Every Kind of Bridge Explained in 15 Minutes

See some cool bridges, learn some new words!

Errata: At 9:25, Edmonton is in Alberta, not Saskatchewan.

Without listing every bridge, there’s no true way to list every type of bridge. There’s too much nuance, creativity, and mixing and matching designs. But that’s part of the joy of paying attention to bridges. Once you understand the basics, you can start to puzzle out the more interesting details.

Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady Hillhouse. We have new videos posted regularly, so please subscribe for updates. If you enjoyed the video, hit that ‘like’ button, give us a comment, or watch another of our videos!

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DISCLAIMER
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This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

SPECIAL THANKS
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This video is sponsored by Ground News.
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Shutterstock, Pond5, and Videoblocks.
Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Video by Grady Hillhouse
Edited by Wesley Crump
Produced by Ralph Crewe
Graphics by Nebula Studios

[muenstercheese]

"Oh, you like bridges? Name every bridge." "O.K."

[gregorshovlin]

This is genuinely some of the most peak YouTube content I’ve ever seen. Educational, well-produced, succinct, and written by someone with experience in the field. Keep up the good work!

[chr.s]

The best thing that can happen. You have a bad day, you open YouTube and see "Every Kind of Bridge Explained in 15 Minutes - 3 minutes ago"

[fortheloveofcake]

The lentil trivia fact blew my mind more than anything in this video

[SoulDuckling]

Me playing poly bridge: "Y'know I'm something of a bridge engineer myself".

[chetlordremmert]

I cannot thank you enough for choosing to work with sponsors who you believe your audience may be more inclined to be interested in rather than just taking any sponsor. This shows incredible integrity and I have great respect and admiration for what you do and the impact you have on our global community. Thank you so much.

[AndrewMukon]

At my previous engineering company, I created a short presentation about the component of bridges, mostly to tell the other engineers who did not work on bridges, such as a drainage engineer or traffic engineers, and had a section on the types of bridges. My final category was simply titled, "complex combination or as we bridge guys say, headaches"

[gatoalfa]

I appreciate you adding the name and location of each bridge to the video. Thanks!

[plackt]

3:36 i heard what you did there!
“… to keep the structural elements truss-worthy”

[santoast]

The Steel Bridge in Portland Oregon is a thrught truss double deck vertical lift bridge. The upper deck carries cars and light rail, the lower deck pedestrians, bikes and freight trains, oh and Amtrak. But what makes it SUPER cool is that it is the ONLY working bridge of its type in the world (theres one in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania I think but it doesnt lift anymore) and is unique in that the two levels lift independantly of each other!
Its also the second oldest vertical lift bridge in America, after another Portland Bridge, the Hawthorn!
Certainly an impressive bridge, and one that I often go out of my way just to have the joy of driving across

[tres]

You know what this needs....

A Bridge

[okz]

I think this is one of the only few channels who faithfully sticks to the actual content and serve the purpose of title and video, no rubbish just simple plain 100% pure knowledge.

[The_Allstar]

Now that's what I call a proper Bridge Review

[LuciusTheFox]

As a native Pittsburgher, I recognized every single bridge that's in Pittsburgh that came on the screen. If you love bridges you can absolutely eat your heart out, so to speak, in Pittsburgh! You gotta love the City of Bridges!

[upsilonalpha]

So much to talk about! It feels like this video was abridged.

[fredsalter]

Exceptional video! Super high quality.

[tumbledryshoes]

It feels like someone pulled a "Oh you like civil engineering? Name every kind of bridge" and this was Grady's response.

[FltCaptAlan]

Here's a drinking game for you: take a shot every time a bridge from the Pittsburgh area is displayed in this video

[jmonsted]

Just finished "Engineering in plain sight" and passed it on to my niece. Thank you!

[adamfisher]

As a bridge design engineer in Pittsburgh, this gave all the warm and fuzzies. I keep your book right next to my AISC manual👷‍♂️