🌉 The Evolution Of Bridges — Are Bridges Safe?

Tom Smykowski
5 min readApr 2, 2024

Modern bridges are light structures almost floating in the air. Are they safe? And how is it even possible they exist? You’ll learn from this article.

We all use bridges to travel, and once in a while we learn about a bridge collapsing somewhere.

The last case of this was the Baltimore Key Bridge. After a ship hit one of the piers the 2,5 km long bridge collapsed in a matter of seconds.

Baltimore Key Bridge, Dharrah87 • CC BY-SA 4.0

There’s over 1.5 million bridges around the world. Most probably you use one or several ones many times per month.

The Oldest Bridges

Are your bridges safe? How is it possible to build bridges defying the laws of physics? You’ll find out from this article.

Arkadiko Bridge, Flausa123 • CC BY-SA 3.0

If you were a Greek wanting to ride your chariot to the closest hay station, you’d probably cross the Arkadiko Bridge. Built 1300 years BC, 22 meter long passage would offer you a smooth ride with a nice view on the Peloponnese olive fields.

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Tom Smykowski
Tom Smykowski

Written by Tom Smykowski

Software Engineer & Tech Editor. Top 2% on StackOverflow, 3mil views on Quora. Won Shattered Pixel Dungeon.

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