A chain bridge is a historic form of

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

for which chains or

eyebar In structural engineering and construction, an eyebar is a straight bar, usually of metal, with a hole ("eye") at each end for fixing to other components. Eyebars are used in structures such as bridges, in settings in which only tension, and ne ...

s were used instead of wire ropes to carry the bridge deck. A famous example is the

Széchenyi Chain Bridge The Széchenyi Chain Bridge ( hu, Széchenyi lánchíd ) is a chain bridge that spans the River Danube between Buda and Pest, the western and eastern sides of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Designed by English engineer William Tierney Clark ...

in Budapest. Construction types are, as for other suspension bridges, a

stressed ribbon bridge A stressed ribbon bridge (also stress-ribbon bridge or catenary bridge) is a tension structure (similar in many ways to a simple suspension bridge). The suspension cables are embedded in the deck, which follows a catenary arc between supports. ...

, a true suspension bridge, and special forms, such as the

Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule and Suspended-deck suspension bridge, suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones (architect), Horace Jones and e ...

and the

Albert Bridge, London Albert Bridge is a road bridge over the River Thames connecting Chelsea in Central London on the north bank to Battersea on the south. Designed and built by Rowland Mason Ordish in 1873 as an Ordish–Lefeuvre system modified cable-stayed bri ...

. Chain bridges were the first bridges able to cross wider spans than the previous wooden and stone bridges, combined with shorter building times and at lower costs.Robert Stevenson: ''Description of Bridges of Suspension.''
In: ''The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal'', ed. Sir David Brewster, Robert Jameson. vol. 5 no. 10, Edinburgh 1821, p. 237.

History

The first chain bridge in Europe was the , built around 1741 across the Tees in North-eastern England. It served mainly miners entering the nearby mine. It collapsed in 1802, and was replaced in 1830 by a suspension bridge with suspension chains. A chain bridge was built in the 1780s and 1790s in the Wörlitzer Park which crossed a canal between artificial rocks. The light construction was intended to move, to create sensual sensations for the visitors of the park. The

Steinfurter Bagno The Steinfurter Bagno is a park near the town of Burgsteinfurt in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. History Amusement park Count Charles Paul Ernest of Bentheim-Steinfurt founded it in 1765 with the intention of creating a summer res ...

park had a chain bridge from 1794. In 1820, Samuel Brown opened the Union Bridge over the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water ( gd, Abhainn Thuaidh, sco, Watter o Tweid, cy, Tuedd), is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the R ...

on the Scottish-English border, which was the first suspension bridge in Europe suitable for carts. It is the oldest such bridge still used for traffic.

Claude Navier Claude-Louis Navier (born Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier; ; 10 February 1785 – 21 August 1836) was a French mechanical engineer, affiliated with the French government, and a physicist who specialized in continuum mechanics. The Navier–Sto ...

published the first fundamental paper about suspension bridges in 1823.Claude Navier: ''Rapport à Monsieur Becquey, conseiller d’état, directeur général des ponts et chaussées et des mines; et mémoire sur les ponts suspendus.''
Imprimerie Royale, Paris 1823 The first chain bridge on the European continent was opened in 1824, the Kettensteg in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. A little later, the crossing the

Donaukanal The Donaukanal ("Danube Canal") is a former arm of the river Danube, now regulated as a water channel (since 1598), within the city of Vienna, Austria. It is long and, unlike the Danube itself, it borders Vienna's city centre, Innere Stadt, ...

in Vienna was opened for pedestrians and carriages. To celebrate this event the Chain Bridge Waltz was written by Johann Strauss. In 1849, the

over the Danube in Budapest was opened, designed by

William Tierney Clark William Tierney Clark Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, FRAS (23 August 1783 – 22 September 1852) was an English civil engineer particularly associated with the design and construction of bridges. ...

, spanning 200 m. The Empress Elisabeth Bridge over the Elbe at Tetschen (today: Děčín) was completed in 1855, and the same year the Nicholas Chain Bridge in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, which spanned the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

in four segments of 143 m each. 11836-Bodenbach-1910-Blick über die Brücke nach Bodenbach-Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag.jpg, Empress Elisabeth Bridge, Tetschen Nicholas Chain Bridge LOC 03819.jpg, Nicholas Chain Bridge,

Tower Bridge,London Getting Opened 2.jpg,

, London Erzsébet Bridge (1903), Budapest, Hungary.jpg,

Elisabeth Bridge Elisabeth Bridge ( hu, Erzsébet híd) is the third newest bridge of Budapest, Hungary, connecting Buda and Pest across the River Danube. The bridge is situated at the narrowest part of the Danube in the Budapest area, spanning only 290 m. ...

, Budapest The

in London was opened in 1884, a unique combination of suspension bridge and

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

, and the

in Budapest was opened in 1903, marking the peak of chain bridge building. Later bridges of the type included the Kaiserbrücke in Breslau (today: Grunwaldbrücke in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

) of 1910, and the Deutzer Hängebrücke, opened in 1915. The Three Sisters were three similar bridges in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, built from 1924 to 1928 over the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...

. The

Hercilio Luz Bridge The Hercílio Luz Bridge, located in Florianópolis, the capital city of Santa Catarina, Brazil, Santa Catarina State in southern Brazil, is the first bridge constructed to link the Island of Santa Catarina (island), Santa Catarina to the mainlan ...

in Brazil of 1926 had the longest span of all chain bridges at 339,5 m. A similar bridge was built two years later, the

Silver Bridge The Silver Bridge was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge carried U.S. Route 35 over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio. On Dec ...

over the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. It collapsed in 1967. The last large chain bridges were the

Reichsbrücke The Reichsbrücke (German for ''Imperial Bridge'') is a major bridge in Vienna, linking Mexikoplatz in Leopoldstadt with the Donauinsel in Donaustadt across the Danube. The bridge is used by 50,000 vehicles per day and carries six lanes of tra ...

in Vienna (1937) and the

Krymsky Bridge 300px, The Crimean Bridge in 2017. The New Tretyakov Gallery of 20th-Century Art is visible behind the bridge on the right Krymsky Bridge or Crimean Bridge (russian: Крымский мост) is a steel suspension bridge in Moscow. The bridge ...

in Moscow (1938).

References

External links

* * Eric DeLony
Context for World Heritage Bridges
icomos.org 1996
Eyebar suspension
bridgehunter.com
Chain Bridges and Welsh Iron
engineering-timelines.com {{authority control