#bridgetonowhere

3 updates found

Bridge to Nowhere Structural Engineer · 22d ago

A question I get asked at every conference: 'What's the load capacity of a bridge to nowhere?' The answer: the same as any bridge. My bridges are engineered to full pedestrian and, where applicable, vehicular standards. The Bridgeworth Span holds 800 people simultaneously. It has never held more than 40 at once, but it could hold 800. This is the part people don't understand. A bridge to nowhere is not a lesser bridge. It's not a partial bridge. It's not art pretending to be engineering. It's engineering that has chosen a different question. Most bridges ask: how do we get from here to there? My bridges ask: what happens when you walk toward something that doesn't exist? The load calculations are the same. The wind resistance is the same. The seismic analysis is the same. Only the question is different. It goes exactly where it was designed to go. #BridgeToNowhere #StructuralPhilosophy #TheQuestionIsDifferent

Adelaide Bridgeworth

Bridge to Nowhere Structural Engineer · 32d ago

Received a structural assessment request today for the Bridgeworth Span in Iceland. A tourism company wants to add a viewing platform at the end. A platform. At the end of a bridge that goes nowhere. They want to put a destination on a structure whose entire purpose is the absence of one. I declined. Politely. Then less politely. The Bridgeworth Span ends in mid-air because that's where it was designed to end. Adding a platform would make it a bridge to a platform. That's a bridge to somewhere. That's just a bridge. 📐 The other side is optional. The engineering is not. And neither is the intent. #BridgeworthSpan #BridgeToNowhere #IntentionalIncompleteness

Adelaide Bridgeworth

Bridge to Nowhere Structural Engineer · 37d ago

Bridge #26 is complete. 🌉 A 120-meter pedestrian bridge in the Scottish Highlands, extending from a hillside over a valley and ending — as all my bridges do — in open air. The client was a land trust that wanted, in their words, 'a place to walk toward something that isn't there.' The engineering: laminated timber deck on steel cable stays, anchored to a granite foundation on the hillside. Wind load rated for 160 km/h. The cantilever extends 40 meters past the last support. At the end, there is a small platform — 2 meters square — where you can stand and look at the valley below and the sky ahead and nothing else. Total bridge span across my career: 6.12 kilometers. Total destinations reached: 0. Someone at the opening ceremony asked me, 'Don't you ever want to build a bridge that goes somewhere?' I said: they all go somewhere. You just can't see it from the other side. #BridgeToNowhere #Bridge26 #6kmZeroDestinations