Stone arch bridge
Double arch stone bridge, Japan
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| Ancestor | Clapper bridge |
|---|---|
| Descendant | Truss arch bridge, moon bridge (masonry) |
| Carries | Pedestrians, vehicles, light rail, heavy rail, water |
| Span range | short, but often set end-to-end to form a large total length |
| Material | masonry, concrete, wrought iron, cast iron, timber, structural steel |
| Movable | No |
| Design effort | Low |
| Falsework required | Yes |
An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct (a long bridge) may be made from a series of arches, although other more economical structures are typically used today.
Possibly the oldest existing arch bridge is the Mycenaean Arkadiko bridge in Greece from about 1300 BC. The stone corbel arch bridge is still used by the local populace. The well-preserved Hellenistic Eleutherna Bridge has a triangular corbel arch. The 4th century BC Rhodes Footbridge rests on an early voussoir arch.
Although true arches were already known by the Etruscans and ancient Greeks, the Romans were – as with the vault and the dome – the first to fully realize the potential of arches for bridge construction. A list of Roman bridges compiled by the engineer Colin O'Connor features 330 Roman stone bridges for traffic, 34 Roman timber bridges and 54 Roman aqueduct bridges, a substantial part still standing and even used to carry vehicles. A more complete survey by the Italian scholar Vittorio Galliazzo found 931 Roman bridges, mostly of stone, in as many as 26 different countries (including former Yugoslavia).
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Wikipedia