Civil Related Links Types of bridges |
 Materials used in bridges |
There are six main types of bridges:.... |
The traditional building materials for bridges are stones, timber and steel, and more recently reinforced and pre-stressed concrete. For special elements aluminum and its alloys and some types of plastics are used. These materials have different qualities of strength, workability, durability and resistance against... |
The designer should have first seen and studied many bridges in the course of a long learning process. He should know what type of beam may be suitable in the available conditions, either a beam bridge an arch bridge or a suspended one. He should also know the influence of foundation conditions on the...  [Read More]
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Many people, indeed many engineers, who are not familiar with the subject think that constructing a bridge across a river is entirely a problem in structural engineering. They assume that the bridge opening can be made so large that it will completely span the river at such a height that floodwater will never rise anywhere near the deck. If this was always true there would be little need to study bridge hydraulics, but in reality things are rarely this simple... |
Bridges
History & Introduction
The first bridges were made by nature — as simple as a log fallen across a stream. The first bridges made by humans were probably spans of wooden logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support and crossbeam arrangement. Most of these early bridges could not support heavy weights or withstand strong currents. It was these inadequacies which led to the development of better bridges.
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 open-spandrel stone segmental arch bridge. The first book on bridge engineering 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.
Bridges are classified on the basis that how the four forces namely shear, compression, tension, and moment are distributed in the bridge structure.
Definition
A structure built to span and provide passage over a river, chasm, road, or any other physical hurdle. The function required from the bridge and the area where it is constructed decides the design of the bridge.
