Types of Bridges

A brief review
 Bridge Type Vs. Span Length

Material Bridge Type Length (Meters)

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

Wood Timber

Reinforced Slab

Concrete
T-Beam

Box Girder

Rolled
Steel Shape

Built Up

Box Girder

Truss

Prestressed Void Slab

Concrete
ASSHTO
Girder

Box Girder

Segmental

Balanced
Cantilever

Cable Cable
Stayed
Suspension
• 1. Slab-on-stringer (95% of all types)
• 2. Steel and Concrete Box Girders
• 3. Steel and Concrete Arch
• 4. Trusses
• 5. Lift (bascule)
• 6. Suspension
Ancient stringer bridge in Bhutan.
Curved steel stringer bridge.
 Palmetto and NW 103
Street connector. Miami.
HPS 70W approach bridge to I-63.
Runway bridge at Chicago’s O’Hara.
• 1. Slab-on-stringer (95% of all types)
• 2. Steel and Concrete Box Girders
• 3. Steel and Concrete Arch
• 4. Trusses
• 5. Lift (bascule)
• 6. Suspension
17th Street approach segmental box girders to I-95 at Fort Lauderdale.
Sylans webbed box girder bridge.
• 1. Slab-on-stringer (95% of all types)
• 2. Steel and Concrete Box Girders
• 3. Steel and Concrete Arch
• 4. Trusses
• 5. Lift (bascule)
• 6. Suspension
Chinese silk scroll painting from 12th century (Song dynasty) depicting the famous Rainbow
Bridge on the Pien Canal, K’ai-feng, which was then the eastern capital of China. The original
scroll, entitled “Quigming Festival on the River” reposes in Beijing’s Silk Museum. CE May 2000.
Computer model of the 11th century Timber arch Rainbow Bridge in Shanghai.
The chosen site for the reproduction of the Rainbow Bridge is the village of Jinze, located on a
canal off the Yangtse River, on the outskits of Shanghai.
Workers erected the three-
sided arch frame by resting
it on the abutments and
scaffolding aboard two
boats.
Rainbow Bridge, Pien canal, China.

Reproducing the 12th-century methods.

After the three-sided arch was completed, the four-sided arch was “woven” into it, and the A-frames
that held the three-sided arch in place were removed.
The pier-free bridge is shown from underneath. The clear
interlocking arches are “woven” around cross beams that
provide support, which produces the classic Chinese
camelback configuration.
The bridge geometry is a 100-degree segment of a
circle. The segment is further divided into six equal parts.
An outer circle defines all the beams’ end joints. An inner
circle defines the beam midpoints where the cross
girders would go. An almost identical bridge was
proposed in 1480 for military purposes by Leonardo da
Vinci.

The maximum design load was a uniform 70 psf, in pure

arch action. There were no bending stresses.

The project was developed by NOVA and HNTB for a TV

program. MIT students provided structural model
designs.

The arch bridge is 50 ft long and 12 ft wide. It is

composed of two parallel timber arch frames, one three-
sided, and the other four-sided. The 20-foot larch logs
are butted above a transverse girder. All joints are
bounded with ropes of braided bamboo.

The geotechnical data indicated 2 ft of fill above a 2 ft

layer of silt. Underneath was a deep layer of clay. The
abutments were made of timber piles supporting granite
masonry abutments. The cofferdam for each abutment
was made by driving two rectangular bamboo fences,
one within the other, into the riverbed and filling the
space between with clay. The water was then manually
removed and the abutment piles driven by using a large
stone tied to wooden sticks, which acted like
handles.

(See Bashar Altabba, CE May 2000)

The finished bridge’s live load response was first tested with two large water buffaloes.
Ponte Vecchio bridge,
Florence.
Robert Maillart’s Tavanasa Bridge in Switzerland – 1905.
Robert Maillart’s Salginatobel Bridge in Switzerland – 1930.
Salginatobel’s abutment.
Schwandbach – 1933.
Reichnau – 1964.
Eagle Canyon Bridge, Utah.
New Crooked River
Gorge bridge, Oregon.

The 2001 bridge, tries

to complement the
1911 railroad bridge
and the 1926 highway
bridge by famed
Conde McCullough .
New Crooked River Gorge bridge is built with 15 arch sections by supporting each with cable stays
from two temporary towers. (CE January 2001)
The almost finished new Crooked River Gorge Bridge (2002).
The finished Crooked River Gorge Bridge (2002).
Natchez Trace Parkway arches, near Nashville,Tennessee. Designed by Figg Engineering Group, it won the 1995
Presidential Design Award.
• 1. Slab-on-stringer (95% of all types)
• 2. Steel and Concrete Box Girders
• 3. Steel and Concrete Arch
• 4. Trusses
• 5. Lift (bascule)
• 6. Suspension
Mabley temporary bridge.
Mabeley temporary bridge at Tigris River, Iraq.
Mabley temporary bridge at Tigris River, Iraq (2).
Moving a truss bridge to a new location.
Bayonne – 1931. Bridges Staten Island and New Jersey with 1625 ft span.
• 1. Slab-on-stringer (95% of all types)
• 2. Steel and Concrete Box Girders
• 3. Steel and Concrete Arch
• 4. Trusses
• 5. Lift (bascule)
• 6. Suspension
Buzzard’s Bay Bridge Lift
Bridge (1935).
17th Street bascule bridge, Fort Lauderdale.
• 1. Slab-on-stringer (95% of all types)
• 2. Steel and Concrete Box Girders
• 3. Steel and Concrete Arch
• 4. Trusses
• 5. Lift (bascule)
• 6. Suspension
Mid- Manhattan Bridge. Started on 1 October, 1901, and finished 31
Mid-
December, 1909. Original cost $ 31 million. Total length 6,855 feet.
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. Started 3 January, 1933. Opened 27 May, 1937. Original
cost $ 35 million. Length 1.7 miles.
Honshu-- Shikoku
Honshu
Harsha bridge, Kentucky
The New (1982) Skyway Bridge, Tampa
Bunker Hill bridge, Boston (2004).