Humans have tamed steel, stone, lumber, and even living vegetation, all in effort to reach the people, places, and things that we desire. Although the concept of bridges is as simple as a tree falling across a creek, bridge design and construction requires very serious ingenuity. Artists, engineers, and architects pour vast resources into bridge construction so that they can reshape our daily environment for the better. When building bridges you’ll need help from BATS which are the key structural components of bridge construction such as beams, arches , trusses, and suspensions. Various combinations of these four technologies make it possible for numerous bridge designs, ranging from some bridges as simple as beam bridges, arch bridges, truss bridges, and suspension bridges to more complicated bridges like side-spar cable-stayed bridges. Some of the key differences between these four types of bridges is the lengths that they can cross a single span, which is the total distancve between two of the bridges supports. Bridges supports can take the forms of columns, towers or even the walls of nature around the bridge like canyons. Beam bridges range up to 200 feet , while modern arch bridges can reach up to 800-1000 feet safely. Suspension bridges on the other hand are able to extend from 2000-7000 feet across. Compression and tension are present in all bridges and they are capable of damaging parts of the bridge as varying load weights and other forces act on the structure of the bridge. It is the job of the bridge design to handle these forces without buckling or snapping. Buckling occurs when a compression is able to overcome a objects ability to endure that certain force. Snapping is what happens when tension surpasses an objects ability to handle the lengthening force. The most effective way to deal with these powerful forces is to either dissipate them or transfer them. With the dissipation the design allows the force to be spread out over a greater area so that…
