Suspension Bridges

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the

deck (the load-bearing portion) is hung below
suspension cables on vertical suspenders.
Suspension bridges in there most simplest form was
made from wood and rope.

Light, and strong, suspension bridges can span a

distance from 2,000 to 7, 000 feet far longer than
any kind of bridge. They are ideal for covering busy
waterways.
With any bridge project the choice of materials and
form usually comes down to cost. Suspension
bridges tend to be more expensive to build.
A suspension bridge suspends the roadway from the
huge main cables, which extend from the one end of
the bridge to the other. These cables can rest on top
of high towers and have to be securely anchored into
the bank at the either end of the bridge.
The towers enable the main cables to be draped over
long distances. Most of the weight or load of the
bridge is transferred by the cables to the anchorage
systems. These are imbedded in either solid rock or
huge concrete blocks. Inside the anchorages, the
cables are spread over a large area to evenly
distribute the load and to prevent the cables from
breaking free.

This type of bridge has cables suspended between

towers, plus vertical suspender cables that carry the
weight of the deck below, upon traffic crosses.

The suspension cables must be anchored at each end

of the bridge, since any load applied to the bridge is
transformed into a tension in these main cables.
The main forces in a suspension bridge of any type
are tension in the cables and compression in the
pillars, since almost all the force on the pillars is
vertically downwards and they are also stabilized by
the main cables, the pillars can be made quite
slender.

In a suspended deck bridge, cables suspended via

towers hold up the road deck. The weight is
transferred by the cables to the towers, which in turn
transfer the weight to the ground.
The main suspension cable in older bridges was often
made from chain or linked bars, but modern bridge
cables are made from multiple strands of wire. This
contributes greater redundancy.
Three kinds of forces operate on any bridge: the
dead load, the live load, and the dynamic load. Dead
load refers to the weight of the bridge itself. Like any
other structure, a bridge has a tendency to collapse
simply because of the gravitational forces acting on
the materials of which the bridge is made.
Dynamic load refers to environmental factors that go
beyond normal weather conditions like earthquakes.
All three factors must be taken into consideration
when building a bridge.