Suspension Bridges

1372 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Future plans for suspension bridges

To begin to understand the mathematics behind building a bridge we need find out the different types of a bridges. The definition of a bridge is a structure carrying a road, path, or railroad across a geographic obstacle. There are three different types of bridges. They are: beam/arch bridges, suspension bridges, and truss bridges. Modern beam bridges usually span up to 200 feet, modern arch bridges can span across 800-1,000 feet, while Suspension bridges can span from 2,000-7,000 feet ("HowStuffWorks"). Arch bridges are very efficient because they distribute weight evenly rather than having all of the weight straight across. Beam bridges consist of a horizontal beam going straight across that is supported at the ends. Suspension bridges have a horizontal beam is vertically suspended. Truss bridges are supported by trusses. Trusses are a framework consisting of rafters, post, and struts, that are supporting a roof, or in our case a bridge.
There is always two forces acting upon a bridge. Tension and compression. When a beam is bent out of shape, the top of it is compressed while the bottom is stretched by tension. It curves because the distance underneath becomes longer. It …show more content…

A suspension bridge can be used to span large bodies of water. In a suspension bridge, there are cables that use tension to support a bridge. Cables are able to withstand high pressure but offer no resistance to compression. The cables are used to transfer the weight of the load into anchors on either side of the bridge.("Suspension Bridges", design-technology). Large towers are used to drape the cables over the bridge to evenly distribute the weight (See figure

Show More
Related

  • Exemplification Essay: The Silver Bridge Collapse

    1586 Words  | 4 Pages

    “It was designed with a twenty-two foot roadway and one five-foot sidewalk” (Silver). The silver bridge is a very long bridge. “An eye-bar is a long steel plate having large circular ends with an "eye" or hole through which a pin is used to connect to other eyebars (to make a chain) or to other parts of the bridge.” according to Richard Fields. The whole bridge was built using the eye-bar suspension.

    Read More

  • How Did The Chesapeake And Ohio Northern Railway Company Or C & O Bridge Construction?

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    The area of where the bridge was to cross the Ohio River was said to be one of the hardest places to build but came with some advantages. The section of the river had a solid rock base for the supporting pier to be built on. Since the engineers knew they could build a pier that would not settle they decided on a continuous bridge design. This design type distributes the weight so the steel trusses could be smaller and riveted together. This alone saved an estimates twenty percent of steel that was originally thought to be need to make the bridge cutting down the cost. The two continuous trusses span a collective 1,550 feet across the water. With addition of the north and south approach viaducts, for trains to go under the bridge, the superstructure’s total length is 3,463 feet. The bridge was made to hold two sets of tracks making the width 38 feet and 9 inches. The design called for 27,000 cubic yards of concrete and 13,200 tons of steel with some members being four foot square beams that span a distance of seventy feet. The design was the first step in a long process that would take several years to

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Suspension Bridges

    124 Words  | 1 Pages

    According to Suspension bridges: Concepts and various innovative techniques of structural evaluation, “During the past 200 years, suspension bridges have been at the forefront in all aspects of structural engineering” (“Suspension”). This statement shows that suspension bridges have been used for over 200 years, and that people are still using them today because they are structurally better bridges. This paper shows four arguments on the advantages of suspension bridges, and why you should use one when building a bridge. When deciding on building a suspension bridge, it has many advantages such as; its lightness, ability to span over a long distance, easy construction, cost effective, easy to maintain, less risk

    Read More

  • Memorial Dbq

    463 Words  | 1 Pages

    its

    Read More

  • How Did Tacoma Narrow Bridge Collapse

    1645 Words  | 4 Pages

    This movement injects energy to the bridge with each cycle so that it overcomes the natural damping of the structure bring about a counter (negative damping) causing an exponentially growing response. In other words, the oscillations increase in amplitude with each cycle as the flutter velocity inserts more energy than the flexibility the structure can dissipate. Eventually this causes the bridge to fail due to excessive stress. Consequently the amplitude of the motion generated by the fluttering velocity increased beyond the strength of the focal point, in this case the suspender cables. On the event of failed suspender cables the weight of the deck shifted to the other cables causing them to break and making the central deck fall into the water below the

    Read More

  • Crystal Meth Thesis

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    It

    Read More

  • The Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

    2332 Words  | 5 Pages

    The bridge was designed at a time when America was moving toward streamline products, this included the design of bridges. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a sleek, graceful looking suspension bridge. Suspension bridges consist of many cables anchored...

    Read More

  • Essay Comparing Orwell's 'And 1984'

    1551 Words  | 4 Pages

    It

    Read More

  • The Book Of Mormon: Joseph Smith's Gold Bible

    1759 Words  | 4 Pages

    It

    Read More

  • I Cheated, But Only A Little Summary

    1535 Words  | 4 Pages

    It

    Read More

  • Tacoma Narrows Bridge

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    The current westbound bridge was designed and rebuilt with open trusses, stiffening struts and openings in the roadway to let wind through. Like other modern suspension bridges, the westbound bridge was built with steel plates that feature sharp entry edges rather than the flat plate sides used in the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge

    Read More

  • The I-35W Bridge

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Washington State Department of Transportation states that gusset plates are used to connect two or more structural members at a joint in a steel truss and need to be strong enough to accommodate the loads and stresses that a bridge will experience throughout its lifetime. The undersized gusset plates of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis evidently did not serve its purpose. Experts and analysts suggest that if the gusset plates needed to be at least twice its original half inch size in order to have sustained the bridge

    Read More

  • Balsa Truss Bridge Essay

    1752 Words  | 4 Pages

    Truss bridges can be built three different ways—as a pony bridge, through bridge, or deck bridge. A pony bridge, or a bridge in which the bracing is only on the sides and on top of the deck, are most often used when having a lighter load as there

    Read More

  • Maangamizi The Ancient One Essay

    673 Words  | 2 Pages

    It

    Read More

  • • Compare And Contrast The Methods Of Construction Bridges And Roadways

    507 Words  | 2 Pages

    Roadways aren’t the only piece of infrastructure with a long history. Bridges work in tangent with roadways to provide the ability to transport over larger obstacles, whether it be water or land. The design of bridges largely depends on the task and the materials used. Like with roads, the early construction of bridges made use of wood and then stones; same as with roads; leveling methods by the use of smaller rocks were used. While these materials were able to construct a suspension bridge in 1849 which incorporated crossing a span of over 1,000 feet and suffice throughout the rest of nineteenth century, new materials eventually provided the opportunity for larger systems (Petroski, 2016, pg. 83).

    Read More

More about Suspension Bridges

Open Document