Bridges

Fallen tree bridges

13 BCE

Trees trunks that would fall naturally over streams or rivers and helped people get across.

Beam Bridge

7 BCE

Beans /girders if reinforced concrete are used to build bean bridges. They are fairly cheap to build and a good way of bridging short distance where the bridge doesn't need to be very high.

Arch Bridge

4 BCE

Today concrete is used. Modern arches are often made in a single piece by pouring the concrete into a mould. In arch bridges the load tends to push the pier outwards so the huge end piers and foundations are needed for support.

Clapper Bridge

1380

Made with flat slabs of stone

Truss Bridge

1570

An invention of a new type of bridge

Truss girder Bridge

1570

Many railway birdges were built using this. Bridge sometimes strengthened with metal supports or trusses as railings. These form an upright on either side of the bridge and are called parapets.

Suspension bridge

1741

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (the load-bearing portion) is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders.

The cable stayed bridge

1836

Modern bridges designed using computer aided design. Bridge designers are now able to design a bridge on the computer, simulate its use and correct any faults before building begins

Cantilever Bridge

1867

A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. In a common variant, the suspended span, the cantilever arms do not meet in the centre, instead, they support a central truss bridge which rests on the ends of the cantilever arms.