A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually something that is otherwise difficult or impossible to cross. There are many different designs of bridges, each serving a particular purpose and applicable to different situations. Designs of bridges vary depending on factors such as the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed and anchored, and the material used to make it, and the funds available to build it.
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical suspenders, have a long history in many mountainous parts of the world.
A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers, from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern or a series of parallel lines. This is in contrast to the modern suspension bridge, where the cables supporting the deck are suspended vertically from the main cable, anchored at both ends of the bridge and running between the towers. The cable-stayed bridge is optimal for spans longer than cantilever bridges and shorter than suspension bridges. This is the range within which cantilever bridges would rapidly grow heavier, and suspension bridge cabling would be more costly.
The Goethals Bridge is the name of a pair of cable-stayed bridge spans connecting Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Staten Island, New York, in the United States. The spans cross a strait known as Arthur Kill, and replaced a cantilever bridge span built in 1928. The bridge is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge across the St. Clair River that links Port Huron, Michigan, United States, and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Water Bridge connects Highway 402 in Ontario with both Interstate 69 (I-69) and Interstate 94 (I-94) in Michigan.
The Richmond–San Rafael Bridge is the northernmost of the east–west crossings of the San Francisco Bay in California, USA. Officially named after California State Senator John F. McCarthy, it bridges Interstate 580 from Richmond on the east to San Rafael on the west. It opened in 1956, replacing ferry service by the Richmond–San Rafael Ferry Company.
The Carquinez Bridge is a pair of parallel bridges spanning the Carquinez Strait at the northeastern end of San Francisco Bay. They form the part of Interstate 80 between Crockett and Vallejo, California.
The Silver Jubilee Bridge crosses the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn Gap between Runcorn and Widnes in Halton, England. It is a through arch bridge with a main arch span of 361 yards. It was opened in 1961 as a replacement for the Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge. In 1975–77 the carriageway was widened, after which the bridge was given its official name in honour of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. It carries the A533 road and a cantilevered footway. The bridge is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The bridge was closed to vehicles for refurbishment upon the opening of the new Mersey Gateway Bridge, but reopened as a toll bridge in February 2021.
The Howrah Bridge is a balanced cantilever bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. Commissioned in 1943, the bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it replaced a pontoon bridge at the same location linking the cities of Howrah and Kolkata (Calcutta). On 14 June 1965, it was renamed Rabindra Setu after the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate. It is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.
The eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge was a construction project to replace a seismically unsound portion of the Bay Bridge with a new self-anchored suspension bridge (SAS) and a pair of viaducts. The bridge is in the U.S. state of California and crosses the San Francisco Bay between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland. The span replacement took place between 2002 and 2013, and is the most expensive public works project in California history, with a final price tag of $6.5 billion, a 2,500% cost overrun from the original estimate of $250 million. Originally scheduled to open in 2007, several problems delayed the opening until September 2, 2013. With a width of 258.33 ft (78.74 m), comprising 10 general-purpose lanes, it is the world's widest bridge according to Guinness World Records.
Mahatma Gandhi Setu is a bridge over the river Ganges in Bihar, India, connecting Patna in the south to Hajipur in the north. Its length is 5,750 metres (18,860 ft) and it is the third-longest river bridge in India. It was inaugurated in May 1982 in a ceremony in Hajipur by the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi. From 1982 to 2017, Mahatma Gandhi Setu remained as the longest bridge in India. Later, Gandhi Setu rehabilitation project was undertaken to install triangular steel trusses on Mahatma Gandhi Setu.
The Roberto Clemente Bridge, also known as the Sixth Street Bridge, spans the Allegheny River in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
Hampden Bridge is a heritage-listed single-span suspension bridge that carries Moss Vale Road (B73) across the Kangaroo River, in Kangaroo Valley, in the City of Shoalhaven local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The bridge was designed by Ernest de Burgh and built by Loveridge and Hudson. The property is owned by Transport for NSW. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 August 2019.
The Newark Bay Bridge of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) was a railroad bridge in New Jersey that connected Elizabethport and Bayonne at the southern end of Newark Bay. Its third and final incarnation was a four-track vertical-lift design that opened in 1926, replacing a bascule bridge from 1904 which superseded the original swing bridge from 1887. The bridge served the main line of the CNJ, carrying daily interstate trains as well as commuter trains.
The Varodd Bridges are two parallel cantilever bridges in Kristiansand municipality, in Agder county, Norway, and they cross the Topdalsfjorden. They are named after the peninsula on the western shore. It goes from Vige and ends in Søm in Kristiansand. The bridges carry the European route E18 highway over the fjord.
A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward horizontal forces of the arch(es) caused by tension at the arch ends to a foundation are countered by equal tension of its own gravity plus any element of the total deck structure such great arch(es) support. The arch(es) have strengthened chord(s) that run to a strong part of the deck structure or to independent tie-rods below the arch ends.
The bridges of Budapest, crossing the River Danube from north to south are as follows:
The I-10 Twin Span Bridge, a nearly 5.5-mile (8.9 km) causeway officially known as the Frank Davis "Naturally N'Awlins" Memorial Bridge, consists of two parallel trestle bridges. These parallel bridges cross the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana from New Orleans to Slidell. The current bridge spans were constructed in the second half of the 2000s after the original bridges were extensively damaged by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. The first span opened to eastbound traffic on July 9, 2009. On April 7, 2010, the second span was opened to traffic and the old twin spans were permanently closed to traffic.
The Silver Bridge was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge carried U.S. Route 35 over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio.
The Dongshuimen Bridge and the Qianximen Bridge, known collectively as the Twin River Bridges, are a pair of bridges that form a road and rail connection in Chongqing, China. Consisting of two cable-stayed bridges and a tunnel across the Yuzhong peninsula, the connection opened in 2014.
