History of Cable Stayed Bridges

History of Cable-stayed bridges:

Cable-stayed bridges have been around for about 40 years ago. In Germany, particularly in Rhine and Elbe rivers, these kinds of bridges were built to replace the bridges that were destroyed during the World War II and these improve the highway transportation system.

Modern cable-stayed bridges were first built in Europe starting from the one in Stroemsund, Sweden (1955), followed by 853-ft main span North Bridge in Dusseldorf, Germany (1957). After a few years, other bridges were built and one of the famous bridges built was the 135-span 5.4-mile Lake Maracaibo Bridge in Venezuela (1962).

In United States, the first cable-stayed bridge is a 361-ft long pedestrian bridge in Menomonee Falls (1971) while the first cable-stayed highway bridge is the Sitka Harbor Bridge in Alaska (1972). The 981-ft Pasco-Kennewick Bridge in Washington (1978), the 1222-ft Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge in Luling, Louisiana (1983), the 900-ft East Huntington Bridge in East Huntington, West Virginia (1985), and the 1200-ft Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida (1986) were the next bridges that were built.

Bridges with record breaking spans were built around the world mostly in 1980s and later. Billington and Namzy [1990] provided us with schematic elevations of 84 of the world's leading cable-stayed bridge made after 1987. In 1993, China's longest cable-stayed bridge, the 1975-ft Shanghai's Yang Pu Bridge, was made. France's longest cable-stayed bridge is the 2808-ft Pont de Normandie that opened in January 1995. This bridge has an innovative construction