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This example is intended to be readily calculated by hand although a lot of
structural spreadsheets and software such as Prokon are available. The purpose of this
article is for the reader to fully understand the principle behind it.
Worked Example:

Figure
A.1-Retaining Wall Cross Section
Consider the cantilever retaining wall with the cross-section shown in the above Figure A.1,
which retains a 2m depth of soil having the groundwater table at -1.0m level.

Design Parameters:
 Soil Bearing Capacity, qall : 100 kPa
 Coefficient of Soil Friction, ф: 30°
 Unit Weight of Soil, ɣs: 18 kN/m3
 Unit Weight of Water, ɣw: 10 kN/m3
 Unit Weight of Concrete, ɣc: 25 kN/m3
 Surcharge, ω: 12 kN/m2
 Ground Water Level: -1m from 0.00 level
 Height of Surcharge, h: 0.8m
 Height of Wall: 2.0m
 f’c: 32 Mpa
 fy: 460 Mpa
 concrete cover: 75mm
1. Analytical Geometry and Variables
Before we proceed with the design, it is important for the designer to know the geometric
variable and parameters of the retaining wall. Refer to Figure A.2 below.
Figure A.2-Retaining Wall Geometric Variables

where:

 H: Height of the retaining wall

 L: Width of the base
 D: Thickness of the base
 B: Width of the toe
 C: Stem thickness at the bottom
 T: Stem thickness at the top
2. Approximate Proportions of a Cantilever Retaining Wall
The next thing to consider is the assumptions that we can make in terms of the geometry of
the retaining wall that we are designing. Given the height, H of the retaining wall, we can
assume or counter check our initial design considerations should at least according to the
following geometric proportions:

 Base width: L= 0.5H to 2/3H

 Thickness of base: D= 0.10H
 Stem thickness at the bottom: C=0.10H
 Width of the toe: B= 0.25L to 0.33L
 Stem thickness at the top: t=250mm (minimum)
Based on the above approximate geometric proportions, let us assumed the following
parameters to be used in our design:

 Base width:                 L= 1.5m

 Base thickness:          D= 0.25m
 Stem thickness:          C=t =0.25m
 Width of Toe:               B= 0.625m
3. Analytical Model
Sketches of the retaining wall forces should be considered to properly distinguish the
different forces acting on our retaining wall as tackled in the previous article, Retaining
Wall: A Design Approach. Based on our example in Figure A.1, we have the forces due to
soil pressure, due to water and surcharge load to consider. Figure A.3 below is most likely
our analytical model.

READ ALSO:   Types of Pile Testing

 Figure A.3-Retaining Wall Forces Diagram

Considering the Figure A.3, we can derive the following equation for the active pressures,
Pa and passive pressure Pp. Notice that the pressures acting on the wall are equivalent to
the area (triangle) of the pressure distribution diagram. Hence,

 Pa1=1/2 ɣKaH2              →eq. 1,  where H is the height of retained soil

 Pa2=1/2 ɣHw2                  →eq.2,  where Hw is the height of the groundwater level
 Pa3=ωKah                    →eq.3,  where h is the height of surcharge
The passive pressure, Pp would be:

 Pp=1/2 ɣkpHp2               →eq.4

Values of Coefficient of Pressure, ka and kp
According to Rankine and Coulomb Formula, the following are the equation in calculating
the coefficient of pressure:

Ka= (1-sin ф)/(1+sin ф)

Ka= 0.33

Kp= (1+sin ф)/(1-sin ф)
Kp= 3

Substituting the values, we have the following results:


o Pa1=1/2 ɣkaH2  = 11.88kN
o Pa2=1/2 ɣHw2= 5kN
o Pa3=ωkah= 3.17 kN
o Pp=1/2 ɣkpHp2= 9.72kN
3. Stability Check:
There are two checks to consider the stability of the retaining wall. One is the check for an
overturning moment and the other one is the check for sliding. The weight of the retaining
wall including the gravity loads within it plays a vital role in performing the stability check.
Refer to Figure A.4 for the mass or weight calculations.

Figure A.4-Retaining Wall Weight Components

The self-weight component of the retaining wall should be factored down or to be multiplied
by weight reduction factor (0.9) to account for uncertainty because they are “stabilizing” in
this context. Hence,


o Weight due to soil: W1= 18kN/m3 x 0.6m x 0.625m x 1.0m = 6.75kN
o Weight due to footing: W2= 0.9 x 25kN/m3 x 0.25m x 1.5m x 1.0m = 8.44kN
o Weight due to wall: W3= 0.9 x 25kN/m3 x 0.25m x 2.0m x 1.0m = 11.25kN
o Weight due to soil: W4= 18kN/m3 x 0.625m x 2.0m x 1.0m = 22.5kN
o Weight due to water: W5= 10kN/m3 x 0.625m x 1.0m x 1.0m = 6.25kN
o Weight due to surcharge: Ws= 12kN/m2 x 0.625m x 1.0m = 7.5kN
o Total Weight, WT = 62.69kN
3.1 Check for Overturning Moment:
To satisfy the Overturning Moment Stability, the following equation should follow:

where:


o RM: Righting Moment due to the weight of the retaining wall
o OM: Overturning Moment due to lateral earth pressure
With reference to Figure A.4 diagram and taking moment at the point, P conservatively
neglecting the effect of passive pressure hence:

 RM= W2 (0.75) + W3(0.75) + W4(1.19) + W5(1.19) + Ws(1.19) = 57.91 kNm

 OM= Pa1 (0.67) +Pa2 (0.33) +Pa3 (0.4) = 10.88kNm
RM/OM = 5.32 > 2.0,                         hence SAFE in Overturning Moment!

READ ALSO:   FRP & Other Concrete Strengthening Solutions

3.2 Check for Sliding

To satisfy the stability against sliding, the following equation should govern:
where:


o RF: Resisting Force
o SF: Sliding Force
The sliding check should be carried out with reference to the Figure A.4 diagram and
considering the summation of vertical forces for resisting force and horizontal forces for
sliding force conservatively neglecting the passive pressure, hence:

 RF= W1+W2+W3+W4+W5+ Ws = 55.94kN

 SF= Pa1+Pa2+Pa3 = 20.05kN
RF/SF = 2.79 > 1.5,      hence SAFE for Sliding!
4. Check the Wall Thickness for Shear
The nominal shear is equal to the lateral forces on the retaining wall, neglecting the effect of
passive pressure which will give us:

 Nominal Shear, Vn = 20.05kN

 Ultimate Shear, Vu = 1.6Vn = 32.08kN
For the thickness of the wall to be safe in shear, the ultimate shear, V u should less than the
allowable shear, Vallow as recommended by the ACI 318 code.

Vc = 0.17√fc’bwd
where: ф=0.75

bw=1000mm
d= 250mm-75mm-6mm = 169mm

Vc = 0.17√fc’bwd = 162.52kN
Vallow= 121.89kN
 Since Vu < Vallow, hence SAFE in Shear!
5. Design the Wall Stem for Flexure
 Nominal Moment, Mn = 10.88kNm
 Ultimate Moment, Mu = 1.6Mn = 17.40kNm
Mu =φ fc’ bd2ω (1- 0.59 ω)
17.40×106 = 0.90 x 32 x 1000 x 1692 ω (1-0.59 ω)
ω = 0.0216

ρ = ω fc’/fy= 0.00150

As= ρbd = 0.00150x1000x169 = 254mm2

Asmin= ρminbt = 0.002 x 1000 x 250 = 500mm2
Required Vertical Bar: Try T10-200; As act= 392mm2 x 2 sides = 785.4mm2
Required Horizontal Bar: Try T10-250; As act= 314mm2 x 2 sides= 628.32mm2
Hence: use T10-200 for vertical bar and T10-250 for horizontal bar.
6. Check for Bearing Pressure under Footing
The foundation bearing capacity usually governs the design of the wall. The soil, particularly
under the toe of the foundation, is working very hard to resist the vertical bearing loads,
sliding shear, and to provide passive resistance to sliding. The bearing capacity of the soil
should be calculated taking into account the effect of simultaneous horizontal loads applied
to the foundation from the soil pressure.

For the footing to be safe in soil pressure, the maximum soil pressure under working load
shall be less than the allowable soil bearing capacity. The maximum soil bearing pressure
under the footing considering 1m strip is:

where:


o P= 62.69kN
o A= (1×1.5) m2
o M=10.88 kNm
o b= 1m
o d=1.5m
Substituting the values above will give us:

qmax= 70.81kPa < qall=100 kPa, hence, oK!

Solving for Ultimate bearing pressure:

where:


o P= 1.6x 6.75 + 1.4×8.44 +1.4×11.25 +1.6x 22.5 +1.6×6.25 +1.6×7.5= 96.37kN
o A= (1×1.5) m2
o M=17.40kNm
o b= 1m
o d=1.5m
  Substituting the values above will give us:
 qumax= 110.65kN
 qumin= 17.85kN
7. Check the Required Length of the Base
If qumin is in tension check the required length otherwise ignore if it is in compression. Since
our qumin is tension (+), the value of L must be computed as follows:

READ ALSO:   Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Construction

 Figure A.5-Pressure Diagram under Tension

From Figure A.5:

Solve for Eccentricity:

e=M/P = 0.181

  
where:


o a=length of pressure
o qe= qumax
o b=1 meter strip


o a= 1.74m
L= 2(e+a/3) = 1.52 say 1.6m
8. Check the Adequacy of Footing Thickness for Wide Beam Shear
 Fig A.6-Pressure Diagram under Compression

8.1 When qumin is in Compression

 Solving for y by similar triangle: referring to Figure A.6 above

y/1.044      = (112.24-19.44)/1.5;        y = 64.59 kPa
qc= 19.44 + 64.59 = 84.03 kPa

 L’= (1.5m-1.044m) = 0.456m

 B= 1m strip
 qumax=112.24kPa
Vu= 44.75kN
 8.2 When qumin is in Tension
qc=y
 Solving for y by similar triangle: (referring to Figure A.6 above, L=a=1.75)
y/1.244= 112.24/1.75;         y = 79.79 kPa

 qc=79.79kPa
 Vu= 1/2 (qc + qumax) L’b
 L’= (1.6m-1.244m) = 0.356m
 B= 1m strip
 qumax=112.24 kPa
 Vu=34.18kN
 Hence, use:  Vu=44.75kN
 Vallow= фVc
Vc = 0.17√fc’bwd
where:
 
o ф=0.75
o bw=1000mm
o d= 250mm-75mm-6mm = 169mm
Vc = 0.17√fc’bwd = 162.52kN
Vallow= 121.89kN
 Since Vu < Vallow, hence SAFE in Shear!
9. Check the Wall Thickness for Flexure

Figure A.7-Pressure Diagram for Flexure Check

9.1 When qumin is in Compression

Solving for y by similar triangle:(referring to Figure A.7 above)

y/0.875      = (112.24-19.44)/1.5;        y = 54.13 kPa

 qc= 19.44 + 54.13 = 73.57 kPa

 Mu= (73.57×0.625) x (0.625/2) + (38.67×0.625) (1/2) x (2/3) (0.625) → (area of trapezoid x
lever arm)
Mu=19.40 kNm
9.2 When qumin is in Tension
qc= qumin + y
Solving for y by similar triangle: (referring to Figure A.7 above. L=a=1.75)

y/1.075    = 112.24/1.75;         y = 68.95 kPa

qc=19.44 + 68.95= 88.39 kPa

 Mu = (88.39×0.75) x (0.75/2) + (23.85×0.75) (1/2) x (2/3) (0.75) → (area of trapezoid x
lever arm)
 Mu= 19.40kNm
 Hence, use Mu=29.33kNm
Mu =φ fc’ bd2ω (1- 0.59 ω)
29.33×106 = 0.90 x 32 x 1000 x 1692 ω (1-0.59 ω)
ω = 0.0364

ρ = ω fc/fy= 0.002532

As= ρbd = 0.002532x1000x169 = 428mm2

Asmin= ρminbt = 0.002 x 1000 x 250 = 500mm2
Required Vertical Bar: Try T10-200; As act= 392mm2 x 2 sides = 785.4mm2
Required Horizontal Bar: Try T10-250; As act= 392mm2 x 2 sides= 628.32mm2
 10. Reinforcement Details of Retaining Wall

The presented calculations above are actually too tiring to perform manually especially if
you are doing a trial and error design. Thanks to structural design soft
wares and spreadsheets, available nowadays, our design life will be easier.
Our team developed a user-friendly spreadsheet for the design of cantilever retaining
wall based on the above calculation. Grab your copy here!
DGHHHHHHHHHHHFGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

bridge, structure that spans horizontally between supports, whose function is to carry
vertical loads. The prototypical bridge is quite simple—two supports holding up a beam
—yet the engineering problems that must be overcome even in this simple form
are inherent in every bridge: the supports must be strong enough to hold the structure
up, and the span between supports must be strong enough to carry the loads. Spans are
generally made as short as possible; long spans are justified where good foundations are
limited—for example, over estuaries with deep water.
All major bridges are built with the public’s money. Therefore, bridge design that best
serves the public interest has a threefold goal: to be as efficient, as economical, and as
elegant as is safely possible. Efficiency is a scientific principle that puts a value on
reducing materials while increasing performance. Economy is a social principle that
puts value on reducing the costs of construction and maintenance while retaining
efficiency. Finally, elegance is a symbolic or visual principle that puts value on the
personal expression of the designer without compromising performance or economy.
There is little disagreement over what constitutes efficiency and economy, but the
definition of elegance has always been controversial.

suspension bridge across the River Conwy

Modern designers have written about elegance or aesthetics since the early 19th century,
beginning with the Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. Bridges ultimately belong to the
general public, which is the final arbiter of this issue, but in general there are three
positions taken by professionals. The first principle holds that the structure of a bridge
is the province of the engineer and that beauty is fully achieved only by the addition
of architecture. The second idea, arguing from the standpoint of pure engineering,
insists that bridges making the most efficient possible use of materials are by definition
beautiful. The third case holds that architecture is not needed but that engineers must
think about how to make the structure beautiful. This last principle recognizes the fact
that engineers have many possible choices of roughly equal efficiency and economy and
can therefore express their own aesthetic ideas without adding significantly to materials
or cost.

Generally speaking, bridges can be divided into two categories: standard overpass
bridges or unique-design bridges over rivers, chasms, or estuaries. This article describes
features common to both types, but it concentrates on the unique bridges because of
their greater technical, economic, and aesthetic interest.
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 Name That Thing: Architecture Quiz

The elements of bridge design

Basic forms

bridge forms
There are six basic bridge forms: the beam, the truss, the arch, the suspension,
the cantilever, and the cable-stay.
Beam

beam bridge
The beam bridge is the most common bridge form. A beam carries vertical loads by
bending. As the beam bridge bends, it undergoes horizontal compression on the top. At
the same time, the bottom of the beam is subjected to horizontal tension. The supports
carry the loads from the beam by compression vertically to the foundations.

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When a bridge is made up of beams spanning between only two supports, it is called
a simply supported beam bridge. If two or more beams are joined rigidly together over
supports, the bridge becomes continuous.

Truss

single-span truss bridge

A single-span truss bridge is like a simply supported beam because it carries vertical
loads by bending. Bending leads to compression in the top chords (or horizontal
members), tension in the bottom chords, and either tension or compression in the
vertical and diagonal members, depending on their orientation. Trusses are popular
because they use a relatively small amount of material to carry relatively large loads.
Arch

arch bridge
The arch bridge carries loads primarily by compression, which exerts on the foundation
both vertical and horizontal forces. Arch foundations must therefore prevent both
vertical settling and horizontal sliding. In spite of the more complicated foundation
design, the structure itself normally requires less material than a beam bridge of the
same span.
Suspension

suspension bridge
A suspension bridge carries vertical loads through curved cables in tension. These loads
are transferred both to the towers, which carry them by vertical compression to the
ground, and to the anchorages, which must resist the inward and sometimes vertical
pull of the cables. The suspension bridge can be viewed as an upside-down arch in
tension with only the towers in compression. Because the deck is hung in the air, care
must be taken to ensure that it does not move excessively under loading. The deck
therefore must be either heavy or stiff or both.
Cantilever

cantilever bridge
A beam is said to be cantilevered when it projects outward, supported only at one end.
A cantilever bridge is generally made with three spans, of which the outer spans are both
anchored down at the shore and cantilever out over the channel to be crossed. The
central span rests on the cantilevered arms extending from the outer spans; it carries
vertical loads like a simply supported beam or a truss—that is, by tension forces in the
lower chords and compression in the upper chords. The cantilevers carry their loads by
tension in the upper chords and compression in the lower ones. Inner towers carry those
forces by compression to the foundation, and outer towers carry the forces by tension to
the far foundations.
Cable-stay

cable-stayed bridge mechanics

Cable-stayed bridges carry the vertical main-span loads by nearly straight
diagonal cables in tension. The towers transfer the cable forces to the foundations
through vertical compression. The tensile forces in the cables also put the deck into
horizontal compression.
Materials
The four primary materials used for bridges have been wood, stone, iron, and concrete.
Of these, iron has had the greatest effect on modern bridges. From iron, steel is made,
and steel is used to make reinforced and prestressed concrete. Modern bridges are
almost exclusively built with steel, reinforced concrete, and prestressed concrete.
Wood and stone
Wood is relatively weak in both compression and tension, but it has almost always been
widely available and inexpensive. Wood has been used effectively for small bridges that
carry light loads, such as footbridges. Engineers now incorporate laminated
wooden beams and arches into some modern bridges.

Stone is strong in compression but weak in tension. Its primary application has been
in arches, piers, and abutments.
Iron and steel
The first iron used during the Industrial Revolution was cast iron, which is strong in
compression but weak in tension. Wrought iron, on the other hand, is as strong in
compression as cast iron, but it also has much greater tensile strength. Steel is an even
further refinement of iron and is yet stronger, superior to any iron in both tension and
compression. Steel can be made to varying strengths, some alloys being five times
stronger than others. The engineer refers to these as high-strength steels.

Concrete
Concrete is an artificial stone made from a mixture of water, sand, gravel, and a binder
such as cement. Like stone, it is strong in compression and weak in tension. Concrete
with steel bars embedded in it is called reinforced concrete. Reinforcement allows for
less concrete to be used because the steel carries all the tension; also, the concrete
protects the steel from corrosion and fire.

Prestressed concrete is an important variation of reinforced concrete. A typical process,

called post-tensioned prestressing, involves casting concrete beams with longitudinal
holes for steel tendons—cables or bars—like reinforced concrete, but the holes for the
tendons are curved upward from end to end, and the tendons, once fitted inside, are
stretched and then anchored at the ends. The tendons, now under high tension, pull the
two anchored ends together, putting the beam into compression. In addition, the curved
tendons exert an upward force, and the designer can make this upward force counteract
much of the downward load expected to be carried by the beam. Prestressed concrete
reduces the amount of steel and concrete needed in a structure, leading to lighter
designs that are often less expensive than designs of reinforced concrete.
Construction
Beam bridges
All bridges need to be secure at the foundations and abutments. In the case of a
typical overpass beam bridge with one support in the middle, construction begins with
the casting of concrete footings for the pier and abutments. Where the soil is especially
weak, wooden or steel piles are driven to support the footings. After the concrete piers
and abutments have hardened sufficiently, the erection of a concrete or steel
superstructure begins. Steel beams are generally made in a factory, shipped to the site,
and set in place by cranes. For short spans, steel beams are usually formed as a single
unit. At the site, they are placed parallel to each other, with temporary forms between
them so that a concrete deck can be cast on top. The beams usually have metal pieces
welded on their top flanges, around which the concrete is poured. These pieces provide a
connection between beam and slab, thus producing a composite structure.

For longer spans, steel beams are made in the form of plate girders. A plate girder is an I
beam consisting of separate top and bottom flanges welded or bolted to a vertical web.
While beams for short spans are usually of a constant depth, beams for longer spans are
often haunched—that is, deeper at the supports and shallower at mid-span. Haunching
stiffens the beam at the supports, thereby reducing bending at mid-span.
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 Name That Thing: Architecture Quiz

Arch bridges
Arches are normally fabricated on-site. After the building of abutments (and piers, if the
bridge is multiarch), a falsework is constructed. For a concrete arch, metal or wooden
falsework and forms hold the cast concrete and are later removed. For steel arches, a
cantilevering method is standard. Each side of an arch is built out toward the other,
supported by temporary cables above or by falsework below until the ends meet. At this
point the arch becomes self-supporting, and the cables or falsework are removed.
Suspension bridges

San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

When bridges requiring piers are built over a body of water, foundations are made by
sinking caissons into the riverbed and filling them with concrete. Caissons are large
boxes or cylinders that have been made from wood, metal, or concrete. In the case
of suspension bridges, towers are built atop the caissons. The first suspension-bridge
towers were stone, but now they are either steel or concrete. Next, the anchorages are
built on both ends, usually of reinforced concrete with embedded steel eyebars to which
the cables will be fastened. An eyebar is a length of metal with a hole (or “eye”) at the
ends. Cables for the first suspension bridges were made of linked wrought-iron eyebars;
now, however, cables are generally made of thousands of steel wires spun together at the
construction site. Spinning is done by rope pulleys that carry each wire across the top of
the towers to the opposite anchorage and back. The wires are then bundled and covered
to prevent corrosion. When the cables are complete, suspenders are hung, and finally
the deck is erected—usually by floating deck sections out on ships, hoisting them with
cranes, and securing them to the suspenders.

Cantilever bridges

Forth Railway Bridge

Like suspension bridges, steel cantilever bridges generally carry heavy loads over water,
so their construction begins with the sinking of caissons and the erection of towers and
anchorages. For steel cantilever bridges, the steel frame is built out from the towers
toward the centre and the abutments. When a shorter central span is required, it is
usually floated out and raised into place. The deck is added last.

The cantilever method for erecting prestressed concrete bridges consists of building a

concrete cantilever in short segments, prestressing each succeeding segment onto the
earlier ones. Each new segment is supported by the previous segment while it is being
cast, thus avoiding the need for falsework.
Cable-stayed bridges

cable-stayed bridge construction

Construction of cable-stayed bridges usually follows the cantilever method. After the
tower is built, one cable and a section of the deck are constructed in each direction. Each
section of the deck is prestressed before continuing. The process is repeated until the
deck sections meet in the middle, where they are connected. The ends are anchored at
the abutments.
Performance in service
See the testing of new bridge design which is capable of resisting earthquakes
See all videos for this article
Bridges are designed, first, to carry their own permanent weight, or dead load; second,
to carry traffic, or live loads; and, finally, to resist natural forces such as winds or
earthquakes.
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 railroad: Bridges

Live load and dead load

The primary function of a bridge is to carry traffic loads: heavy trucks, cars, and trains.
Engineers must estimate the traffic loading. On short spans, it is possible that the
maximum conceivable load will be achieved—that is to say, on spans of less than 30
metres (100 feet), four heavy trucks may cross at the same time, two in each direction.
On longer spans of a thousand metres or more, the maximum conceivable load is such a
remote possibility (imagine the Golden Gate Bridge with only heavy trucks crossing
bumper-to-bumper in each direction at the same time) that the cost of designing for it is
unreasonable. Therefore, engineers use probable loads as a basis for design.

In order to carry traffic, the structure must have some weight, and on short spans this
dead load weight is usually less than the live loads. On longer spans, however, the dead
load is greater than live loads, and, as spans get longer, it becomes more important to
design forms that minimize dead load. In general, shorter spans are built with beams,
hollow boxes, trusses, arches, and continuous versions of the same, while longer spans
use cantilever, cable-stay, and suspension forms. As spans get longer, questions of
shape, materials, and form become increasingly important. New forms have evolved to
provide longer spans with more strength from less material.
Forces of nature

expansion joint
Dead and live weight are essentially vertical loads, whereas forces from nature may be
either vertical or horizontal. Wind causes two important loads, one called static and the
other dynamic. Static wind load is the horizontal pressure that tries to push a bridge
sideways. Dynamic wind load gives rise to vertical motion, creating oscillations in any
direction. Like the breaking of an overused violin string, oscillations are vibrations that
can cause a bridge to fail. If a deck is thin and not properly shaped and supported, it
may experience dangerous vertical or torsional (twisting) movements.

The expansion and contraction of bridge materials by heat and cold have been
minimized by the use of expansion joints in the deck along with bearings at the
abutments and at the tops of piers. Bearings allow the bridge to react to varying
temperatures without causing detrimental stress to the material. In arches, engineers
sometimes design hinges to reduce stresses caused by temperature movement.

Modern bridges must also withstand natural disasters such as tropical

cyclones and earthquakes. In general, earthquakes are best withstood by structures that
carry as light a dead weight as possible, because the horizontal forces that arise from
ground accelerations are proportional to the weight of the structure. (This phenomenon
is explained by the fundamental Newtonian law of force equals mass times acceleration.)
For cyclones, it is generally best that the bridge be aerodynamically designed to have
little solid material facing the winds, so that they may pass through or around the bridge
without setting up dangerous oscillations.
The history of bridge design
Modern bridges, the focus of this article, began with the introduction of industrially
produced iron. They have evolved over the past 200 years as engineers came to better
understand the possibilities inherent first in cast iron, then in wrought iron and
structural steel, and finally in reinforced and prestressed concrete. These materials have
led to bridge designs that broke completely with the designs in wood or stone that
characterized bridges before the Industrial Revolution.

Industrial strength has been an important factor in the evolution of bridges. Great

Britain, the leading industrialized country of the early 19th century, built the most
significant bridges of that time. Likewise, innovations arose in the United States from
the late 19th century through the mid-20th century and in Japan and Germany in
subsequent decades. Switzerland, with its highly industrialized society, has also been a
fertile ground for advances in bridge building. In the early 21st century, China built a
number of the world’s longest viaducts for its high-speed railways.
Early wood and stone bridges
The ancient world
Beam bridges
The first bridges were simply supported beams, such as flat stones or tree trunks laid
across a stream. For valleys and other wider channels—especially in East Asia and South
America, where examples can still be found—ropes made of various grasses and vines
tied together were hung in suspension for single-file crossing. Materials were free and
abundant, and there were few labour costs, since the work was done by slaves, soldiers,
or natives who used the bridges in daily life.

Some of the earliest known bridges are called clapper bridges (from Latin claperius,
“pile of stones”). These bridges were built with long, thin slabs of stone to make a beam-
type deck and with large rocks or blocklike piles of stones for piers. Postbridge in Devon,
England, an early medieval clapper bridge, is an oft-visited example of this old type,
which was common in much of the world, especially China.

Roman arch bridges
The Romans began organized bridge building to help their military campaigns.
Engineers and skilled workmen formed guilds that were dispatched throughout the
empire, and these guilds spread and exchanged building ideas and principles. The
Romans also discovered a natural cement, called pozzolana, which they used for piers in
rivers.
parts of a circular arch

Sant'Angelo Bridge
Roman bridges are famous for using the circular arch form, which allowed for spans
much longer than stone beams and for bridges of more permanence than wood. Where
several arches were necessary for longer bridges, the building of strong piers was
critical. This was a problem when the piers could not be built on rock, as in a wide river
with a soft bed. To solve this dilemma, the Romans developed the cofferdam, a
temporary enclosure made from wooden piles driven into the riverbed to make a sheath,
which was often sealed with clay. Concrete was then poured into the water within the
ring of piles. Although most surviving Roman bridges were built on rock,
the Sant’Angelo Bridge in Rome stands on cofferdam foundations built in the Tiber
River more than 1,800 years ago.
Roman masonry arch bridge
The Romans built many wooden bridges, but none has survived, and their reputation
rests on their masonry bridges. One beautiful example is the bridge over the Tagus
River at Alcántara, Spain. The arches, each spanning 29 metres (98 feet), feature huge
arch stones (voussoirs) weighing up to eight tons each. Typical of the best stone bridges,
the voussoirs at Alcántara were so accurately shaped that no mortar was needed in the
joints. This bridge has remained standing for nearly 2,000 years.

Pont du Gard
Another surviving monument is the Pont du Gard aqueduct near Nîmes in
southern France, completed in 14 CE. This structure, almost 270 metres (900 feet) long,
has three tiers of semicircular arches, with the top tier rising more than 45 metres (150
feet) above the river. The bottom piers form diamond-shaped points, called cutwaters,
which offer less resistance to the flow of water.
Asian cantilever and arch bridges
Wooden cantilever bridges were popular in Asia. The basic design used piles driven into
the riverbed and old boats filled with stones sunk between them to make cofferdam-like
foundations. When the highest of the stone-filled boats reached above the low-water
level, layers of logs were crisscrossed in such a way that, as they rose in height, they
jutted farther out toward the adjacent piers. At the top the Y-shaped cantilevering piers
were joined by long tree trunks. By crisscrossing the logs, the builders allowed water to
pass through the piers, offering less resistance to floods than with a solid design. In this
respect, these designs presaged some of the advantages of the early iron bridges.

In parts of China many bridges had to stand in the spongy silt of river valleys. As these
bridges were subject to an unpredictable assortment of tension and compression, the
Chinese created a flexible masonry-arch bridge. Using thin, curved slabs of stone, the
bridges yielded to considerable deformation before failure.

Great Stone Bridge

In the Great Stone Bridge (also called the Zhaozhou Bridge) in southern Hebei province,
China, built by Li Chun between 589 and 618 CE, the single span of 37 metres (123 feet)
has a rise of only 7 metres (23 feet) from the abutments to the crown. This rise-to-span
ratio of 1:5, much lower than the 1:2 ratio found in semicircular arches, produced a large
thrust against the abutments. To reduce the weight, the builders made the spandrels
(walls between the supporting vault and deck) open. The Great Stone Bridge thus
employed a form rarely seen in Europe prior to the mid-18th century, and it anticipated
the reinforced-concrete designs of Robert Maillart in the 20th century.

The Middle Ages

Old London Bridge

After the fall of the Roman Empire, progress in European bridge building slowed
considerably until the Renaissance. Fine bridges sporadically appeared,
however. Medieval bridges are particularly noted for the ogival, or pointed arch. With
the pointed arch the tendency to sag at the crown is less dangerous, and there is less
horizontal thrust at the abutments. Medieval bridges served many purposes. Chapels
and shops were commonly built on them, and many were fortified with towers and
ramparts. Some featured a drawbridge, a medieval innovation. The most famous bridge
of that age was Old London Bridge, begun in the late 12th century under the direction of
a priest, Peter of Colechurch, and completed in 1209, four years after his death. London
Bridge was designed to have 19 pointed arches, each with a 7.2-metre (24-foot) span and
resting on piers 6 metres (20 feet) wide. There were obstructions encountered in
building the cofferdams, however, so that the arch spans eventually varied from 4.5 to
10.2 metres (15 to 34 feet). The uneven quality of construction resulted in a frequent
need for repair, but the bridge held a large jumble of houses and shops and survived
more than 600 years before being replaced.

Saint-Bénézet Bridge
A more elegant bridge of the period was the Saint-Bénézet Bridge at Avignon, France.
Begun in 1177, part of it still stands today.

Monnow Bridge
Another medieval bridge of note is Monnow Bridge in Wales, which featured three
separate ribs of stone under the arches. Rib construction reduced the quantity of
material needed for the rest of the arch and lightened the load on the foundations.
The Renaissance and after
Stone arch bridges
During the Renaissance the Italian architect Andrea Palladio took the principle of
the truss, which previously had been used for roof supports, and designed several
successful wooden bridges with spans up to 30 metres (100 feet). Longer bridges,
however, were still made of stone.

Another Italian designer, Bartolommeo Ammannati, adapted the medieval ogival arch

by concealing the angle at the crown and by starting the curves of the arches vertically in
their springings from the piers. This elliptical shape of arch, in which the rise-to-span
ratio was as low as 1:7, became known as basket-handled and has been adopted widely
since. Ammannati’s elegant Santa Trinità Bridge (1569) in Florence, with two elliptical
arches, carried pedestrians and later automobiles until it was destroyed during World
War II; it was afterward rebuilt with many of the original materials recovered from the
riverbed.

Rialto Bridge
Yet another Italian, Antonio da Ponte, designed the Rialto Bridge (1591) in Venice, an
ornate arch made of two segments with a span of 27 metres (89 feet) and a rise of 6
metres (21 feet). Antonio overcame the problem of soft, wet soil by having 6,000 timber
piles driven straight down under each of the two abutments, upon which the masonry
was placed in such a way that the bed joints of the stones were perpendicular to the line
of thrust of the arch. This innovation of angling stone or concrete to the line of thrust
has been continued into the present.

Pont de la Concorde
By the middle of the 18th century, bridge building in masonry reached its zenith. Jean-
Rodolphe Perronet, builder of some of the finest bridges of his day, developed very flat
arches supported on slender piers. His works included the Pont de Neuilly (1774), over
the Seine, the Pont Sainte-Maxence (1785), over the Oise, and the beautiful Pont de la
Concorde (1791), also over the Seine. In Great Britain, William Edwards built what
many people consider the most beautiful arch bridge in the British Isles—
the Pontypridd Bridge (1750), over the Taff in Wales, with a lofty span of 42 metres (140
feet). In London the young Swiss engineer Charles Labelye, entrusted with the building
of the first bridge at Westminster, evolved a novel and ingenious method of sinking the
foundations, employing huge timber caissons that were filled with masonry after they
had been floated into position for each pier. The 12 semicircular arches of portland
stone, rising in a graceful camber over the river, set a high standard of engineering and
architectural achievement for the next generation and stood for a hundred years.

Also in London, John Rennie, engaged by private enterprise in 1811, built the

first Waterloo Bridge, whose level-topped masonry arches were described by the Italian
sculptor Antonio Canova as “the noblest bridge in the world.” It was replaced by a
modern bridge in 1937–45. Rennie subsequently designed the New London Bridge of
multiple masonry arches. Completed in 1831, after Rennie’s death, it was subsequently
widened and was finally replaced in the 1960s.

Timber truss bridges
In the 18th century, designs with timber, especially trusses, reached new span lengths.
In 1755 a Swiss builder, Hans Grubenmann, used trusses to support a covered timber
bridge with spans of 51 and 58 metres (171 and 193 feet) over the Rhine at Schaffhausen.
Many timber truss bridges were built in the United States. One of the best long-span
truss designs was developed by Theodore Burr, of Torrington, Connecticut, and based
on a drawing by Palladio; a truss strengthened by an arch, it set a new pattern for
covered bridges in the United States. Burr’s McCall’s Ferry Bridge (1815; on
the Susquehanna River near Lancaster, Pennsylvania) had a record-breaking span of
108 metres (360 feet). Another successful design was the “lattice
truss,” patented by Ithiel Town in 1820, in which top and bottom chords were made of
horizontal timbers connected by a network of diagonal planks.

Early trusses were built without precise knowledge of how the loads are carried by each
part of the truss. The first engineer to analyze correctly the stresses in a truss was Squire
Whipple, an American who designed hundreds of small truss bridges and published his
theories in 1869. Understanding precisely how loads were carried led to a reduction in
materials, which by then were shifting from wood and stone to iron and steel.
Hubert Shirley-SmithDavid P. BillingtonPhilip N. Billington
Iron and steel bridges, 1779–1929
Iron
Early designs
During the Industrial Revolution the timber and masonry tradition was eclipsed by the
use of iron, which was stronger than stone and usually less costly. The first bridge built
solely of iron spanned the River Severn near Coalbrookdale, England. Designed
by Thomas Pritchard and built in 1779 by Abraham Darby, the Ironbridge, constructed
of cast-iron pieces, is a ribbed arch whose nearly semicircular 30-metre (100-foot) span
imitates stone construction by exploiting the strength of cast iron in compression. In
1795 the Severn region was wracked by disastrous floods, and the Ironbridge, lacking
the wide flat surfaces of stone structures, allowed the floodwaters to pass through it. It
was the only bridge in the region to survive—a fact noted by the Scottish
engineer Thomas Telford, who then began to create a series of iron bridges that were
judged to be technically the best of their time. The 1814 Craigellachie Bridge, over
the River Spey in Scotland, is the oldest surviving metal bridge of Telford’s. Its 45-metre
(150-foot) arch has a flat, nearly parabolic profile made up of two curved arches
connected by X-bracing. The roadway has a slight vertical curve and is supported by thin
diagonal members that carry loads to the arch.

Menai Bridge
The use of relatively economical wrought iron freed up the imaginations of designers,
and one of the first results was Telford’s use of chain suspension cables to carry loads by
tension. His eyebar cables consisted of wrought-iron bars of 6 to 9 metres (20 to 30) feet
with holes at each end. Each eye matched the eye on another bar, and the two were
linked by iron pins. The first of these major chain-suspension bridges and the finest of
its day was Telford’s Menai Bridge, over the Menai Strait in northwestern Wales. At the
time of its completion in 1826, its 174-metre (580-foot) span was the world’s longest. In
1893 its timber deck was replaced with a steel deck, and in 1940 steel chains replaced
the corroded wrought-iron ones. The bridge is still in service today.
Railway bridges

Royal Albert Bridge

The rise of the locomotive as a mode of transportation during the 19th century spurred
the design of new bridges and bridge forms strong enough to handle both the increased
weight and the dynamic loads of trains. The most significant of these early railway
bridges was Robert Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge, also over the Menai Straits.
Completed in 1850, Stephenson’s design was the first to employ the hollow box girder.
The hollow box gave the deck the extra stiffness of a truss, but it was easier to build and
required less engineering precision—at the cost, however, of extra material. The
wrought-iron boxes through which the trains ran were originally to be carried by chain
suspension cables, but, during the building, extensive theoretical work and testing
indicated that the cables were not needed; thus the towers stand strangely useless. For
the Royal Albert Bridge (1859) over the River Tamar at Saltash, England,
designer Isambard Kingdom Brunel used a combination of tubular arch and chain cable.
The arches rise above the deck and, in conjunction with the chain suspenders, give the
bridge in profile what appear to be a set of eyes. The bridge at Saltash also carries trains,
and its two main spans of 136.5 metres (455 feet) are comparable in length to the
Britannia’s 138-metre (460-foot) spans.

Among the most important railway bridges of the latter 19th century were those
of Gustave Eiffel. Between 1867 and 1869 Eiffel constructed four viaducts of trussed-
girder design along the rail line between Gannat and Commentry, west
of Vichy in France. The most striking of these, at Rouzat, features wrought-iron towers
that for the first time visibly reflect the need for lateral stiffness to counter the influence
of horizontal wind loads. Lateral stiffness is achieved by curving the towers out at the
base where they meet the masonry foundations, a design style that culminated in Eiffel’s
famous Parisian tower of 1889.

Garabit Viaduct
Eiffel also designed two major arch bridges that were the longest-spanning structures of
their type at the time. The first, the 1877 Maria Pia Bridge over the Duoro River
near Porto, Portugal, is a 157-metre (522-foot) crescent-shaped span that rises 42
metres (140 feet) at its crown. Again, a wide spreading of the arches at their base gives
this structure greater lateral stiffness. The crowning achievement of the crescent-arch
form in the 19th century was represented by the completion in 1884 of Eiffel’s 162-metre
(541-foot) Garabit Viaduct over the Truyère River near Saint-Flour, France. Unlike the
bridge at Duoro, the Garabit arch is separated visually from the thin horizontal girder.
Both arches were designed with hinges at their supports so that the crescent shape
widens from points at the supports to a deep but light truss at the crown. The hinged
design served to facilitate construction and also to produce the powerful visual image
intended by Eiffel.
Suspension bridges
In the United States, engineer John Roebling established a factory in 1841 for making
rope out of iron wire, which he initially sold to replace the hempen rope used for
hoisting cars over the portage railway in central Pennsylvania. Later Roebling used wire
ropes as suspension cables for bridges, and he developed the technique for spinning the
cables in place rather than making a prefabricated cable that needed to be lifted into
place. In 1855 Roebling completed a 246-metre- (821-foot-) span railway bridge over
the Niagara River in western New York state. Wind loads were not yet understood in any
theoretical sense, but Roebling recognized the practical need to prevent vertical
oscillations. He therefore added numerous wire stays, which extended like a giant
spiderweb in various directions from the deck to the valley below and to the towers
above. The Niagara Bridge confounded nearly all the engineering judgment of the day,
which held that suspension bridges could not sustain railway traffic. Although the trains
were required to slow down to a speed of only five kilometres (three miles) per hour and
repairs were frequent, the bridge was in service for 42 years, and it was replaced only
because newer trains had become too heavy for it.

Roebling’s Cincinnati Bridge (now called the John A. Roebling Bridge) over the Ohio
River was a prototype for his masterful Brooklyn Bridge (see below Steel: Suspension
bridges). When this 317-metre- (1,057-foot-) span iron-wire cable suspension bridge was
completed in 1866, it was the longest spanning bridge in the world. Roebling’s mature
style showed itself in the structure’s impressive stone towers and its thin suspended
span, with stays radiating from the tower tops to control deck oscillations from wind
loads.
Steel
Railway bridges
Between the American Civil War and World War I, railroads reached their peak in the
United States and elsewhere, increasing the need for bridges that could withstand these
heavier loads. New processes for making steel gave rise to many important bridges, such
as the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, the Forth Bridge over the
Firth of Forth in Scotland, the Hell Gate Bridge and Bayonne Bridge in New York City,
and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia.

The 1874 Eads Bridge was the first major bridge built entirely of steel, excluding the pier
foundations. Designed by James Buchanan Eads, it has three arch spans, of which the
two sides are each 151 metres (502 feet) and the middle is 156 metres (520 feet). The
Eads bridge was given added strength by its firm foundations, for which
pneumatic caissons, instead of cofferdams, were used for the first time in the United
States. Another innovation carried out by Eads, based on a proposal by Telford, was the
construction of arches by the cantilevering method. The arches were held up by cables
supported by temporary towers above the piers, all of which were removed when the
arches became self-supporting.

Forth Bridge
The Forth Bridge over the Firth of Forth in Scotland, designed by Benjamin Baker, has
two cantilevered spans of 513 metres (1,710 feet), which made it the world’s longest
bridge upon its completion in 1890. The steel structure rises 103 metres (342 feet) above
the masonry piers. Although from an approaching standpoint it appears dense and
massive, in profile it exhibits a surprising lightness. Baker designed the bridge with an
artist’s temperament. In his writings he criticized the Britannia Bridge for its towers,
which Stephenson admitted had been left in place only in case the bridge needed
suspension chains and not out of structural necessity. The Forth Bridge, on the other
hand, is pure structure; nothing has been added for aesthetic appearance that does not
have a structural function. For more than a century the bridge has carried a railway, and
indeed it was one of the last great bridges built for that purpose in the 19th century.

The Hell Gate Bridge, completed by Gustav Lindenthal in 1916, also had an aesthetic
intention. It was made to look massive by its stone towers and by the increased spacing
of the two chords at the support, yet structurally the towers serve no purpose; the lower
chord of the arch is actually hinged at the abutments, and all of the load is carried to
the foundations by that lower chord. Nevertheless, the bridge has an imposing presence,
and its arch of 293 metres (978 feet) was the world’s longest at the time.

Similar in arch form to Hell Gate is the 1931 Bayonne Bridge, designed by Lindenthal’s
former associate, Othmar Ammann. Spanning the Kill van Kull between Staten Island,
New York, and Bayonne, New Jersey, the Bayonne Bridge, though longer than the Hell
Gate Bridge at 496 metres (1,652 feet), is significantly lighter. The main span for the
Hell Gate required 39 million kg (87 million pounds) of steel, compared with 17 million
kg (37 million pounds) for the Bayonne. Part of the reason is the lower live loads; for the
Hell Gate, train loading was taken at 36,000 kg per metre (24,000 pounds per foot) of
bridge length, whereas for the Bayonne the car loading was 10,000 kg per metre (7,000
pounds per foot). But the decrease is also due to an effort to make the arch more
graceful as well as more economical. Massive-looking stone-faced abutments were
designed for the sake of appearance but then were never built, leaving a rather useless
tangle of light steel latticework at the abutments. Nevertheless, from a distance the
Bayonne Bridge shows a lightness and delicacy that bespeaks structural integrity.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Across the world in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, Sir Ralph
Freeman designed a steel arch bridge with a span of 495 metres (1,650 feet) that was
begun in 1924 and completed in 1932. Because of the deep waters in the harbour,
temporary supports were impractical, so the steel arch was assembled by cantilevering
out from each bank and meeting in the middle. A high-strength silicon steel was used,
making it the heaviest steelwork of its kind. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a two-hinged
arch, with its deck 52 metres (172 feet) above the water. It carries four railroad tracks, a
roadway 17 metres (57 feet) wide, and two walkways. On each bank it is supported by a
pair of large stone towers that, like those of the Hell Gate, disguise the fact that almost
the entire load is carried by the lower arch chord.

Suspension bridges

Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
John Roebling died in 1869, shortly after work began on the Brooklyn Bridge, but the
project was taken over and seen to completion by his son, Washington Roebling.
Technically, the bridge overcame many obstacles through the use of huge pneumatic
caissons, into which compressed air was pumped so that men could work in the dry; but,
more important, it was the first suspension bridge on which steel wire was used for
the cables. Every wire was galvanized to safeguard against rust, and the four cables, each
nearly 40 cm (16 inches) in diameter, took 26 months to spin back and forth over
the East River. After many political and technical difficulties and at least 27 fatal
accidents, the 479-metre- (1,595-foot-) span bridge was completed in 1883 to such
fanfare that within 24 hours an estimated quarter-million people crossed over it, using a
central elevated walkway that John Roebling had designed for the purpose of giving
pedestrians a dramatic view of the city.

New York City: Manhattan Bridge

By the turn of the 20th century, the increased need for passage
from Manhattan to Brooklyn over the East River resulted in plans for two more long-
span, wire-cable, steel suspension bridges, the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges.
The Williamsburg Bridge, designed by L.L. Buck with a span of just over 480 metres
(1,600 feet), became the longest cable-suspension span in the world upon completion in
1903. Its deck truss is a bulky lattice structure with a depth of 12 metres (40 feet), and
the towers are of steel rather than masonry. The truss in effect replaced Roebling’s stays
as stiffeners for the deck. The 1909 Manhattan Bridge has a span of 441 metres (1,470
feet). Its fixed steel towers spread laterally at the base, and a 7.4-metre- (24.5-foot-)
deep truss is used for the deck. Of greater significance than the deck construction,
however, was the first application of deflection theory, during the design of these two
bridges, in calculating how the horizontal deck and curved cables worked together to
carry loads. First published in 1888 by the Austrian academic Josef
Melan, deflection theory explains how deck and cables deflect together under gravity
loads, so that, as spans become longer and the suspended structure heavier, the required
stiffness of the deck actually decreases. Deflection theory especially influenced design in
the 1930s, as engineers attempted to reduce the ratio of girder depth to span length in
order to achieve a lighter, more graceful, appearance without compromising safety. Up
to 1930, no long-span suspension bridge had a ratio of girder depth to span length that
was higher than 1:84.

Ralph Modjeski’s Philadelphia-Camden Bridge (now called the Benjamin Franklin

Bridge), over the Delaware River, is another wire-cable steel suspension bridge; when
completed in 1926, it was the world’s longest span at 525 metres (1,750 feet). However,
it was soon exceeded by the Ambassador Bridge (1929) in Detroit and the George
Washington Bridge (1931) in New York. The Ambassador links the United States and
Canada over the Detroit River. Because of heavy traffic on the river, a wide clearance
was necessary. The steel suspension bridge designed by Jonathan Jones has a span of
555 metres (1,850 feet) and a total length, including approach spans, of more than 2,700
metres (9,000 feet). The design of the Ambassador Bridge originally called for using
heat-treated steel wires for the cables. Normally wires were cold-drawn, a method in
which steel is drawn through successively smaller holes in dies, reducing its diameter
yet raising its ultimate tensile strength. Extensive laboratory tests showed that heat-
treated wires had a slightly higher ultimate strength, but during the construction of the
Ambassador Bridge several of them broke, and, to the contractors’ credit, all the cables
spun thus far were immediately replaced with cold-drawn wire. The example illustrates
the limitations of laboratory testing as opposed to studies of actual working conditions.

George Washington Bridge

The George Washington Bridge, a steel suspension bridge designed by Ammann, was
significant first for its span length of 1,050 metres (3,500 feet) and second for its
theoretical innovations. After studying deflection theory, Ammann concluded that no
stiffness was needed in the deck at all, as it would be stabilized by the great weight of the
bridge itself. Indeed, the George Washington Bridge is the heaviest single-span
suspension bridge built to date, and its original ratio of girder depth to span was an
astonishing 1:350. Originally the 191-metre- (635-foot-) high towers were to have a
masonry facade, but a shortage of money during the Great Depression precluded this,
and the steel framework stands alone. Ammann designed the bridge to carry a
maximum of 12,000 kg per metre (8,000 pounds per foot), even though the maximum
conceivable load on the bridge was estimated at 69,000 kg per metre (46,000 pounds
per foot), thus illustrating the principle that longer bridges need not be designed for
maximum load. In 1962 the addition of a second deck for traffic resulted in the
construction of a deck truss, giving the bridge its current ratio of girder depth to span of
1:120.
Concrete bridges
Reinforced concrete
Early bridges
During the 19th century, low-cost production of iron and steel, when added to the
invention of portland cement in 1824, led to the development of reinforced concrete. In
1867 a French gardener, Joseph Monier, patented a method of strengthening thin
concrete flowerpots by embedding iron wire mesh into the concrete. Monier later
applied his ideas to patents for buildings and bridges. In 1879 another
Frenchman, François Hennebique, set out to fireproof a metal-frame house in Belgium,
and his decision to cover the iron beams with concrete led him to develop a structural
system wherein the metal bars (replacing iron beams) carried tension and the concrete
carried compression. By the end of the century reinforced concrete had become an
economical substitute for stone, since it was generally cheaper to produce concrete than
to quarry stones. In addition to its price and load-carrying advantages, reinforced
concrete could be molded into a variety of shapes, allowing for
much aesthetic expression on the part of the engineer without significantly increasing
materials or cost.

The most prolific designers first using reinforced concrete were Hennebique and the
German engineer G.A. Wayss, who bought the Monier patents. Hennebique’s Vienne
River Bridge at Châtellerault, France, built in 1899, was the longest-spanning reinforced
arch bridge of the 19th century. Built low to the river—typical of many reinforced-
concrete bridges whose goal of safe passage across a small river is not affected by heavy
boat traffic—the Châtellerault bridge has three arches, the centre spanning just over 48
metres (160 feet). In 1904 the Isar River Bridge at Grünewald, Germany, designed
by Emil Morsch for Wayss’s firm, became the longest reinforced-concrete span in the
world at 69 metres (230 feet).
The longest-spanning concrete arches of the 1920s were designed by the French
engineer Eugène Freyssinet. In his bridge over the Seine at Saint-Pierre-du-Vauvray
(1922), two thin, hollow arches rise 25 metres (82 feet) at mid-span and are connected
by nine crossbeams. The arches curve over the deck, which is suspended by thin steel
wires lightly coated with mortar and hanging down in a triangular formation. The 131-
metre (435-foot) span, then a record for reinforced concrete, thus has a light
appearance. The bridge was destroyed during World War II but was rebuilt in 1946
using the same form.

Plougastel Bridge
In 1930 Freyssinet completed his most renowned work, the Plougastel Bridge over the
Elorn Estuary near Brest, France. This bridge featured three 176-metre (585-foot)
hollow-box arch spans, then the longest concrete spans in the world. Because of the
great scale of this structure, Freyssinet studied the creep, or movement under stress, of
concrete. This led him to his general idea for prestressing (see below Prestressed
concrete).

In 1943 the Plougastel was eclipsed in length by the Sandö Bridge over the Ångerman

River in Sweden. The Sandö Bridge is a thin, single-ribbed, reinforced-concrete arch
with a span of 260 metres (866 feet), rising 39 metres (131 feet) above the river.

Maillart’s innovations
Swiss engineer Robert Maillart’s use of reinforced concrete, beginning in 1901, effected a
revolution in structural art. Maillart, all of whose main bridges are in Switzerland, was
the first 20th-century designer to break completely with the masonry tradition and put
concrete into forms technically appropriate to its properties yet visually surprising. For
his 1901 bridge over the Inn River at Zuoz, he designed a curved arch and a flat roadway
connected by longitudinal walls that turned the complete structure into a hollow-box
girder with a span of 37.5 metres (125 feet) and with hinges at the abutments and the
crown. This was the first concrete hollow-box to be constructed. The arch at Zuoz is
thickened at the bottom, and all of the load to the abutments is carried at these thick
points. The walls near the abutments, therefore, are technically superfluous. For his
1905 bridge over the Vorderrhein at Tavanasa, with a span of 50 metres (167 feet),
Maillart cut out the spandrel walls to achieve a technically superior form that was also
visually new. As at Zuoz, the concrete arches of the Tavanasa bridge were connected by
hinges to both abutments and to each other at the crown, thus allowing the arch to rise
freely without internal stress when the temperature rose and to drop when the
temperature went down. By contrast, Hennebique’s bridge at Châtellerault did not have
hinges, and the arches cracked severely at the abutments and crown. The Tavanasa
bridge was unfortunately destroyed by an avalanche in 1927.

Salginatobel Bridge
Maillart’s Valtschielbach Bridge of 1926, a deck-stiffened arch with a 43-metre (142-
foot) span, demonstrated that the arch can be extremely thin as long as the deck beam is
stiff. The arch at Valtschielbach increases in thickness from a mere 23 cm (9 inches) at
the crown to just over 28 cm (11 inches) at the supports. Thin vertical slabs, or cross-
walls, connect the arch to the deck, allowing the deck to stiffen the arch and thus
permitting the arch to be thin. Such technical insight revealed Maillart’s deep
understanding of how to work with reinforced concrete—an understanding that
culminated in a series of masterpieces beginning with the 1930 Salginatobel Bridge,
which, as with the others already mentioned, is located in the Swiss canton
of Graubünden. The form of the Salginatobel Bridge is similar to the Tavanasa yet
modified to account for a longer central span of 89 metres (295 feet), which is needed to
cross the deep ravine below. Maillart’s hollow-box, three-hinged arch design not only
was the least costly of the 19 designs proposed but also was considered by the district
engineer to be the most elegant. The stone abutments of earlier Maillart bridges were
dispensed with at Salginatobel, as the rocky walls of the ravine that meet the arch
are sufficient to carry the load.

Other notable bridges by Maillart are the bridge over the Thur at Felsegg (1933),
the Schwandbach Bridge near Hinterfultigen (1933), and the Töss River footbridge near
Wulflingen (1934). The Felsegg bridge has a 68-metre (226-foot) span and features for
the first time two parallel arches, both three-hinged. Like the Salginatobel Bridge, the
Felsegg bridge features X-shaped abutment hinges of reinforced concrete (invented by
Freyssinet), which were more economical than steel hinges. The Schwandbach Bridge,
with a span of 37 metres (123 feet), is a deck-stiffened arch with a horizontally curved
roadway. The true character of reinforced concrete is most apparent in this bridge, as
the inner edge of the slab-arch follows the horizontal curve of the highway, while the
outer edge of the arch is straight. Vertical trapezoidal cross-walls integrate the deck with
the arch, and the result is one of the most acclaimed bridges in concrete. The Töss
footbridge is a deck-stiffened arch with a span of 37.5 metres (125 feet). The deck is
curved vertically at the crown and countercurved at the riverbanks, integrating the
structure into the setting.

Maillart’s great contribution to bridge design was that, while he kept within the
traditional discipline of engineering, always striving to use less material and keep costs
down, he continually played with the forms in order to achieve
maximum aesthetic expression. Some of his last bridges—at Vessy, Liesberg, and Lachen
—illustrate his mature vision for the possibilities of structural art. Over the Arve River at
Vessy in 1935, Maillart designed a three-hinged, hollow-box arch in which the thin
cross-walls taper at mid-height, forming an X shape. This striking design, giving life to
the structure, is both a natural form and a playful expression. Also in 1935, a beam
bridge over the Birs River at Liesberg employed haunching of the beams, a tapering
outward at the base of the thin columns, and a curved top edge becoming less deep near
the abutments. For a skewed railway overpass at Lachen in 1940, Maillart used two
separate three-hinged arches that sprang from different levels of the abutment, creating
a dynamic interplay of shapes.
Prestressed concrete
Eugène Freyssinet
The idea of prestressing concrete was first applied by Freyssinet in his effort to save
the Le Veurdre Bridge over the Allier River near Vichy, France. A year after its
completion in 1910, Freyssinet noted the three-arch bridge had been moving downward
at an alarming rate. A flat concrete arch, under its own dead load, generates huge
compressive forces that cause the structure to shorten over time and, hence, move
eventually downward. This “creep” may eventually cause the arch to collapse.
Freyssinet’s solution was to jack apart the arch halves at the crown, lifting the arch and
putting the concrete into additional compression against the abutments and then
casting new concrete into the spaces at the crown. By 1928, experience with the Le
Veurdre Bridge led Freyssinet to propose the more common method of prestressing,
using high-strength steel to put concrete into compression.

Freyssinet’s major prestressed works came after the reinforced-concrete Plougastel

Bridge and included a series of bridges over the Marne River following World War II.
The Luzancy Bridge (1946), with a span of 54 metres (180 feet), demonstrates the
lightness and beauty that can be achieved using prestressed concrete for a single-
span beam bridge.

The first major bridge made of prestressed concrete in the United States, the Walnut
Lane Bridge (1950) in Philadelphia, was designed by Gustave Magnel and features three
simply supported girder spans with a centre span of 48 metres (160 feet) and two end
spans of 22 metres (74 feet). Although it was plain in appearance, a local art jury
responsible for final approval found that the slim lines of the bridge were elegant
enough not to require a stone facade.
Ulrich Finsterwalder
During the years after World War II, a German engineer and builder, Ulrich
Finsterwalder, developed the cantilever method of construction with prestressed
concrete. Finsterwalder’s Bendorf Bridge over the Rhine at Koblenz, Germany, was
completed in 1962 with thin piers and a centre span of 202 metres (673 feet). The
double cantilevering method saved money through the absence of scaffolding in the
water and also by allowing for reduced girder depth and consequent reduction of
material where the ends of the deck meet in the centre. The resulting girder has the
appearance of a very shallow arch, elegant in profile. Another fine bridge by
Finsterwalder is the Mangfall Bridge (1959) south of Munich, a high bridge with a
central span of 106 metres (354 feet) and two side spans of 89 metres (295 feet). The
Mangfall Bridge features the first latticed truss walls made of prestressed concrete, and
it also has a two-tier deck allowing pedestrians to walk below the roadway and take in a
spectacular view of the valley. Finsterwalder successfully sought to show that
prestressed concrete could compete directly with steel not only in cost but also in
reduction of depth.
Christian Menn

Switzerland: Ganter Bridge

The technical and aesthetic possibilities of prestressed concrete were most fully realized
in Switzerland with the bridges of Christian Menn. Menn’s early arch bridges were
influenced by Maillart, but, with prestressing, he was able to build longer-spanning
bridges and use new forms. The Reichenau Bridge (1964) over the Rhine, a deck-
stiffened arch with a span of 98 metres (328 feet), shows Menn’s characteristic use of a
wide, prestressed concrete deck slab cantilevering laterally from both sides of a single
box. For the high, curving Felsenau Viaduct (1974) over the Aare River in Bern, spans of
up to 154 metres (512 feet) were built using the cantilever method from double piers.
The trapezoidal box girder, only 11 metres (36 feet) wide at the top, haunches at the
supports and carries an 26-metre- (85-foot-) wide turnpike. More impressive yet is the
high, curving Ganter Bridge (1980), crossing a deep valley in the canton of Valais. The
Ganter is both a cable-stayed and a prestressed cantilever girder bridge, with the highest
column rising 148 metres (492 feet) and with a central span of 171 metres (571 feet). The
form is unique: the cable-stays are flat and covered by thin concrete slabs, making the
bridge look very much like a Maillart bridge upside-down.
Steel bridges after 1931
Long-span suspension bridges

Golden Gate Bridge

The success of the George Washington Bridge—especially its extremely small ratio of
girder depth to span—had a great influence on suspension bridge design in the 1930s.
Its revolutionary design led to the building of several major bridges, such as the Golden
Gate (1937), the Deer Isle (1939), and the Bronx-Whitestone (1939). The Golden Gate
Bridge, built over the entrance to San Francisco Bay under the direction of Joseph
Strauss, was upon its completion the world’s longest span at 1,260 metres (4,200 feet);
its towers rise 224 metres (746 feet) above the water. Deer Isle Bridge in Maine, U.S.,
was designed by David Steinman with only plate girders to stiffen the deck, which was
7.5 metres (25 feet) wide yet had a central span of 324 metres (1,080 feet). Likewise, the
deck for Othmar Ammann’s Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in New York was originally
stiffened only by plate girders; its span reached 690 metres (2,300 feet). Both the Deer
Isle and the Bronx-Whitestone bridges later oscillated in wind and had to be modified
following the Tacoma Narrows disaster.

Tacoma Narrows
Tacoma Narrows Bridge
In 1940 the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened over Puget Sound in Washington state,
U.S. Spanning 840 metres (2,800 feet), its deck, also stiffened by plate girders, had a
depth of only 2.4 metres (8 feet). This gave it a ratio of girder depth to span of 1:350,
identical to that of the George Washington Bridge. Unfortunately, at Tacoma Narrows,
just four months after the bridge’s completion, the deck tore apart and collapsed under a
moderate wind.

Witness the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse into Puget Sound between the Olympic Peninsula
and the Washington mainland
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At that time bridges normally were designed to withstand gales of 190 km (120 miles)
per hour, yet the wind at Tacoma was only 67 km (42 miles) per hour. Motion pictures
taken of the disaster show the deck rolling up and down and twisting wildly. These
two motions, vertical and torsional, occurred because the deck had been provided with
little vertical and almost no torsional stiffness. Engineers had overlooked the wind-
induced failures of bridges in the 19th century and had designed extremely thin decks
without fully understanding their aerodynamic behaviour. After the Tacoma bridge
failed, however, engineers added trusses to the Bronx-Whitestone bridge, cable-stays to
Deer Isle, and further bracing to the stiffening truss at Golden Gate. In turn, the
diagonal stays used to strengthen the Deer Isle Bridge led engineer Norman
Sollenberger to design the San Marcos Bridge (1951) in El Salvador
with inclined suspenders, thus forming a cable truss between cables and deck—the first
of its kind.
Lessons of the disaster

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Mackinac Bridge
The disaster at Tacoma caused engineers to rethink their concepts of the vertical motion
of suspension bridge decks under horizontal wind loads. Part of the problem at Tacoma
was the construction of a plate girder with solid steel plates, 2.4 metres (8 feet) deep on
each side, through which the wind could not pass. For this reason, the new Tacoma
Narrows Bridge (1950), as well as Ammann’s 1,280-metre- (4,260-foot-)
span Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York (1964), were built with open trusses for the
deck in order to allow wind passage. The 1,140-metre- (3,800-foot-) span Mackinac
Bridge in Michigan, U.S., designed by Steinman, also used a deep truss; its two side
spans of 540 metres (1,800 feet) made it the longest continuous suspended structure in
the world at the time of its completion in 1957.
Bosporus Bridge

Humber Bridge
The 972-metre- (3,240-foot-) span Severn Bridge (1966), linking
southern England and Wales over the River Severn, uses a shallow steel box for its deck,
but the deck is shaped aerodynamically in order to allow wind to pass over and under it
—much as a cutwater allows water to deflect around piers with a greatly reduced force.
Another innovation of the Severn Bridge was the use of steel suspenders from cables to
deck that form a series of Vs in profile. When a bridge starts to oscillate in heavy wind, it
tends to move longitudinally as well as up and down, and the inclined suspenders of the
Severn Bridge act to dampen the longitudinal movement. The design ideas used on the
Severn Bridge were repeated on the Bosporus Bridge (1973) at Istanbul and on
the Humber Bridge (1981) over the River Humber in England. The Humber Bridge in its
turn became the longest-spanning bridge in the world, with a main span of 1,388 metres
(4,626 feet).
Truss bridges
Astoria Bridge
Although trusses are used mostly as secondary elements in arch, suspension,
or cantilever designs, several important simply supported truss bridges have achieved
significant length. The Astoria Bridge (1966) over the Columbia River in Oregon, U.S., is
a continuous three-span steel truss with a centre span of 370 metres (1,232 feet), and
the Tenmon Bridge (1966) at Kumamoto, Japan, has a centre span of 295 metres (984
feet).

New River Gorge Bridge

In 1977 the New River Gorge Bridge, the world’s longest-spanning steel arch, was
completed in Fayette county, West Virginia, U.S. Designed by Michael Baker, the two-
hinged arch truss carries four lanes of traffic 263 metres (876 feet) above the river and
has a span of 510 metres (1,700 feet).
Cable-stayed bridges
German designs
Beginning in the 1950s, with the growing acceptance of cable-stayed bridges, there came
into being a type of structure that could not easily be classified by construction material.
Cable-stayed bridges offered a variety of possibilities to the designer regarding not only
the materials for deck and cables but also the geometric arrangement of the cables.
Early examples, such as the Strömsund Bridge in Sweden (1956), used just two cables
fastened at nearly the same point high on the tower and fanning out to support the deck
at widely separated points. By contrast, the Oberkasseler Bridge, built over the Rhine
River in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1973, used a single tower in the middle of its twin 254-
metre (846-foot) spans; the four cables were placed in a harp or parallel arrangement,
being equally spaced both up the tower and along the centre line of the deck. The Bonn-
Nord Bridge in Bonn, Germany (1966), was the first major cable-stayed bridge to use a
large number of thinner cables instead of relatively few but heavier ones—the technical
advantage being that, with more cables, a thinner deck might be used. Such multicable
arrangements subsequently became quite common. The box girder deck of the Bonn-
Nord, as with most cable-stayed bridges built during the 1950s and ’60s, was made of
steel. From the 1970s, however, concrete decks were used more frequently.

U.S. designs
Cable-stayed bridges in the United States reflected trends in both cable arrangement
and deck material. The Pasco-Kennewick Bridge (1978) over the Columbia River in
Washington state supported its centre span of 294 metres (981 feet) from two double
concrete towers, the cables fanning down to the concrete deck on either side of the
roadway. Designed by Arvid Grant in collaboration with the German firm of Leonhardt
and Andra, its cost was not significantly different from those of other proposals with
more conventional designs. The same designers produced the East End Bridge across
the Ohio River between Proctorville, Ohio, and Huntington, West Virginia, in 1985.
The East End has a major span of 270 metres (900 feet) and a minor span of 182 metres
(608 feet). The single concrete tower is shaped like a long triangle in
the traverse direction, and the cable arrangement is of the fan type, but, while the Pasco-
Kennewick Bridge has two parallel sets of cables, the East End has but one set, fanning
out from a single plane at the tower into two planes at the composite steel and concrete
deck, so that, as one moves from pure profile to a longitudinal view, the cables do not
align visually.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge (1987), designed by Eugene Figg and Jean Mueller

over Tampa Bay in Florida, has a main prestressed-concrete span of 360 metres (1,200
feet). It too employs a single plane of cables, but these remain in one plane that fans out
down the centre of the deck. The Dames Point Bridge (1987), designed by Howard
Needles in consultation with Ulrich Finsterwalder, crosses the St. Johns River
in Jacksonville, Florida. The main span at Dames Point is 390 metres (1,300 feet), with
side spans of 200 metres (660 feet). From H-shaped towers of reinforced concrete, two
planes of stays in harp formation support reinforced-concrete girders. The towers are
carefully shaped to avoid a stiff appearance. The Dames Point Bridge was the
longest cable-stayed bridge in the United States for almost two decades until the Arthur
Ravenel Bridge was completed in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2005. In 2011 the
Arthur Ravenel Bridge in turn was surpassed by the opening of the John James
Audubon Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River between Pointe Coupee and West
Feliciana parishes, Louisiana. The only bridge over the Mississippi between Natchez,
Mississippi, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the John James Audubon Bridge has a main
span of 482 metres (1,583 feet).
Asian long-span bridges and viaducts
In the 1970s the Japanese, working primarily with steel, began to build a series of long-
span bridges using several forms. Other Asian countries, notably China, developed
viaducts of enormous lengths, often as part of railway systems. Many of these rank
among the world’s longest spans and longest bridges.
China
Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge
The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge, located
between Shanghai and Nanjing in Jiangsu province, is a viaduct 164.8 km (102.4 miles)
long on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. Opened in June 2011 at a cost of
about $8.5 billion, it is the world’s longest bridge. Its average height is 100 metres (328
feet) above the ground, and it runs roughly parallel to the Yangtze River, traversing rice
paddies and other wetlands.
Tianjin Grand Bridge
The Tianjin Grand Bridge extends 113.7 km (70.6 miles) between Langfang and
Qingxian and serves as a railway viaduct for the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.
The bridge opened in 2011 and is the third longest bridge in the world.
Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge
In October 2018, China opened the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, which
connects Hong Kong to Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai. The longest
sea-spanning bridge in the world, it stretches 55 km (34 miles) across the Pearl River
Delta. Its construction cost about $20 billion. To accommodate the heavy shipping
traffic in the area, part of the crossing features a submerged tunnel 6.7 km (4 miles) long
connecting two artificial islands.
Japan
Ōsaka Harbour
Konohana Bridge
In 1974 the Minato Bridge, linking the city of Ōsaka with neighbouring Amagasaki,
became one of the world’s longest-spanning cantilever truss bridges, at 502 metres
(1,673 feet). In 1989 two other impressive and innovative bridges were completed for the
purpose of carrying major highways over the port facilities of Ōsaka Harbour.
The Konohana suspension bridge carries a four-lane highway on a slender, steel box-
beam deck only 3 metres (10 feet) deep. The bridge is self-anchored—that is, the deck
has been put into horizontal compression, like that on a cable-stayed bridge, so that
there is no force of horizontal tension pulling from the ground at the anchorages.
Spanning 295 metres (984 feet), it is the first major suspension bridge to use a single
cable. The towers are delta-shaped, with diagonal suspenders running from the cable
down the centre of the deck. On the same road as the Konohana is the Ajigawa cable-
stayed bridge, with a span of 344 metres (1,148 feet) and an elegantly thin deck just over
three metres deep.
Island bridges
The Kanmon Bridge (1975), linking the islands of Honshu and Kyushu over the
Shimonoseki Strait, was the first major island bridge in Japan. At about this time the
Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority was formed to connect these two main islands with
three lines of bridges and highways. Completed in 1999, the Honshu-Shikoku project
was the largest in history, building 6 of the 20 largest spanning bridges in the world at
that time as well as the first major set of suspension bridges to carry railroad traffic
since John Roebling’s Niagara Bridge. The Authority conducted most of the design work
itself; unlike projects in other countries, it is not usually possible to identify individual
designers for Japanese bridges.

The first part of the project, completed in 1988, is a route connecting the city of Kojima,
on the main island of Honshu, to Sakaide, on the island of Shikoku. The Kojima-Sakaide
route has three major bridge elements, often referred to collectively as the Seto Great
Bridge (Seto Ōhashi): the Shimotsui suspension bridge, with a suspended main span of
940 metres (3,100 feet) and two unsuspended side spans of 230 metres (760 feet); the
twin 420-metre- (1,380-foot-) span cable-stayed Hitsuishijima and Iwakurojima
bridges; and the two nearly identical Bisan-Seto suspension bridges, with main spans of
990 metres (3,250 feet) and 1,100 metres (3,610 feet). The striking towers of the cable-
stayed Hitsuishijima and Iwakurojima bridges were designed to evoke symbolic images
from Japanese culture, such as the ancient Japanese helmet. The side spans of the two
Seto bridges, being fully suspended, give a visual unity to these bridges that is missing
from the Shimotsui bridge, where the side spans are supported from below. The double
deck of the entire bridge system is a strong 13-metre- (43-foot-) deep continuous truss
that carries cars and trucks on the top deck and trains on the lower deck.
Akashi Kaikyō Bridge
The Kojima-Sakaide route forms the middle of the three Honshu-Shikoku links. The
eastern route, between Kōbe (Honshu) and Naruto (Shikoku), has only two bridges: the
1985 Ōnaruto suspension bridge and the 1998 Akashi Kaikyō (Akashi Strait) suspension
bridge. The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge, crosses the
strait with a main span of 1,991 metres (6,530 feet) and side spans of 960 metres (3,150
feet). Its two 297-metre (975-foot) towers, made of two hollow steel shafts in cruciform
section connected by X-bracing, are the tallest bridge towers in the world. The two
suspension cables are made of a high-strength steel developed by Japanese engineers
for the project. In January 1995 an earthquake that devastated Kōbe had its epicentre
almost directly beneath the nearly completed Akashi Kaikyō structure; the bridge
survived undamaged, though one tower shifted enough to lengthen the main span by
almost one metre.

Tatara Bridge
The western Honshu-Shikoku route links Onomichi (Honshu) with Imabari (Shikoku).
One of the major structures is the Ikuchi cable-stayed bridge, with a main span of 490
metres (1,610 feet). The two towers of the Ikuchi Bridge are delta-shaped, with
two inclined planes of fan-arranged stays. Also on the Onomichi-Imabari route is the
1979 Ōmishima steel arch bridge, whose 297-metre (975-foot) span made it the longest
such structure in the Eastern Hemisphere for almost a quarter century. But the single
most significant structure on the route is the 1999 Tatara cable-stayed bridge, whose
main span of 890 metres (2,920 feet) made it the longest of its type in the world at the
time of its construction. The twin towers of the Tatara Bridge, 220 metres (720 feet)
high, have elegant diamond shapes for the lower 140 metres; the upper 80 metres
consist of two parallel linked shafts that contain the cables.
Taiwan
Completed in 2007, the Chang-hua–Kao-hsiung Viaduct is the world’s second longest
bridge and serves as part of the Taiwan High Speed Rail network. Reaching 157.3 km
(97.8 miles) in length, the bridge runs from Zouying in Kao-hsiung to Baguashan
in Chang-hua county. The bridge and train line were built to
minimize earthquake damage, as the area is prone to seismic activity.
David P. BillingtonPhilip N. Billington
environmental infrastructure

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water purification plant
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water supply system wastewater treatment waste disposal pollution control environmental
engineering
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environmental infrastructure, infrastructure that provides cities and towns with
water supply, waste disposal, and pollution control services. They include extensive
networks of aqueducts, reservoirs, water distribution pipes, sewer pipes, and pumping
stations; treatment systems such as sedimentation tanks and aeration tanks,
filters, septic tanks, desalination plants, and incinerators; and waste disposal facilities
such as sanitary landfills and secure hazardous-waste storage impoundments.
These municipal works serve two important purposes: they protect human health and
safeguard environmental quality. Treatment of drinking water helps to prevent the
spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid fever, and proper
waste treatment and disposal practices prevent degradation of ecosystems and
neighbourhoods. Similarly, cleaning the air of pollutant gases and particles as they are
generated prevents adverse effects on both human health and the environment.
wastewater-treatment plant
Steady population growth, urbanization, global warming, and industrial development
place steadily increasing demands on existing infrastructure, and these demands in turn
create a need for the planning, design, and construction of new environmental works. In
addition, aging or mismanaged environmental infrastructure can contribute to water
scarcity, groundwater contamination, and other environmental or public
health problems, and thus its upkeep should be prioritized. Because the provision,
operation, and maintenance of these works require a major investment of public funds,
concerned citizens as well as municipal officials and decision makers should be familiar
with the basic concepts of environmental engineering.

For full discussion of the various elements of environmental infrastructure, see water

supply system, wastewater treatment, solid-waste management, hazardous-waste
management, pollution control, and air pollution control.
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George Washington Bridge

bridge, New York City, New York, United States
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Last Updated: Jan 17, 2023 • Article History
George Washington Bridge
George Washington Bridge, vehicular suspension bridge crossing the Hudson River,
U.S., between The Palisades park near Fort Lee, New Jersey, and Manhattan
Island, New York City (between 178th and 179th streets). The original structure was
built (1927–31) by the Swiss-born engineer Othmar H. Ammann according to the
modified designs of architect Cass Gilbert. It was constructed to carry eight lanes of
traffic. A lower deck with six more traffic lanes was added in 1958–62, along with a
modernistic bus terminal on the Manhattan side (designed by Pier Luigi Nervi).

George Washington Bridge

When first built, the main span of 3,500 feet (1,067 metres) doubled the record for
suspension bridges. Overall, the bridge now extends 4,760 feet (1,450 metres) between
anchorages, with the decks 115 feet (35 metres) and 212 feet (65 metres) above mean
high water and the lattice-steel towers rising 604 feet (184 metres) high above the water.
On the New York side the tower stands on land; on the New Jersey side the tower rises
out of the river 76 feet (23 metres) from shore. The bridge was built and is operated by
the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.