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Arquitetura do ImpossívelImpossible Architecture
Topic · 08 structures

Great bridges

Every great bridge solves the same problem in a different way: crossing a gap where nothing can be propped up in the middle. Suspension bridges hang the deck from cables. The Brooklyn Bridge (1870–1883) set its towers down with men digging inside compressed-air caissons; the Golden Gate (1933–1937) spun on site the cables of the longest suspension span in the world, 1,280 m; the Hercílio Luz, in Florianópolis, hung its span over the sea from chains of steel eyebars.

Tacoma Narrows shows the other side: it opened in July 1940 with a girder only 2.4 m deep and fell four months later, in a wind of 68 km/h. The Forth Bridge (1882–1890) was born right after another Scottish bridge collapsed in a storm, and answered with steel cantilevers. The Eads Bridge, over the Mississippi, gambled on arches made of a metal that had never been the main material of a large structure.

In Brazil, the Rio–Niterói Bridge crossed Guanabara Bay with more than 13 km of bridge and a central steel span of 300 m. In China, Duge set its deck 565 m above a river and was the highest bridge in the world from 2016 to 2025. Each page has the structure's fact sheet, with the confidence level of every number.

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Structures on this topic

  • Aerial view of the Rio–Niterói Bridge crossing Guanabara Bay, with Mocanguê Island and ships in the foreground 03 Premieres Oct 22, 2026

    Rio–Niterói Bridge

    Guanabara Bay, between Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, Brazil · 1969–1974

    How the Rio–Niterói Bridge was built: more than 13 km over Guanabara Bay, a steel span between ships and planes, and a death toll that never added up.

    BrazilRead the story →
  • Aerial view of the East River with the Brooklyn Bridge running diagonally in the foreground and the Manhattan Bridge just behind it 04 Premieres Oct 29, 2026

    Brooklyn Bridge

    East River, between Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York, United States · 1870–1883

    How the Brooklyn Bridge was raised (1870–1883): compressed-air caissons, the illness they caused, Roebling's window and the bad wire in the cables.

    WorldRead the story →
  • Gray steel suspension bridge over calm water, with a tall lattice tower on the right, the chain curving down to the truss of the main span and a rocky beach in the foreground 09 Premieres Dec 03, 2026

    Hercílio Luz Bridge

    Strait between Santa Catarina Island and the mainland, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil · 1922–1926

    How Florianópolis got the Hercílio Luz Bridge, an eyebar-chain suspension bridge, in 1926, why it was closed for 28 years and what it took to reopen it.

    BrazilRead the story →
  • Orange suspension bridge under a blue sky, with a tall tower on a concrete base in the sea, the cables curving down to the second tower in the background, green and brown hills behind and a brick fort in the foreground 12 Premieres Dec 24, 2026

    Golden Gate Bridge

    Golden Gate strait, between San Francisco and Marin County, California, United States · 1933–1937

    How San Francisco built the Golden Gate between 1933 and 1937: the south tower in open sea, cables spun on site, the 11 dead and who really did the math.

    WorldRead the story →
  • Bridge of three dark steel arches over a wide river, with stone piers, a blue train crossing on the lower deck, a clear sky and a snow-covered bank in the foreground 21 Premieres Feb 25, 2027

    Eads Bridge

    Mississippi River, between St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, United States · 1867–1874

    How a man with no engineering degree built the steel-arched Eads Bridge over the Mississippi in 1874, and the cost of digging to bedrock in compressed air.

    WorldRead the story →
  • Red steel bridge with three large diamond-shaped structures over calm water that reflects them, a stone pier on the right and a train crossing the viaduct under a blue sky 22 Premieres Mar 04, 2027

    Forth Bridge

    Firth of Forth, between South Queensferry (Edinburgh) and North Queensferry (Fife), Scotland, United Kingdom · 1882–1890

    How the Tay Bridge collapse gave rise to the Forth Bridge, the 1890 steel cantilever, and why its dead were only named a century later.

    WorldRead the story →
  • Old black-and-white film frame: the bridge roadway tilted and twisted, with a car stopped and tilted in the middle, bent lampposts and the vertical suspenders on both sides 24 Premieres Mar 18, 2027

    Tacoma Narrows Bridge

    The Tacoma Narrows strait, between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula, Washington, United States · 1938–1940

    The Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened in July 1940 and fell four months later in a 68 km/h wind. Why the resonance explanation does not hold up.

    WorldRead the story →
  • Aerial view of a cable-stayed bridge with a red truss girder between two white towers, passing far above a green gorge, with a narrow river at the bottom 32 Premieres May 13, 2027

    Duge Bridge

    Border between Duge, in Shuicheng District, Liupanshui, Guizhou Province, and Puli, in Xuanwei, Yunnan Province, China · 2013–2016

    How China set the Duge Bridge 565 meters above a river on the Guizhou–Yunnan border, and why the world's highest bridge for nine years is cable-stayed.

    WorldRead the story →
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The structures grouped by the problem they solved: bridges, skyscrapers, tunnels, stadiums, water.