Ancient Bridges Research Articles

The fate of medieval English bridges since 1770: demolition, survival and preservation

Until 1770 England had a huge road network making use of medieval bridges. Now, only about 100 major medieval bridges survive. Although no accurate survey has yet been undertaken, it is estimated that over 80% of the major medieval bridges were demolished during the period 1770–1830. The paper looks at the reasons for this widespread demolition programme. The pattern of demolition was varied: over some rivers most medieval bridges were replaced; over others, many remain. Apart from a poor state of repair, the main reason for demolition was that they were inadequate for new wheeled transport. However, many bridges could have been repaired and widened, as some indeed were. Many were demolished because of a shift in attitudes – a desire for modern, fashionable structures. Only in the 1870s did the option to preserve and restore old bridges start to gain popularity and few ancient bridges have been demolished since that time. This study of the post-medieval history of ancient bridges provides valuable insights and background knowledge for civil engineers dealing with old bridges.

Lagrangianlized Nonlinear Dynamic Equation of Timoshenko Beam and Application

Base on Hamilton's principle, under the continuity conditions of generalized coordinator, generalized force and the deformation, provide nonlinear deformation problem of Timoshenko beam’s Lagrangianlized basic elastic equation and its generalized boundary condition. Lagrangianlized basic elastic equation makes it possible to avoid indirect problem for the variation principle of continuum, which not only simplify the solving of direct problem but also stylize the solving process. The YUQING ancient bridge (in ShangHai) is taken as an example, calculating the kinetics characteristics and making damage diagnosis combined with the pulsation experimental result data.

Finite Element Modelling Tuned on Experimental Testing for the Structural Health Assessment of an Ancient Masonry Arch Bridge

This paper presents the structural health assessment of a railway ancient masonry arch bridge located in Bologna, Italy. A three‐dimensional finite element model of the entire bridge, tuned on in situ experimental tests, has been used for the assessment. In particular, the finite element model has been employed to evaluate the structural health of the bridge both in its actual state and in the hypothesis of a structural strengthening intervention.

Water Impact Reduction on the Deck of the Bridge Structure by Using Complete Drainage Installation

Water, without which the life would not exist, may significantly reduce lifetime of a bridge structure, which is not well drained, and not only from the surface of bridge deck, but also from its covering. On the contrary, when a proper drainage is present, it not only prolongs the bridge lifetime, but also significantly reduces the operating costs of its maintenance. In recent years, the newly constructed bridge drainage systems together with the follow-up accessories considerably avoid the accumulation of water in all critical points of the bridge and in layers of asphalt. Its retention in all parts of the bridge, or improper outflow, is causing corrosion of the steel and the concrete. Taking a look at the stone bridges standing alone for centuries and often without the need of major repairs, both layman and expert would wonder: “How is it possible that these jewels of engineering have survived through long years and those elegant bridge works built up in recent decades need often and costly repairs?” It has been a stone composition of “opus spicatum” style that has become one of the first drainage systems used with ancient bridge works. The water retaining in bridge construction is very often the cause of its defects. Correctly and professionally installed drainage systems guarantees perfect water drainage from the all parts of bridge and layers of asphalt, and insures a long lifetime of all the bridge structure parts.

The Chicanery of the Isthmian Links Model

Two papers, ‘Gondwana land bridges’ by Charles Schuchert and ‘Isthmian links’ by Bailey Willis, were published together in 1932. They were apparently motivated by Schuchert's desire to defend his paleogeography of fixed continents against the threat of Alfred Wegener's continental mobilism. Schuchert and Willis both held to land-bridge theory but admitted that they could not accept each other's types of bridges. Schuchert insisted that some bridges had to be wide and of continental material, without explaining why he felt this was so. Willis insisted that wide continental bridges were isostatically and volumetrically impossible; so any ancient bridges that had sunk must have been narrow isthmuses of dense oceanic rocks. They wrote separate papers, but issued together, perhaps to lead readers to the impression that a compromise was possible; but it was not. They avoided alerting readers to fatal flaws in both their models, in part by limiting their discussion to the less familiar southern hemisphere (Gondwana) and never mentioning the continental connection between Europe and North America. Willis went further in his inventions than Schuchert, trying to explain the extremes of Permian climate. Fixed-continent paleogeography required glacial conditions at equatorial latitudes and tropical conditions at arctic latitudes. We now understand that these climate differences can only be explained by ‘continental drift’ (or plate tectonics), but in his valiant effort to support fixism, Willis postulated not only tectonic uplifts of oceanic isthmuses, but also uplifts in continental areas that were known to be stable.

Trastevere

Trastevere Austin Segrest (bio) Oh, sometimes I get a good feeling, yeah . . . —Etta James —And I can see clear across the Tiber, I can take any of seven ancient bridges to Trastevere where my mother’s wearing purple—not the funereal purple of flowers, or the purple veins flowering to the surface of the skin of the dying, her dying— but the suit she found the rare Italian nerve to finally buy after a week wandering radial streets around Santa Maria. And in the market where it doesn’t matter if I’m underage she endows me with the secret of Wild Turkey, oh, wildly underestimated. And later we’ll go looking for that restaurant as shops roll shut and old men fix scooters by lamplight, their radios throating staccato soccer games. And our feet are light over cobblestone made from volcanic ash—blasted, blanketing, hardened in the hills; stones, which, they say, in summer (only a month or so away), give under the pressure of heels. [End Page 139] Austin Segrest Austin Segrest, originally from Alabama, is a Ph.D. Fellow in poetry at University of Missouri–Columbia. His work has appeared in the Yale Review, Ploughshares, Threepenny Review, TriQuarterly, Five Points, and elsewhere. This coming fall he will be poetry editor of the Missouri Review. Copyright © 2011 Middlebury College Publications

Analyses of Pathological Changes of Lingnan Ancient Stone Bridges

Reasons of pathological changes of Lingnan ancient stone bridges are elaborated in this paper, classification of pathological changes and procedures of protection are discussed, methods of elimination of pathological changes and protection are also probed into. The purpose of this paper is to initiate people to have profound understanding to pathological changes of Lingnan ancient stone bridges to protect them in modernization strategy.

Reconstruction of the landscape history around the remnant arch of the Klidhi Roman Bridge, Thessaloniki Plain, North Central Greece

This paper deals with the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the area surrounding the remnant arch of the ancient bridge of Klidhi, Thessaloniki Plain, Greece. 19th century travellers and 20th century historians discussed the age of the monument and concluded that it was built during Late Roman Times (3rd Cent. AD) and supported a branch of the Via Egnatia road. However, few studies have considered the environmental context of the construction of the bridge, and until now, only two hypotheses have been presented: The bridge was built on or over a junction of the Aliakmon and Loudias Rivers, or on a coastal barrier. Within the framework of a geoarchaeological project developed in April 2008, five boreholes were drilled and the sediment cores analysed for microfauna and sedimentology. Seven 14C AMS dates provided a chronostratigraphic sequence and helped to define the geomorphological evolution of the area. Spatial interpretation of the results was possible using a Landsat TM image (False Colour Composite – FCC). Our data indicate the gradual transition of the site from a marine to a terrestrial environment during Ancient Times. Lagoonal conditions dominated during the construction of the bridge and the presence of a palaeochannel of the Aliakmon River was later revealed (transition from Byzantine and Ottoman periods), overlying sediments of a coastal barrier.

A Study Report on an Ancient Chinese Wooden Bridge Hongqiao

Hongqiao was an arch-shaped wood bridge, which collapsed hundreds of years ago and its beautiful form can be seen only in a famous Chinese painting from the Northern Song Dynasty period (960–1127 A. D.). It was built by a very special structural system of lap beams, which is different from trusses, arches and beams. In the present paper, the author reports on the investigation results related to the history of the Hongqiao Bridge as well as the arch-shaped wood bridges in China, and analyze its geometrical dimensions and structural principle. By structural analyses, the author demonstrates the distribution of internal forces, and represents its special structural characteristics.

Persuading the citizens? Charles I and London Bridge

After a fire in 1633 Charles I endeavoured to persuade the corporation of London to transform their ancient bridge, a move which paralleled royal involvement in several building projects in London during Charles's ‘Personal Rule’. These proposals illuminate both the procedures that his privy council adopted in strong-arming individuals to commission impressive edifices as part of rebuilding work, and the wider aspirations for transforming London held at the court, aspirations that justified employing considerable effort on fairly small projects. Royal intervention could halt new building on the Londoners’ bridge; it could not impose a thoroughgoing reconstruction.

Image centric finite element simulation

Images have played a substantial role in documenting historical structures and structural systems. As a result, extensive archives are now available to reconstruct both modern and ancient buildings, bridges and other structures for subsequent analysis and visualization. While common approaches require the creation of complex three-dimensional models to facilitate the study of response to anticipated loading of a target system or subsystem, faster techniques are required for preliminary data analysis. This paper presents an image-based approach that allows users to sketch structural systems over a reference image while using standard engineering symbols and nomenclature. Within the presented framework, the response of the sketched system is analyzed and presented using an image-centric finite element analysis approach. Finite element models of the sketched structural system and image are constructed and simulation results fused into a final visual encoding, using deformation patterns and image warping. Results for two example structures illustrate the intuitive modeling capability that the system provides to the user. The presented system is particularly beneficial in educational environments, where fundamental behavioral characteristics of structural systems are studied.

Kentucky River High Bridge

Cantilever bridge construction can be said to have started with the work of Heinrich Gerber in Germany in 1867. While the principle had been used in many ancient bridges, it was not until Gerber’s work that metal bridges were built using the cantilever principle. The Kentucky High Bridge over the Kentucky River was the first modern cantilever bridge built in the United States. While James Eads had used the cantilever construction method at St. Louis, his bridge acted in service as a series of three arches. The High Bridge, designed by C. Shaler Smith, was one of the most daring and innovative bridges built in the country and carried its load between 1876 and 1912, when it was replaced by Gustave Lindenthal’s three span truss.

The Ancient Bridge of Stirling: Investigations 1988–2000

The Ancient Bridge of Stirling was destroyed in 1297 after the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Unlike the Old Bridge, which still stands, the remains of the Ancient Bridge are below water in the River Forth. This paper describes the investigations since 1988 of those remains. Two masonry piers reported in 1905, one under water in the tidal river and the other under a sandbank, were re-located and their positions surveyed. Two additional piers were located by probing under the sandbank. Divers made some under water investigations. The four piers lie in a straight line diagonally across the River Forth. It is argued that these represent some of the eight piers shown on the Old Common Seal of the Burgh of Stirling. Excavation on the S bank revealed masonry coated with mortar, which might be part of a bridge abutment, but nothing similar was found on the N bank, in spite of extensive excavation which produced interesting evidence of relatively modern flood defences. Efforts were made to obtain dating material from one of the piers, but success proved to be beyond present capabilities. The lessons learned should assist future work, and possible solutions of the difficulties are discussed.

Un pont (?) antique (?) à Tours / An ancient (?) bridge (?) at Tours

The exceptionally low level of the water in the Loire river at Tours in September 2000 allowed the discovery of groups of wooden piles which may be parts of an ancient bridge. That structure apparently older than the medieval bridge built in the first half of 11th century could be from Roman times.

Design and performance of a modular fiber reinforced plastic bridge

An integral fiber reinforced plastic bridge structural system is described. The design is carefully engineered to incorporate fiber reinforced plastics as the sole structural material. As a result, a number of special features evolved to produce an efficient bridge design. We describe the structural components, highlight the structural performance and some of the novel features incorporated in this design, and compare the performance of our design to other composite bridges. The design appears to have potential as a new approach to the ancient bridge construction problem that utilizes the properties of this class of materials to the fullest.

A Proposal for the Nibelung Bridge

When it was decided to replace the existing Nibelung Bridge over the Danube River in Regensburg, Germany, the prominence of the site and the proximity to a gothic cathedral and an ancient stone bridge prompted city authorities to solicit design options through an international competition.The bridge that our team proposed did not win the competition, but it certainly provoked lively reactions among the members of the jury and the population of Regensburg. With this paper we would like to briefly describe the bridge project and discuss the basic principles that guided the design process. Although the bridge will not be built, its design has been a significant event for all concerned, especially because of the close and productive collaboration between engineer and architect.

Ancient and Modern Chinese Bridges

Ancient and modern bridges in China have much in common. A survey of old and new bridges in China is presented, focusing on the following bridge types: open spandrel arch, timber cantilever, timber strut arch cantilever, truss and iron chain bridges. The paper underscores China's contributions to structural engineering history. (A)

Ancient Chinese Bridges

Ancient Chinese Bridges

New insight into an ancient stone arch bridge—The Zhao-Zhou Bridge of 1400 years old

In this paper an analysis is made for the old Zhao-Zhou Stone Arch Bridge on its carrying capacity based on structural limit analysis. For a stone arch bridge, with a given arch centre line and a given loading condition, there exists a minimum thickness limit for the arch ring. If the actual thickness of the arch ring is less than or equal to that limit, the stone arch will collapse as a result of the development of more than three hinges. The ratio of the actual thickness and the minimum limit characterizes the safety of the arch bridge under that loading condition. A calculation is made in this paper of the minimum thickness limit of the Zhao-Zhou Arch Bridge and its safety factors under a live concentrated load of 10 tons. That ancient bridge with 1400 years of history is shown to be very similar to a modern arch bridge in its appearance and is proved by the calculation to be in good accordance with the modern bridge building science.

À la découverte des ponts anciens

Jean Mesqui, On the discovery of ancient bridges. By referring to the consolidation work carried out during the last few years on the Saint-Laurent de Mâcon and Sully-sur-Loire bridges, the author proposes a definition of the respective tasks and responsabilities of the engineer and the archaeologist.