Page 2 - LetsUsMakeABridge

TOPIC:
Design of a bridge that can tolerate maximum load

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
This project explores the basic physics of bridges. The goal is that the student will develop an
understanding through experimentation of which shapes are the most structurally strong, and that many
factors are taken into account in engineering and building. The project provides a practical application of
physics to a real-world context.
The following objectives will be explored in this project:

1. Principles on experimentation and research work
2. Analysis and interpretation of the design
3. Design optimization for most efficient design
4. Principles of forces and load
5. Designing a bridge and its types
6. Material selection for a product based on problem statement
7. Resource management
8. Project management

LITERATURE SURVEY
The first suspension bridges were not the imposing steel and stone structures you think. In fact, the
first suspension bridges are the handing vine bridges found in South America, Africa, and Asia.
Thousands of years ago, people hung cables, fashioned from twisted vines, from trees on one side of a
river or canyon to join trees on the other side. The cable-vines held up strong twigs and planks of wood
to create a platform. These early suspension bridges were important for enabling people to travel faster
across rivers and canyons.

Now, rivers can also be crossed using suspension bridges - albeit, bridges that are a lot more
sophisticated, stronger, and longer. John Roebling dreamed up the first modern suspension bridge in
1867. He believed that a long suspension bridge, today called the Brooklyn Bridge, could connect
Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. Other engineers believed that the feat couldn't be done. But
Roebling spent two years planning and checking every detail and calculation twice.

It took 14 more years to build the bridge, but John Roebling
didn't live to see it finished. Just two weeks after the project
began, Roebling injured his right foot in an accident at the
bridge site. Doctors amputated his toes, but his foot
became infected, and he died.

His son Washington, also an engineer and bridge builder,
took over his father's dream. But during the first three
years on the project, he became sick and was bedridden.
Although, not an engineer, Emily Warren Roebling, his wife,
took over the project. She soon became knowledgeable in
the language of bridges and an expert in bridge