Suspension Bridges

Getting ready to design your

own!

What is a suspension bridge:

One of the several types of bridge designs
Used for the longest spans
Cables- suspend the roadway
Towers- stabilize wire cables
(offer little support)
Anchorages- key to the structure, mass that keeps
cables tight, gives the bridge structure

Suspension Bridge

With anchorages

Without anchorages

Roeblings Engineering
Contributions:
Engineer famous for American suspension bridges
Use of steel
Development of wire cables

Spinning: assembling heavy cables in the air

Advancement of stiffening trusses

Truss: triangular structure that adds strength not weight

Roeblings First Bridge:

Niagara Falls in 1855 to
1897
825 feet
Suspension railway

Roeblings Brooklyn Bridge:

Longest of its time

1595 feet in 1883

Other Famous
Suspension
Bridges

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

Hyogo, Japan
6,529 ft
Longest suspension
bridge today

Top 10 bridges in the world by length:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge (Japan), 1991m1998

Xihoumen Bridge (China), 1650m2007
Great Belt Bridge (Denmark), 1624m1998
Runyang Bridge (China), 1490m2005
Humber Bridge (England, United Kingdom), 1410m1981.
(Thelongestspanfrom1981until1998.)

6. Jiangyin Suspension Bridge (China), 1385m1997

7. Tsing Ma Bridge (Hong Kong,
spanwithbothroadandmetro)

China), 1377m1997(longest

8. Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (USA), 1298m1964.(Thelongest

spanfrom1964until1981.)

9. Golden Gate Bridge (USA), 1280m1937.(Thelongestspanfrom

1937until1964.)

10.Yangluo Bridge (China), 1280m2007

Brooklyn Bridge ( NY,USA, 1883), The first steel-wire suspension bridge.

Bear Mountain Bridge (NY, USA, 1924), The longest span (497 m)from 1924
to 1926. The first suspension bridge to have a concrete deck. The
construction methods pioneered in building it would make possible several
much larger projects to follow.
John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge (Ohio, USA: 1866), Then the longest
wire suspension bridge in the world at 1,057 feet (322 m) main span.

Mackinac Bridge (USA, 1957), The longest suspension bridge

between anchorages in the Western hemisphere.

Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct (NY,USA, 1847) The oldest wire suspension

bridge still in service in United States.
Royal Gorge Bridge (Colorado, USA, 1929), The highest (384 m)
suspension bridge in the world.
San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge (USA, 1936), Until recently, this was
the longest steel high-level bridge in the world. The oldest in the world still in
use today.

Bridges close to home!

Mackinac Island
Bridge

The longest between anchorages in the

Western hemishere

Total length: 26,372 feet (8,038 m)

Width: 68.6 feet (20.9 m)

Height: 522 feet (159 m)

Longest span: 3,800 feet (1,158 m)

Even closer to home

Ambassador Bridge

Detroit

Ambassador Bridge Dimensions:

Total length7,500 feet (2,286 m)

Longest span1,850 feet (564 m)

A
B

Total length ______________________ (A)

Span length (tower to tower) _____________________(B)
Total height of each tower _________________________(C)
Total width of the roadway __________________________

The General Contractor wants to see a scale model of this bridge

before you begin construction. You will have limited workspace.
You will need to scale the feet down to a workable unit. In this
case you will use 1 inch to equal 50ft.

Total scale length:

Scale span length:

Total scale height:

Total scale roadway width: