Field Guide To
Cable Stayed Bridges
Of North America

Bridge building has had two time periods that can be looked at as golden ages. The first is in the late 19th century as the explosive growth of the railroads resulted in building a large number of big metal monsters to cross the untamed rivers of both the US and Europe. Prime examples of these include the Eads Bridge in Saint Louis, and the Forth Rail Bridge over the Firth Of Forth near Edinburgh, Scotland.

The second golden age of bridge construction was in the middle half of the 20th century as many monumental suspension bridges were built. These were all national landmarks, giant works of industrial art, and epic construction projects. This was an era when technologies and materials were rapidly advancing, but modeling, testing, and computers were still decades in the future. This era saw successes like the Golden Gate Bridge and Oakland Bay Bridge, both in San Francisco, and colossal failures like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Following World War II, Europe needed to build a large number of big bridges very quickly in order to get its economy back up and running. Steel was in short supply, so large metal bridges were out of the question. Suspension bridges were too costly, in both time and materials, so they were not practical to construct. This left a major issue of how to build badly needed bridges with resources that were available at the time.

To solve this problem, transportation engineers developed the Cable Stayed Bridge. In a cable stayed bridge, the roadway is supported by cables that run directly to the suspension towers. This differs from a suspension bridge in that a suspension bridge has a suspension cable that runs from tower to tower, and the roadway is carried by down cables that link to the suspension cable. A cable stayed bridge has only one set of cables. This results in a bridge that is relatively lightweight in construction, is far less costly than a metal cantilever brides, and uses far less cable than a suspension bridge. These advantages result in a far less costly bridge that can still span a surprisingly long distance.

While cable stayed bridges are popular in Europe and Asia, they are just starting to catch on in North America. The Hale Boggs Bridge near New Orleans was a pioneer in the early 1980's. A few other smaller bridges were built in the late 1980's. The art of the cable stayed bridge took on momentum with the Clark super bridge in Alton, Illinois, in the early 1990's. Since then, one or two major cable stayed bridges are completed each year. So far, nearly all are on the Mississippi River, Ohio River, and the eastern seaboard.

Cable stayed bridges are also becoming popular for shorter bridges and for pedestrian and trail usage. Freeway footbridge overpasses can be built to specification in a factory, then rapidly erected on site.

Note — here is a link to Per Wahlin's site on European cable stayed bridges.