Concrete bridges are a type of

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

, constructed out of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

. They started to appear widely in the early 20th century.

History

Homersfield Bridge, England, cast iron reinforced, constructed 1869-1870 Axmouth Old Bridge - geograph

Unreinforced concrete has been used in bridge construction since antiquity: the Romans incorporated concrete cores into a number of their masonry bridges and aqueducts, along with constructing spanning water conduits of concrete. From the late 18th century cast iron framed bridges may have had an unreinforced cast concrete deck, or had their structure encased in concrete, for example the Homersfield Bridge, constructed between 1869 and 1870, between the English counties of Suffolk and Norfolk. In 1873, Frenchman Joseph Monier obtained a French patent for a method of iron-wire

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

bridge construction; his first iron-wire reinforced concrete bridge was constructed across the moat of the marquis de Tillièrein's :fr:Château de Chazelet, in 1875. This and all later bridges made according to Monier's system patterned the construction of previously used stone bridges. Their main structural unit was an arch barrel. All barrel sections were reinforced similarly, regardless of the forces acting on it. The longest steel reinforced bridge, in 2024, is the Tian'e Longtan Bridge, Guangxi Zhuang, China. The US's longest unreinforced concrete span, is the arch of the, 1910, Rocky River Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. Early extant examples include:

Finland

* Savisilta "clay bridge",

Ylivieska Ylivieska () is a List of towns in Finland, town and Municipalities of Finland, municipality of Northern Ostrobothnia region, Finland. It has a population of (), and it serves as the administrative centre for Kalajokilaakso and Pyhäjokilaakso, a ...

, the second oldest concrete bridge in Finland. (reinforced concrete, constructed 1912).

France

* Pont du jardin des plantes,

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

, foorbridge (cast concrete, constructed 1855) * Bridge across the moat at Château de Chazelet (iron-wire reinforced concrete, constructed 1875)

United Kingdom

* Homersfield Bridge,

River Waveney The River Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads. The earliest attestation of the name is from 1275, ''Wahenhe'', from ''*wagen + ea'', meaning the river by a q ...

, England (cast and wrought iron reinforced, span , constructed 1869-1870) * Axmouth Bridge, on the River Axe at Seaton, Devon (unreinforced, middle span , opened 1877) * Glenfinnan Viaduct, Scotland (unreinforced, twenty-one spans, constructed 1897–1901) *

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...

(reinforced cast concrete, longest span , opened 1942)

United States

* Alvord Lake Bridge, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (reinforced concrete, span, 1889). * Walnut Lane Bridge, Philadelphia, PA (unreinforced concrete, span, 1908) * Rocky River Bridge, Cleveland, Ohio (unreinforced concrete, span, 1910)

References

Bridges {{bridge-type-stub