A simple, but unusual and elegant design: a bridge in the city of Leeuwarden in the Netherlands uses two arms to swing a section of road in and out of place. It’s called the “Slauerhoffbrug” and was built in 2000.
Image Gallery and Aerial View via The Presurfer | Photo: Frozenly
Foreigner1
Bit weird is that when you sail past it with your boat, it gives a definite impression like at any time it will swat you like you’re some nasty insect…
Betseflets
LOL @ Foreigner1, it sure looks like that.
It looks interesting but over the top and kinda ugly too, as a native Rotterdammer i wouldn’t like to have that in front of my house.
Skipweasel
I love it – like many good designs it’s an elegant solution to a problem. More, it’s the sort of solution that’s only obvious once you’ve seen it done.
Like the elliptical arch. For centuries no one thought of it – but once someone did it was obvious. If you could just say to an early medieval builder “elliptical arch” he’d like as not immediately grasp what you meant – all the pieces were there but no one made the leap.
Foreigner1
Hey Betseflets- Do the trusses from that Erasmusbridge still sing when the wind blows from the wrong angle?
Larfin Jackarse
Damn you skipweasel now I have to loop up ‘elliptical arch’. And the worst part will be when I think “so that’s what you call one of ‘those’”.
Skipweasel
Larfin – oh, it’s nothing particularly clever, particularly when you know how to do it.
Early arches were semicircular. Later arches introduced pointed arches made from two circle segments leant against each other to give long tall windows. Finally, for bridges, someone realised that you don’t have to have a semicircular arch – which makes the bridge too high for people to easily cross without expensive ramps leading up to it, but that you can flatten the arch to leap a far wider span without the height penalty.
Most stonework river bridges are elliptical arches.
yslim
May I know what is the construction cost of this drawbridge ? what is the weight ?
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mats
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