Roads & Bridges

High Middle Ages

Medieval Europe revived bridge design with the Pont d'Avignon and Old London Bridge

After bridge-building capability declined with the fall of Rome, it revived in France, England and Italy during the High Middle Ages. Surviving examples include the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, the Old Exe Bridge and the Monnow Bridge in Wales.

4000 BC

Builders in Switzerland used pilings to support stilt houses over water

Timber piles were driven into soft ground to support structures built over water in prehistoric Switzerland. Pilings became a critical element of bridge foundation construction, transferring loads to deeper, firmer subsoil.

13th century BC

Mycenaean Greece built corbel arch bridges including the Arkadiko Bridge

Several corbel arch bridges were constructed in the Mycenaean period, with the Arkadiko Bridge surviving to the present day. These represent among the earliest known masonry bridge structures.

7th century BC

Assyrian king Sennacherib built corbelled-arch stone aqueducts near Nineveh

One aqueduct crossed a valley at Jerwan on five corbelled arches, measuring 280 metres long and 20 metres wide. It demonstrated large-scale stone arch spanning for water conveyance in the ancient Near East.

626 BC

Babylonia built a bridge across the Euphrates up to 200 metres long

A crossing of the Euphrates estimated at 120 to 200 metres in length was constructed in Babylonia. It is among the earliest recorded long river bridges.

5th century BC

Persian ruler Xerxes built a large pontoon bridge across the Hellespont from 360 boats

During the Second Persian invasion of Greece, Xerxes bridged the Hellespont with two parallel rows of boats. It is an early demonstration of military floating-bridge capability for moving armies across water barriers.

1st century

The Romans used cement and concrete with semicircular arches for durable bridges and aqueducts

Roman engineers mixed cement with rocks to form concrete and with sand to form mortar, some volcanic-ash cements being waterproof. Combined with the semicircular arch, this produced bridges and aqueducts such as the Alcántara Bridge and Pont du Gard that still stand.

2nd century

Roman engineers completed the 900-metre timber-and-stone Trajan's Bridge over the Danube

Trajan's Bridge crossed the Danube at a length of over 900 metres, built of timber and stone. It was the largest bridge of antiquity and showed the scale achievable with Roman engineering.

595–605

Sui dynasty China built the Anji Bridge, the world's oldest open-spandrel segmental arch bridge

The Anji Bridge is China's oldest surviving stone bridge and the earliest known open-spandrel stone segmental arch. The design reduced material and weight while widening the span, anticipating later European segmental arches.

before 16th century

The Inca civilization used rope suspension bridges across Andean gorges

Rope bridges, a simple form of suspension bridge, were used throughout the Andes before European colonisation. They allowed crossings of deep gorges without piers.

15th–16th century

Renaissance engineers applied analytic science to produce truss bridges and stone segmental arches

Galileo Galilei, Fausto Veranzio and Andrea Palladio wrote treatises applying rigorous analysis to architecture and building. Their innovations yielded wider spans and more elegant designs such as the Ponte Santa Trinita, the Rialto Bridge and the Pont Neuf.

1747

Daniel-Charles Trudaine and Jean-Rodolphe Perronet founded the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, the first bridge-building school

The school was the first institution dedicated specifically to bridge building. It institutionalised the training of bridge engineers in France.

late 18th century

Jean-Rodolphe Perronet and John Rennie revolutionised arch bridges with flatter-than-semicircular arches

Flatter arches allowed faster construction, better water flow beneath the bridge and slimmer piers. The approach was used for the Pont de la Concorde and New London Bridge.

18th century

French state formalised civil engineering within the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées

A school of engineering was created in France within the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées at the École de Paris under Jacques Gabriel. This marked the beginning of civil engineering, including bridge building, as a formal profession.

1781

Builders in England completed the Iron Bridge, the first major bridge made entirely of metal

Made of cast iron, the Iron Bridge demonstrated that metal could replace stone and timber as a primary structural material. It opened the Industrial Revolution era of iron bridge construction.

1818

Thomas Telford and colleagues founded the Institution of Civil Engineers in the UK

The Institution of Civil Engineers was the first professional organisation focused on civil engineering, initially led by Thomas Telford. It provided a professional body governing standards for engineers including bridge designers.

1820s

British railway engineers drove bridge innovation as the age of railways began

From the 1820s railways imposed heavy loads and demanded new bridge forms, with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke leading British practice. Railway bridges grew steadily in size, using masonry and stone arches alongside iron beams on masonry piers.

early 19th century

Bridge engineers built the first modern suspension bridges using iron eyebars and chains

Early modern suspension bridges such as Jacob's Creek Bridge used iron bars rather than bundled wires for cables. Several long suspension bridges followed, before steel wire became available later in the century.

early 19th century

Inventors of Portland cement perfected Portland cement and modern concrete

The invention of Portland cement improved on Roman concrete and made the material reliable for structural use. Concrete replaced stone and masonry as the primary material for bridge foundations, and later for beam and box girder decks as reinforced and prestressed concrete.

mid-19th century

Britain doubled its railway bridge stock from 30,000 to 60,000 during Railway Mania

The railway-building boom saw hundreds of new bridges built every year, doubling the number of railway bridges in Britain. Notable products of the era include the High Level Bridge (1849), Royal Border Bridge and Britannia Bridge (1850), Royal Albert Bridge (1859) and Clifton Suspension Bridge (1864).

2023

Ukraine damaged the Crimean Bridge with a drone attack

A drone strike inflicted damage on a strategically critical road and rail crossing. The attack demonstrated the vulnerability of major fixed bridge assets to cheap uncrewed systems.

2022

Turkey opened the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, the first span over 2 kilometres

The bridge was the first to exceed a 2-kilometre main span, extending the maximum achievable bridge span. It marked the current limit of long-span suspension bridge capability.

2000

London's Millennium Bridge closed two days after opening due to excessive swaying

The footbridge opened in 2000 and shut almost immediately when pedestrian-induced lateral oscillation emerged. The episode prompted new attention to dynamic pedestrian loading in bridge design.

1998

Bangladesh lost the Turag-Bhakurta Bridge to scour

River waters scoured away the soil around the bridge supports, causing collapse. Scour and flood damage account for about half of US bridge failures in the early 21st century.

1996

Palau saw the Koror–Babeldaob Bridge collapse months after repairs

The bridge failed three months after a repair operation that made major changes to its structure. The case became a reference point for the risks of structural intervention on existing bridges.

since 1990

Governments began procuring bridges through public–private partnerships

Although bridge costs are typically borne by government agencies, from 1990 an increasing number were built and financed by private companies under PPP agreements with toll concessions. Notable examples include the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge (1991, 20-year toll period) and the Second Severn Crossing (1996, 30-year toll period).

1962

Australian builders saw the King Street Bridge collapse a year after opening

The Melbourne bridge failed due to improper welding techniques. The case illustrated the role of fabrication quality control in structural safety.

1960s

Cable engineers invented the prefabricated parallel strand method for suspension cables

Until the 1960s all suspension bridge cables were spun in place by the air spinning method. Prefabricated strands offered an alternative means of assembling very large cables.

late 20th century

Japan and China introduced extradosed bridges and concrete-filled steel tube arches

Extradosed bridges, suited to spans of 100 to 250 metres, found widespread use predominantly in Japan. In China concrete-filled steel tubes were adopted as a new approach to arch bridge construction, while fibre-reinforced polymers were introduced to avoid steel corrosion.

1950s

Bridge builders built the first wildlife crossings

The first bridges designed for animals rather than vehicles appeared in the 1950s. Wildlife crossings are now used worldwide to mitigate the ecological severance caused by major roads.

20th century

Othmar Ammann and other designers repeatedly broke span-length records through the 20th century

Successive record-breaking bridges allowed transport networks to cross ever wider rivers and valleys. The growth of motorway networks drove demand for long spans to reach islands and cross valleys.

after 1945

Bridge engineers popularised cable-stayed bridge design after the Second World War

Cable-stayed bridges use cable-stays as the exclusive means of deck support. They became a widely adopted form for long spans in the post-war period.

1940

British engineers invented the Bailey bridge for wartime use

The Bailey bridge was a prefabricated modular military bridge developed for the Second World War. It remains in use in peacetime for rapid temporary crossings.

1940

Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in modest 68 km/h winds despite a 206 km/h design wind

The failure exposed aerodynamic instability as a design problem unaccounted for in suspension bridge engineering. It reshaped how wind loading and dynamic response are treated in bridge design.

1939–45

Germany used Stuka dive-bombers against bridges in the Second World War

Bridges were targeted as critical transport chokepoints by German dive-bomb attacks. The campaign established bridges as primary objects of interdiction in modern warfare.

1874

Eads Bridge builders completed the Eads Bridge at the cost of thirteen deaths from decompression sickness

Early bridge builders did not understand decompression, and caisson work proved lethal. The Eads Bridge deaths highlighted the occupational hazards of deep underwater foundation construction.

1870s

United States bridge stock suffered 40 bridge failures per year, a quarter of the decade's new bridges

Rapid railway expansion produced widespread structural failures in the United States. The losses drove later improvements in design methods and load standards.

late 19th century

Steelmakers brought mass-produced steel to bridge construction

New smelting processes made steel widely available, enabling lighter, stronger truss and cantilever bridges. Steel wire replaced iron bars as the preferred suspension cable material, and steel superseded wrought iron in cantilevers built in the 1880s.

19th century

North American builders favoured timber truss and trestle bridges

Abundant inexpensive lumber led North America to use timber as a bridge material, with truss designs for long spans and trestles for deep ravines. Trestle designs, consisting of multiple short spans on closely spaced supports, became common for railways.