15-05-2015, 03:16 PM
Suspension bridge is most commonly built to span across water body. It is built by suspending the roadway from cables attached to a master cable which runs above the length of the bridge. In addition to being strong and lightweight, suspension bridges are also beautiful. The design of a suspension bridge is simple and straightforward, and takes advantage of several techniques to distribute the weight of the bridge safely and evenly
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The main forces in a suspension bridge are tension in the main cables and compression in the pillars. Since almost all the force on the pillars is vertically downwards and they are also stabilized by the main cables, they can be made quite slender.
In a suspended deck bridge, cables suspended via towers hold up the road deck. The weight is transferred by the cables to the towers, which in turn transfer the weight to the ground. Most of the weight or load of the bridge is transferred by the cables to the anchorage systems. These are imbedded in either solid rock or huge concrete blocks. Inside the anchorages, the cables are spread over a large area to evenly distribute the load and to prevent the cables from breaking free