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Geometry of Bridge Construction
The four kinds of bridges and some combinations
A. The beam or truss bridge is, in effect, a pair of girders supporting a deck
spanning the gap between two piers. Such a beam has to withstand both
compression in its upper parts and tension in its lower parts. Where it passes oer
supports, other forces come into play. A beam may be a hollow bo! girder or an
open frame or truss.
B. An arch bridge can be designed so that no part of it has to withstand tension.
Concrete is well suited to arched bridge design. When reinforced concrete is used, a
more elegant and sometimes less costly arch can be designed and most concrete arch
bridges are reinforced.
C. A suspension bridge consists, basically, of a deck suspended from cables slung
between high towers. The cables of high tensile steel wire can support an immense
weight. The towers are in compression and the deck, often consisting of a long
slender truss "used as a hollow beam#, is supported at fre$uent interals along its
length.
%. A cantileer bridge is generally carried by two beams, each supported at one end.
&nlike a simple beam supported at both ends, the cantileer must resist tension in
its upper half and compression in its lower.
A fifth type arried on the scene in '()* the first modern cable+stayed bridges were
built in Germany and Sweden. There are also many other composite forms of
bridges. The bridle+chord bridge is a combination of a long beam "usually a trussed
girder# partially supported by steel wires from a tower at one end, or from towers at
each end. ,ost cantileer bridges are designed so that a gap remains between two
cantileered arms that reach out from their abutments- the gap is bridged by a
simple beam.
Some .!amples
An early history of bridge building
The /omans0 legacy to bridge building was the heay masonry arch bridge,
hundreds of which were built throughout .urope. 1n this, large stone blocks were
wedged against each other to form an arch. The central stone at the top of the arch
was known as the keystone. The finest suriing e!ample of such a bridge is the
2ons 3abricius in /ome. Completed in 4* BC, the bridge "now called the 2onte
5uattro Capi# has two fine semicircular arches each spanning 67 feet. A small
8relief8 arch in the central sponging of the two main arches releases e!cess water in
times of flood.
So prolific and efficient was /oman building that it was hundreds of years before
.uropeans took to bridge building anew. Then, in the '*th century Catholic priests
and professionals took oer the building of bridges because the Church recogni9ed
the adantages of good road communications in a deeloping society. 1n 3rance a
group of interested priests formed a new order, the 3reres du 2ont, to design and
build lasting bridges. ,ost famous of this order0s works was the 2ont d0 Aignon,
built in ''66 oer the /hone /ier. 1t had *' arches in all, the longest spanned '')
feet. Similarly in .ngland it was 2eter de Colechurch who designed and built the
first stone bridge oer the Thames, the famous :ondon Bridge. Another was done by
the architect+priest Gioanni Giocondo "c. ';<<+')')# who used the segmental arch
in 2aris0 first masonry bridge, built in ')=6.
&ntil the late '6th century bridges continued to be designed and built largely by
priests or architects with a flair for engineering. But such comple! and essential
work could not rest in the hands of gifted amateurs foreer. 1n '6'4 3rench army
engineers took the lead on the rest of the world in bridge building.
/eferences
Encyclopedia Britannica Chicago- '()( edition, >ol. 1> pp '*<+'<6
Random House Encyclopedia ?ew @ork- '(66 edition pp '6)4+'6)(
Brown, %aid Bridges ?ew @ork- ,acmillan /eed 1nternational BooksA '((<
.es, Boward An Introduction ot the History of Mathematics: ?ew @ork- BoltA '(4;
Simple Truss "or Beam# bridges
Arch Bridges
C
Suspension Bridges
Cantileer Bridges
>arious Bridges
The seen Bridges of Donigsberg
The Donigsberg 2roblem and the beginning of ?etwork theory.
1n '6<4 .uler resoled a $uestion as to whether it was possible to take a walk in the
town of Donigsberg in such a way that eery bridge in the town would be crossed
once and only once and the walker return to his starting point. The town was
located close to the mouth of the 2regel /ier, had seen bridges, and included an
island. .uler reduced the problem to that of tracing the associated graph in such a
way that each line of the graph is traced once and only once, and the tracing point
ends up at its starting point.
1n considering the general problem, the following definitions are useful. A node is a
point of a graph from which lines radiate. A branch is a line of a graph connecting
two consecutie nodes. The order of a node is the number of branches radiating
from it. A node is said to be een or odd according as its order is een or odd. A
route consists of a number of branches that can be traced consecutiely without
traersing any branch twice. A graph that can be traced in one route is said to be
unicursalA otherwise it is said to be multicursal. About these concepts .uler
succeeded in establishing the following propositions-
'. 1n any graph the number of odd nodes is een.
*. A graph with no odd nodes can be traersed unicursally in a route that terminates
at its starting point.
<. A graph with e!actly two odd nodes con be traersed unicursally by starting at
one of the odd nodes and then terminating at the other.
;. A graph with more than two odd nodes is multicursol.
/eturn to 2olyhedra 2age