Physics Of Bridges

A considerable obstacle to the Legions was the number of small rivers and streams. Gradually, the legions became better at engineering, until every soldier was able to complete his part of a simple pontoon bridge, as shown here: Also taken from Trajan's column. These pontoon bridges were constructed from boats, over which planking was laid. When horses were required to cross, a small layer of earth was sometimes put on the bridge, to reassure them. Stone Roman bridges remain famous for their durability to this day, and their three or four arches was a roman concept, so that weight on the top of the bridge merely forced the keystones of the

A simple beam bridge that is flat across and supported at the two ends. A longer beam bridge can be held up along the middle by piers standing in the river. The weight of the bridge itself, plus the load that it carries, plus gravity are the downward forces are spread evenly across the length of the bridge. The upwards forces that hold the bridge up come from the piers. The Confederation Bridge in Canada is a famous beam bridge.

Compression is the force pressing a material and compacting it and acts on the towers of a suspension bridge, this force is created from the weight of the towers and the load on the bridge. Compression forces will also act on the surface of the bridge deck as when a load is applied it will have some flexibility and bend, it will then travel up the cables, ropes or chains to transfer the compression forces to the towers. The towers then dissipate the compression directly into the earth. (Bagga 2014).

Initially, suspension bridges before 1940 were made of piers, towers, wires, anchorages, and roadways. Piers were the main foundation for the suspension bridges. There usually were two of them, which were made out of cement and were entrenched in ground underneath the body of water that the bridge was spanned across. Towers were built on top of the piers to provide a means of connection for the roadways and wires. Wires were connected to the towers, roadways, and anchorages to provide tension support for the weight of the bridge. The anchorages were large cement platforms that were planted into the ground on either side of the land so that the wires could be connected to it. Lastly, the roadways were the main point of the suspension bridge. They usually were wide enough to provide four lanes of traffic and stretched from one side of the bridge to the other. This was the basic design of the suspension bridges

The final primary component of a suspension bridge is the deck, or the roadway upon which cars drive and pedestrians walk. The deck is built from massive pieces of steel-reinforced concrete hoisted into the air and laid into place upon the bridge. Deck pieces are connected with bolts and rivets, then suspension cables connect each section of deck to the main

These materials were used to build specific structures and technology. First of all, whenever they had to have water travel across valleys or other open landscapes, the Romans built bridges made of arches. These arches saved materials and money, as it took less to build arches than to build a solid wall. Also, arches were much more stable than a wall and were easily repairable. It was easy for pedestrians and vehicles to pass through the arches, too. However, when

Upfront concrete is the cheaper option which sounds good for the people paying for it, but in the long run steel is more economical. Steel bridges are re-buildable, damage to a steel bridge is more noticeable, it takes a shorter time to build a steel bridge and Steel is more durable than concrete. All signs point to steel being the best choice for a bridge to be as effective as possible. “Steel spans last longer than concrete ones. Those built by eight mostly European firms under the PBP are rated for 80-100 years”

The Pratt truss bridge was originally founded by Caleb and Thomas Pratt in 1844. It is mainly used to carry trains. The biggest advantage of this bridge was its low costs for construction and the materials to construct a truss bridge are minimal. It also use materials that is cheaper and light in weight. We can easily identify a pratt truss by detecting its diagonal members, which (excluding for the very end ones) all slant down and in toward the center of the span. The pratt truss was designed by applying few laws that related to the mechanics of materials concept. The bridge is mainly built using steel girders to support the construction of the structure. The below part of bridge weight is high so, it need an enough support to prevent from

Bridges. A bridge is permanently cemented to natural teeth. The natural teeth that anchor the bridge need to be stable and healthy in order to hold the bridge.

Truss bridges have been around for a long time. I see truss bridges the most out of all the different types of bridges and to me it seems like the most popular type of bridge. In addition there are thirty different types of Truss bridges which means that there is a bigger variety of Truss Bridges instead of just having one type. Truss bridges have triangular shaped beams that go all across the bridge. The bridge also is above the roadway instead of under the roadway like the arch bridge. Truss bridges could also stretch very far. The longest cantilever Truss bridge that goes is called Crescent City Connection and it is 13,418 feet long with a width of 52 feet. There is also a really long Truss bridge that is near Hoboken, the name of the bridge

Kaylie Griffin and I chose to build the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge located in Bristol, United Kingdom. A suspension bridge is a type of bridge which the deck is supported by cables that hang vertically off larger cables or hangers. Suspension bridges typically have two towers and are anchored to abutments at their ends.The towers help to support much of the weight that crosses the bridge’s deck, such as cars and people. The towers also dissipate the load directly into the planet Earth. These features of a suspension bridge are why they are strong therefore, one of the more popular designs for a bridge. When building our popsicle bridge, we had to add x shaped joints and brackets to help our

The overall structure was changed from initially being symmetrical throughout the bridge as the forces

With New Yorks skyscrapers it is hard to believe that the United States was not the leader of the construction of the first modern bridge in the world, according to Historic American Engineering Record(2008), the first modern bridge in the United States was built in 1 November 1855, and was named Gasconade Bridge, it was made out of Wooden Rail Bridge. Bridges are built all over the United States for different purposes but they are built to connect two parts of land together for transportation for instance, Hoover Dam Bridge, and others are built for commercial reasons and some are built for tourism for example, the Royal Gorge Bridge. But they have the same concept of connecting to lands together regardless to the reasons that they were constricted for. It

It is shaped in a way to transfer weight to the towers and anchors with its tension (O'Connor, 1971, p. 372). Cables are made of high strength wires spirally bound to form a rope (O'Connor, 1971, p. 372). Vertical cable suspenders that are fastened to the main cables hang the actual roadway. Stiffening girders and trusses are along the side of the bridge to distribute concentrated loads and help to keep the motion of the bridge at a minimum (Troitsky, 1994, p115).

(Vasani, 2011) Many components when assembled together form a bridge structure. Basic components of a bridge are superstructure or Decking, Bearings, Substructure which again consists of Piers and Abutments, Wing walls and Returns, and Foundation.