Chinese Bridges

Bridges, the least known and understood of China's many wonders, are one of its most striking and resilient feats of architectural prowess. Chinese Bridges brings together a thorough look at the marvels of Chinese bridge design from one of the world's leading experts on Chinese culture and historical geography, Ronald G. Knapp. While many consider bridges to be merely utilitarian civil engineering, the bridges of China move beyond that stereotype, as many are undeniably dramatic, even majestic and daring. Chinese Bridges illustrates in detail 20 well-preserved ancient bridges along with descriptions and essays on the distinctive architectural elements shared by the various designs. For the first time in an English-language book, Chinese Bridges records scores of newly discovered bridges across China's vast landscape, illustrated with over 400 color photographs, as well as woodblock prints, historic images, paintings and line drawings.

The book takes time as the axis, selecting 98 bridges (or bridge groups) across the country and 7 representative bridges out of the country, reflecting the steps and development of China's bridge construction in related majors and engineering technicians in colleges and universities. This book aims to let the general public understand the arduous history of China's bridge construction and the rapid development of China's bridge construction without the country's economic development, strength, and hard work of the bridge people. It is also hoped that the public will enjoy the convenience of bridges, highways, railroads, and urban roads and at the same time enhance their awareness of bridge knowledge, knowledge, love, and scientific use of bridges. This book is used by the general public to understand the development of China's bridge construction, but also as a reference book for teachers and students of bridge engineering-related majors and engineering technicians in colleges and universities.

“An already impressive reference work has been made significantly more valuable . . . a well-illustrated alphabetized compendium of notable bridges.” —The Happy Pontist Bridges have a universal appeal as examples of man’s mastery of nature, from picturesque packhorse bridges to great spans stretching across broad estuaries, and the development of the technology that allows ever more audacious constructions is never-ending. Of the million or more bridges throughout Great Britain, David McFetrich has selected those that are significant in terms of their design, construction or location, or of their connections with people or events of history. His definitive book contains 1,600 separate entries for individual bridge sites or related groups of bridges covering more than 2,000 different structures, 165 general entries about different types of bridge and such topics as collapses and failures, and a summary of about 200 record-holding bridges in 50 different categories. The concise text is supported by more than 900 illustrations and diagrams. The result is a fascinating and readily accessible compendium. The Institute of Civil Engineers (ICA) is also on board. “A valuable resource to use . . . if you plan to visit some of these structures while on holiday or are merely planning a day out.” —East Yorkshire Family History Society “Well-written and researched and eminently readable . . . Because of the ubiquity of bridges throughout Great Britain, this volume should have wide appeal.” —NZ Crown Mines “Full of details covering the many bridges around the UK . . . I found it fascinating to see the variety of bridges around Britain, even the ones not railway related.” —Rail Advent

This book is the first comprehensive work on Chinese covered bridges study, covering fields of human geography, historical buildings, and transportation. It includes more than 300 covered bridges of ancient and modern China, researching and analyzing their historical evolutions, architectural technologies and aesthetic values. And it, for the first time, divides Chinese covered bridges into “six covered bridge belts” and fills the academic gaps. This book presents an informative and splendid tour into covered bridges, illustrated and full of humanist consciousness. It targets on audience who works in transportation, human geography, historical buildings and Chinese traditional culture with its significant value both in academy and art.

As many as 15,000 covered bridges were built in North America over the past 200 years. Fewer than 1,000 remain. In America's Covered Bridges, authors Terry E. Miller and Ronald G. Knapp tell the fascinating story of these bridges, how they were built, the technological breakthroughs required to construct them and above all the dedication and skill of their builders. Each wooden bridge, whether still standing or long gone, has a story to tell about the nature of America at the time—not only about its transportational needs, but the availability of materials and the technological prowess of the people who built it. Illustrated with some 550 historical and contemporary photos, paintings, and technical drawings of nearly 400 different covered bridges, America's Covered Bridges offers five readable chapters on the history, design and fate of America's covered bridges, plus related bridges in Canada. Most of the contemporary photography is by master photographer A. Chester Ong of Hong Kong. 55 photo essays on the most iconic bridges including: Cornish-Windsor Bridge between Vermont and New Hampshire Porter-Parsonsfield Bridge, Maine East Paden and West Paden (Twin Bridges), Pennsylvania Philippi Bridge, West Virginia Hortons Mill Bridge, Alabama Medora Bridge, Indiana Rock Mill Bridge, Ohio Knight's Ferry Bridge, California Perrault Bridge, Quebec, Canada Hartland Bridge, New Brunswick, Canada Over time, wooden bridges eventually gave way to ones made of iron, steel and concrete. An American icon, many covered bridges became obsolete and were replaced—others simply decayed and collapsed. Many more were swept away by natural disasters and fires. America's Covered Bridges is absolutely packed with fascinating stories and information passionately told by two leading experts on this subject. The book will be of tremendous interest to anyone interested in American history, carpentry and technological change.

This book presents 108 canyon bridges that best represent the highest level of bridge construction in China and is divided into four chapters including suspension bridge, cable-stayed bridge, arch bridge and beam bridge. It introduces the definition of canyon bridge for the first time and gives an overview of each bridge's structural characteristics, design and construction techniques, as well as management and maintenance measures. Furthermore, this book provides elevation layout drawings and real view pictures. Chinese version of this book was awarded “Fan Lichu Book Prize” by Bridge and Structure Committee of China Civil Engineering Society in August 2020. It is the first book accounting of canyon bridges and appeals to a wide readership, from bridge designers and engineers to the general public who has interests to learn bridge construction in mountainous areas.