Troubled waters, troubled projects

Their forms are mathematics made solid, their supports, curves and towers showing, often in a striped-down form, exactly how the forces that allow vehicles and people to cross them are distributed through their structures. And, often, they have stories: of challenges overcome; of ingenuity; and of triumph and sometimes tragedy.

There isn’t space for an exhaustive study of bridges and their place in civil engineering; such a thing could fill many volumes. This article will confine itself to some highlights and milestones in bridge technology.

Britain’s history with bridges goes back millennia. London, for example, owes its existence to the bridge technology available the Romans; the city grew up around the lowest bridging point of the River Thames when the Emperor Claudius’s invasion forces established their encampments in 44AD.

Onward through the centuries, the development of new materials and methods or working with them drove bridge design, with notable examples including the world’s first arch bridge made from cast iron, crossing the River Severn near Telford in Shropshire, which opened in 1781. Now an icon of the industrial revolution and a World Heritage Site, the Iron Bridge was designed by architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and includes design elements of stone and wooden bridges.