Suspension bridge

[Darren]

This is a view looking east at the access stairway at the south end of the bridge.

 

[Darren]

This shows the anchors at the south end with the turnbuckles connecting the cables to the anchors. A quarter is lying on the end of a turnbuckle for scale.

 

[Darren]

This a view from the creek looking east. this gives you and idea of the height of the walkway above the water.

 

[Darren]

These are the anchors on the north end. The walkway is level with a path around the hillside on this end. There are no turnbuckles on this side.

 

[Darren]

This picture was taken standing on the walkway at the north end looking south showing the ends of some of the hangers clinched around an upper main cable.

 

[Darren]

This shows one of the support boards that is attached to the lower main cables with "J" bolts. You can see the nut on the exposed threaded end of one of the bolts in the center of the picture. There are about fifty of these boards on which the walkway is fastened.

 

[Junkman]

Interesting bridge. Who built it and when was it built? I am not sure that I would want to cross it, it seems like a long way down if a board was to fail. I wonder what those turnbuckles are anchored into?

 

[Henro]

Darren,

How about just leaving the old stuff in place and stringing new cables beside it, sort of building the new cable structure around the old...then either just leaving the old there, or taking it down in pieces. You could use a torch to cut the old stuff away in pieces sized so you could manage them...

By doing it this way you could work off the old bridge, perhaps somewhat safely...

Just an out-of-the-box thought... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Don't know if it is a practical idea or not...but I would consider doing it that way if I were doing it myself. Of course if I were standing next to the bridge I may see a dozen reasons why this would not work... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Darren]

The bridge was built by a gas company (maybe Hope Gas) in the early 50's to allow the pipeline inspectors access during periods of high water. Before that the highest flood on record took out all the bridges on the creek. I think that's the reason they built the replacements high off the water. I'm not sure when they turned it over to the landowner, but it was quite awhile ago. The company uses helicopters these days. I've carried tons of stuff across the bridge usually one 50# feed sack at a time. That's usually when I find out that a board needs replacing.

Henro, stringing a second set of cables along the existing set is a problem because you need to tension the cables to attach the hangers. The top cables go through an eye welded on top of the upper cross support on the towers to prevent them from slipping off. You'd have a tough time threading another set of cables through the eyes. It's a thought though.

 

[daedong]

Darren can you still walk on the bridge /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif