacement, less the value of scrap and reuse of components. Bridges employing only compression are relatively inefficient structurally, but may be highly cost efficient where suitable materials are available near the site and the cost of labor is low. For medium spans, trusses or box beams are usually most economical, while in some cases, the appearance of the bridge may be more important than its cost efficiency. The longest spans usually require suspension bridges. Special installations Some bridges carry special installations such as the tower of Nov Most bridge in Bratislava which carries a restaurant. On other suspension bridge towers transmission antennas are installed. A bridge can carry overhead power lines as the Storstrm Bridge. Visual index

Arch bridge (Nagasaki Meganebashi, Japan ).

Beam bridge

Box girder bridge

Cable-stayed bridge

Cantilever bridge (Forth Bridge Edinburgh ).

Cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge (Puente del Alamillo ).

Clapper bridge (Tarr Steps).

Compression arch suspended-deck bridge (Sydney Harbour Bridge ).

Girder bridge

Log bridge

Moveable bridge (Salmon Bay Bridge).

Plate girder bridge

Pontoon bridge (Rhine River 1945).

Segmental bridge (Ft Lauderdale, Texas).

Self-anchored suspension bridge (Proposed SFOBB Eastern Span).

Side-spar cable-stayed bridge (Winnepeg Bridge).

Simple suspension bridge (Capilano Bridge).

Step-stone bridge ( ).

Stressed ribbon bridge (Essing, Germany).

Suspension bridge (Bristol, UK).

Trestle (Alhambra Trestle).

Truss arch bridge (Eastbound over SCB).

Truss bridge (Little Manatee River).

Tubular bridge (Conwy Castle).

Aqueduct (Pont du gard, France).

Bailey bridge (France).

Bridge of boats (WWI Scheld).

Covered bridge (Guilford Vermont).

Lattice truss (Guilford Vermont interior).

Double decker bridge (Vorobyovy Gory metro station Moscow).

Inca rope bridge

Lattice girder (laced strut or tie) (SF Oak BB).

Medium Girder Bridge (Mosul, Iraq).

Moon bridge

Packhorse bridge (Marsden, West Yorkshire, UK).

Water bridge (Dundas aqueduct).

Weigh bridge

Viaduct (Toronto bloorviaduct). Links