A cathedral arch is an

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...

used in bridge

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

. It consists of an arched structural system, wherein vertical load bearing occurs only at the crown, or peak of the arch. As applied to

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

design, cathedral arch bridges feature no intermediary

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

column elements between the foundation

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

s and the crown of the arch system, where the roadway superstructure is constrained to the substructure. The largest cathedral arch bridge in the world is the Galena Creek Bridge near

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=http://www.aspirebridge.org/pdfs/magazine/issue_13/galena_creek_win10.pdf, title=Nevada's Galena Creek Bridge, last=Durski, first=Brad F., date=Winter 2010, accessdate=2012-06-18, work=Aspire, publisher=Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216230014/http://www.aspirebridge.org/pdfs/magazine/issue_13/galena_creek_win10.pdf, archivedate=2010-02-16 {{cite web, url=http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/eihd/natchez.htm, title=Category 9 - Highway Improvements on Publicly Owned Land, date=1996, accessdate=2014-07-16, work=Excellence in Highway Design, publisher=Federal Highway Administration Architectural elements *