Suspension Bridge

A suspension bridge is a bridge whose deck hangs below suspension cables on vertical suspenders, a form distinct from the older, simpler rope suspension bridges long built in mountainous regions worldwide without vertical suspenders. James Finley patented the modern configuration in the United States in 1808 after building the Jacob's Creek Bridge in Pennsylvania in 1801, the first iron-chain suspension bridge in the Western world, complete with a suspended deck carried on trusses. The design matured rapidly in the following decades: Thomas Telford's Menai Bridge of 1826, spanning 176 meters in Wales, is described as the first important modern suspension bridge, wire-cable construction developed through Marc Seguin's and Guillaume Henri Dufour's bridges in France in the 1820s, and Charles Ellet Jr.'s 1842 Fairmount wire bridge in Philadelphia brought wire-cable suspension construction to the United States.