A1: Breslin

When I was designing the bridge I went through several different designs. I decided to try many different versions to find which was most structurally sound at the lowest price. My final design ended up looking like this:

After many designs the bridge I ended up constructing took on the shape of what seems to look like a boat. I started off with creating triangles on the underside of the bridge. I did this because I thought it would give more support when object were on top of it. Then I realized that the bridge needed more support on the top. To then which I added the use of more triangles on the top.

The bridge with the truck in the middle of the bridge looks like this:

A majority of the beams in the bridge were not affected by compression and tension force. However, the beams that endured the most compression force were the long beams on the outside of where the top of the bridge and bottom of the bridge connect. The beams most affected by the tension force are the located in the fourth triangle of the bottom of the bridge on the left and right side. I believe this is due to the structure of the bridge. This is the area where the smaller triangles link to the larger one which gives the bridge its sort of round boat like shape.

The test results of each member of the bridge:

During the design process my bridge had changed drastically. I tested out trusses that looked like boxes, ones that formed an arch type shape and even tried to make one that was one big triangle. Finally I resulted with the boat like structure. I chose this structure because it had the greatest strength at the lowest cost of all the designs I had tested. This bridge is estimated to cost $433,513.21. I believe that after further research and adjustments on the bridge the cost can be lowered to be around $400,000.

While using the West Point Bridge Design program, I had learned that designing a bridge is extremely complicated. A structure designed may seem as if it will work, however in reality it could end up a catastrophe. The design process takes a lot of time and patience because it is a very tedious and complex process.