Arch bridges

The Arch bridge design

30 Mar 2015 | From Jenson of Germany

OFFICIAL POSTCROSSING

An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. Possibly the oldest existing arch bridge is the Mycenaean Arkadiko bridge in Greece from about 1300 BC. Although true arches were already known by the Etruscans and ancient Greeks, the Romans were - as with the vault and the dome - the first to fully realize the potential of arches for bridge construction. Roman engineers were the first and until the industrial revolution the only ones to construct bridges with concrete, which they called Opus caementicium. The outside was usually covered with brick or ashlar, as in the Alcántara bridge.

The Philippines have some arch bridges as well. One is the Jones Bridge. It is a bridge that spans the Pasig River in the Philippines. Its Neoclassical design by Juan M. Arellano was an ornate concrete arch bridge. The bridge was destroyed by the bombs of World War II.

Another is the San Juanico Bridge with an Arch-shaped truss bridge design. It is the longest bridge in the Philippines spanning a body of seawater. The bridge was slightly damaged by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 but repaired.