Timeline of three longest supported deck arch bridge spans
Encyclopedia
Span (architecture)
Span is the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure, e.g. a beam or a bridge.A span can be closed by a solid beam or of a rope...
in the world, where the road deck lies on top of the arch. The deck is supported by columns, truss, rubble or lies directly on the arch. These bridges are often found in narrow valleys.
Because of the difficulty in telling an arch bridge apart from a bent beam bridge
Truss arch bridge
A truss arch bridge combines the elements of the truss bridge and the arch bridge. The actual resolution of forces will depend upon the design. If no horizontal thrusting forces are generated this becomes an arch-shaped truss, essentially a bent beam — see moon bridge for an example...
or certain cantilever bridges
Pierre Pflimlin bridge
The Pierre Pflimlin Bridge is a 957 m long motorway bridge over the river Rhine between Germany and France, south of Strasbourg / Kehl. It is named after Pierre Pflimlin, a former French prime minister, and was opened in 2002...
, all bridges that look like supported deck arch bridges are included in this timeline. The whole arch should be aesthetically visible uninterrupted by other structures such as the deck. Suspended deck arch bridges are excluded. The lower deck of the Eads Bridge
Eads Bridge
The Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, connecting St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois....
is suspended a bit, but not below the underside of the arch, and the upper deck is completely above of the arch, so Eads is included. The lower deck of Dom Luís Bridge, Porto
Dom Luís Bridge, Porto
The Luís I Bridge is a metal arch bridge that spans the Douro River between the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal...
is suspended as far as is possible, making it also a suspended bridge, so it is excluded.
There are some truss bridges like Permanent Bridge where the deck passes through the arch. Since the deck does not lie on top of the load-bearing arch, but is suspended a bit measured from the top of the arch, those types are excluded. Eads Bridge was not excluded because the existence of such a lower deck does not change the appearance of the bridge much with respect of the arch.
In this timeline, only spans that were still standing a particular year are considered for that year. This is perhaps more fair than a timeline of the records of all time, because the old figures might be incorrect. At the points when the old spans falls, new spans with more certain figures are allowed to appear in the timeline. This is the historic top 3 lists of standing longest spans per day.
When several bridges of the same length exists, the oldest is counted as the longest.
Note: Some information in this timeline have uncertainty, especially before 1874.
Known incorrect construction years
In this table the finishing years of construction of the structures shown in the timeline, that are known to be incorrect, are listed. If a guess was not made for the years of construction that are unknown, the graphical timeline could not be drawn. Some timber arches are probably missing from the timeline in the 19th century.| Incorrect year | Bridge |
|---|---|
| after 12th century | destruction of second Ponte di Augusto Narni Narni is an ancient hilltown and comune of Umbria, in central Italy, with 20,100 inhabitants, according to the 2003 census. At an altitude of 240 m , it overhangs a narrow gorge of the Nera River in the province of Terni. It is very close to the Geographic center of Italy... , etc. |
| 1829 | demolition of Bamberg bridge |
External links
- http://en.structurae.de/index.cfm
- http://www.brueckenweb.de
- :cs:Žďákovský most Žďákov bridge has a span of 362 m. The steel part of the span is 330 m. http://www.karl-gotsch.de/Brdaten/Beschreibung_273.htm, http://www.libri.cz/databaze/mosty/obrazek.php?src=./pics/3451/431u-Zdakov_a.jpg&title=%AE%CF%C1KOV. Both following sources have incorrect values of the span: http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0005872, http://www.brueckenweb.de/datenbank/bruecken/brueckenblatt.php?bas=174
- :pt:Ponte do Porto, http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0020363
- Cascade bridge http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/eriecasc.Html
- :fr:Viaduc du Viaur http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0000163
- Permanent Bridge http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/brcoo0.Html http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0002231
- Bamberg bridge Hypothesis:Figure of Freysingen, similar to Bamberg