HISTORY124 - Bridges
The history of bridges has been on my blog ideas list for a long time. In discussing possible blog subjects recently, noting that I had recently written about Roman aqueduct bridges, Pat suggested that I might want to broaden that topic to the history of all kinds of bridges. After a short introduction, I will identify the six main types of bridges, then discuss the history of bridges from ancient times to today, next notable bridge failures, and finish with some interesting facts about bridges. As usual, I will include my primary resources at the end. Introduction The history of bridges is a chronicle of humanity's evolving engineering skills, from simple logs laid across streams to complex structures of iron, steel, and concrete spanning vast distances. A bridge is a structure carrying a road, railroad, path, or canal across a river, lake, railroad, road, ravine, or other obstacle. It is constructed for the purpose of...