The Suspension Bridge

The bamboo Suspension Bridge was invented by the Ancient Chinese around 300 BC(Nova1) while China was in the Zhou Dynasty. It is called the Anlan Bridge and it goes across the Minjang River which is 1,000 feet wide where the bridge is located(Nova). The first iron chain suspension bridge is the Fan River Bridge made in 206 BC.

The suspension bridge is now made of steel and concrete but they used to be made of grass, bamboo, and vines. To make the ropes they would either string the grass or many small pieces of bamboo to make very long and strong ropes to hold it up or they would tie vines together to be long and strong enough to hold the bridge up(Nova2). For the walkway on the suspension bridge they would get bamboo and wrap it around and under other bamboo stalks until they had it long enough and strong enough to be a whole bridge.

The invention of the suspension bridge allowed the Ancient Chinese to get across the Minjang River. Then after making that bridge they then knew how to make suspension bridges. Once they knew how to make suspension bridges they could then get across rivers that were before uncrossable for a normal person or they could get across it a lot easier.

The suspension bridge has not only helped China but it has also helped other countries that were at that time and even now. The suspension bridge helped other countries expand easier from being able to get across far distances like rivers and valleys that were either uncrossable or very hard to cross before. Another way it has also helped other countries was making trade easier because they didn't have to go all the way around a river or valley and they could just go across with the bridge.

The suspension bridge is a very historically important kind of bridge for many different kinds of reasons. The suspension bridge is the longest type of bridge that you can make with the longest one being the 1915 Canakkale Bridge which has a complete length of 15,118 feet long but the main suspension bridge part of it is 6,637 feet which makes it the longest suspension bridge in the world. The suspension bridge is also often cheaper than other bridges because it uses less building materials(Kiddle). Surprisingly suspension bridges are able to go through earthquakes because of how flexible they are.