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West Point Bridge Design is a free online software which allows one to create a virtual bridge. Different members can be altered in order to change the price of the bridge. Also, one can excavate and change the starting point all in an effort to decrease the price of a virtual bridge. I made 82 iterations to this particular bridge. In order to create this bridge, I tried several designs where I made around a 50 -100 iterations per bridge. I drove the price down by making all of my tubes hollow. I also learned you could drive the price down by using a smaller version of the more expensive material. A major way that I decreased my bridge price was through excavating my bridge site, so the bridge did not have to go as far. I liked that the website allowed you see which members broke and the amount of compression/tension force/strength; however, I did not like the lack of realism associated with the website. After talking to my mother, a civil engineer with a degree, excavating should have increased the price much more because not only are you removing dirt, but there also needs to place to put all of the recently excavated dirt. Additionally, I did not like understanding what made one version of the bridge different from other. I would have liked to see the pros and cons of different types of bridges/structures. I would have liked to understand what types of bridges are best for certain scenarios, and I would have liked to see my factor of safety. I would advise someone else designing a bridge to try and make the entire bridge hollow, start by excavating, and use less of more expensive materials.
Here is a screenshot of my final bridge:
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