Our Goal and Building Process

• Our bridge was constructed entirely from balsa wood slats and hot glue. We began by building a flat base for the floor, then added evenly spaced vertical slats to create a strong structural foundation. Next, we attached the inverted trusses, which helped distribute the load across the bridge. Finally, we built and attached the legs, connecting them to the trusses and reinforcing the structure with horizontal support slats. Every piece was carefully measured and cut with an X-Acto knife to ensure accurate sizing, resulting in a bridge that measured 4 feet long and 1 foot wide. Throughout the project, we relied on strong teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills to build the strongest bridge possible. The goal was to support the greatest number of bricks on a cart that traveled back and forth across the bridge. Our bridge ultimately held 12 bricks before failing, but the failure was caused by the cart's wheels puncturing the thin floor between the reinforced vertical slats rather than the overall frame collapsing. In fact, the bridge was strong enough to support two of us standing on it, with a combined weight of over 250 pounds. Overall, we were very pleased with the strength of our design, and the experience showed us the importance of reinforcing not only the frame but also the bridge deck itself.