A transporter bridge is a movable bridge that carries a small platform, or gondola, suspended by cables or a steel frame from a tall fixed span, ferrying vehicles and pedestrians across a navigable waterway without ever obstructing the ships passing beneath. The English engine works manager Charles Smith first proposed the idea in 1873 under the name bridge ferry, but councils in Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, and Glasgow all turned his plan down, and it was the engineer Alberto Palacio who built the first working example, the Vizcaya Bridge between Las Arenas and Portugalete in Spain, completed in 1893. The design was adopted most widely in France, which built five, but fewer than two dozen transporter bridges were ever built worldwide and only about twelve remain in operation today, because the type could only carry limited loads and lost its advantage once cars became common enough to make long approach ramps or ordinary ferries more practical.
Facts
SignificanceCarries road traffic across a navigable waterway via a suspended gondola without obstructing ship traffic, avoiding the need for long approach ramps to a high fixed span. 1 FAQs
When does a transporter bridge make more sense than a high bridge or a ferry?
A transporter bridge fits a navigable waterway with low banks where a high bridge needs huge ramps and a ferry cannot dock reliably.
A transporter bridge suits a waterway that large vessels must be able to navigate, so a low bridge will not do, and where the banks are low, so the approach ramps for a high bridge would need far too much land. A ferry can also be impractical, for example where low tides make docking impossible. The same design has a limit: the gondola has limited capacity, so as cars became more popular, alternatives such as lift bridges took their place.
Connections
In Field
Source Transporter bridge - Wikipedia
Sources
1. Transporter bridge - Wikipedia
Body, History section
The first transporter bridge, Vizcaya Bridge was built between Las Arenas and Portugalete, Spain, in 1893.
Intro paragraph
The design has been used to cross navigable rivers or other bodies of water, where there is a requirement for ship traffic to be able to pass.
In Field: Civil Engineering, Categories
Bridges by structural type
In Group: Bridge Types, Introduction
A transporter bridge, also known as a ferry bridge or aerial transfer bridge, is a type of movable bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river.
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