STRANGEST BRIDGES

STRANGEST BRIDGES

1.         ROLLING BRIDGE

·         act as a walkway over a small section of London's Grand Union Canal

·         39-foot timber and steel bridge

·         Created by UK-based design firm Heatherwick Studio in 2004

·         Why It's Innovative: A hydraulic system built into the bridge's handrail allows it to retract and curl into an octagon. The retractable design allows for boats to cruise through the canal unobstructed, and the bridge rolls up every Friday at noon 

 

2.         HENDERSON WAVES

·         Singapore's tallest pedestrian bridge

·         linking Mount Faber Park with Telok Blangah Hill Park

·         118-foot tall

·         about 900 feet long

3.         JUSCELINO KUBITSCHEK BRIDGE

·         crosses Lake Paranoa, Brazil

·         asymmetrical bridge

·         Completed in 2002

·         3900-foot-long bridge

4.         MILLAU VIADUCT

·         one of the world's tallest bridges

·         its deck is 885 feet above sea level, drivers often find themselves above the clouds on foggy days

·         its apex at 1125 feet

·         to carry travelers over the valley of the Tarn River

5.         PONT GUSTAVE-FLAUBERT

·         Europe's tallest lift bridge, stand 282 feet tall

·         crosses the Seine, one of France's major commercial waterways

·         Why It's Innovative: Instead of separating in the middle like a drawbridge, the Pont Gustave-Flaubert's deck is lifted straight up by a butterfly-shaped pulley system so tall ships can pass through. The deck takes about 12 minutes to be pulled all the way up, which happens about 30 or 40 times per year.

6.         LANGKAWI SKY BRIDGE

·         curved pedestrian bridge is 2000 feet above sea level at the top of Mount Mat Cincang in Malaysia

·         to walk across the 400-foot long structure must ride up to it in a cable car

·         Set above the treetops, is one of the highest elevated single-stay bridges in the world

·         the deck is less than 6 feet wide and its curved shape gives travelers a panoramic view of Langkawi, an archipelago of 99 islands.

·         each end is fitted with triangular observation decks

7.         DA VINCI BRIDGE

·         pedestrian bridge opened in 2001 and crosses the E18 highway

·         300 feet long and built the walkway from Norwegian pine

8.         PYTHONBRUG

·         linking Amsterdam's Sporenburg area with Borneo Island

·         opened in 2001 and is about 300 feet long

 

9.         GATESHEAD MILLENNIUM BRIDGE

·         award-winning tilt-bridge is the brainchild of Wilkinson Eyre, a London-based architecture firm

·         crosses the River Tyne, connecting Gateshead and New Castle

·         Why It's Innovative: A system of six hydraulic rams can pivot the bridge's walkway at a 40-degree angle in order to let boats pass. Wilkinson Eyre describes the bridge's movement as looking like a "slowly opening eyelid" when it raises, a process that takes fewer than 5 minutes

10.       ORESUND BRIDGE

·         crosses the Oresund strait and joins Sweden with Denmark

·         total length of 4.8 miles and was completed in 2000

·         begins as a cable-stayed bridge in Sweden and ends as a tunnel in Denmark

·         A small artificial island was built around the tunnel's entrance to keep water from creeping in

·         equipped to handle four lanes of traffic, also has a double-track railway

11.       SLAUERHOFFBRUG

·         a tail bridge that can quickly be raised to allow ships to pass

·         completed in 2000

·         spans a small section of the Harlinger Vaart Riverthe Slauerhoffbrug is lifted up by a dual hydraulic system that is built into its pylon.

·         Why It's Innovative: The Slauerhoffbrug is L-shaped, with its foundation sitting adjacent to the road

Read more: The World's 18 Strangest Bridges: Gallery - Popular Mechanics

SHARED FROM: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/architecture