The Brooklyn Bridge, London's Tower Bridge, San Francisco's Golden Gate--bridges can be breathtakingly monumental structures, magnificent works of art, and vital arteries that make life vastly easier. In Bridges, eminent structural engineer David Blockley takes readers on a fascinating guided
tour of bridge construction, ranging from the primitive rope bridges (now mainly found in adventure movies), to Roman aqueducts and the timber trestle railway bridges of the American West, to today's modern marvels, such as the Akashi-Kaiky? Bridge, which has the largest span in the world. Blockley
outlines the forces at work on a bridge--tension, compression, and shear--and the basic structural elements that combat these forces--beams, arches, trusses, and suspensions (or BATS). As he does so, he explores some of the great bridges around the world, including such lesser-known masterpieces as
the Forth Railway Bridge (featured in Alfred Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps), and describes some spectacular failures, such as the recent bridge collapse in Minnesota or the famous failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.

Review
Review from previous edition: "David Blockley expertly describes the processes, relationships, materials and philosophies of engineering that give the world some of its most symbolic pieces of public infrastructure." ―Hugh Pouliot, Canadian Geographic

"In this fascinating exploration for lay readers, Blockly lucidly explains both the basic forces at work on every bridge." ―Publishers Weekly

"The two concluding chapters 'How safe is safe enough' and 'Bridges built by and for people' are masterly summaries of some of the biggest issues in engineering illuminating the nature of risk, how engineers think, and the need for them to understand uncertainy." ―Kathy Stansfield, The Structural Engineer

"David Blockley expertly describes the processes, relationships, materials and philosophies of engineering." ―Hugh Pouliot, Canadian Geographic 14/12/2010

"Engaging and thoughtful book. Bridges deserve our attention.' David Rooney. History Today 01/10/2010
About the Author

David Blockley is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He was President of the Institution of Structural Engineers 2001-02.