arch bridge
Sign in to savebridge type characterized by its supporting arches
Key facts
- 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
via Wikipedia infobox
~20 min read
Encyclopedic overview
An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of this bridge and its loads partially as horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either end, and partially as vertical loads on the arch supports. A viaduct (a long bridge) may be made from a series of arches, although other, more economical structures are typically used today.
History
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “arch bridge” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.