The
masonryarch bridges of stone or brick are the most genuine of arch bridges, some lasting a thousand years. Because they are made of worked stone, there is a slight chance they might even stand without mortar, like the
Pont du Gard aqueduct. Yet arch bridges using rough hewn stones like Changhong Bridge need mortar to stand. Arches with a core of reinforced concrete covered by facade stone for decoration are not to be included in this list, the load-bearing part of the arch should be cut stone or brick, or as follows, unreinforced concrete.
In a closed spandrel stone arch bridge the hollow space can be filled with
rubble and loose material. It can also be filled with concrete, in which case the filling itself become able to bear load in addition to the load carried by the ring of
voussoirs. If the voussoir stones are thin they can not take a lot of weight so instead it is the concrete filling that becomes the structural part of the arch. The next step is to remove the voussoir stones completely, or only use them as facade stones. An unreinforced concrete arch is technically a masonry arch that use only very small stones, that is the aggregate of the
concrete, sand and gravel. Such an arch would not stand without mortar.
Some modern bridges are built masonry style with precast concrete blocks, like
Gladesville Bridge that has a span of 305 metres (1000 ft). These types are not in this list because their blocks are most likely made of reinforced concrete, that may make the assembled arch to have more in common with a modern reinforced concrete arch than a stone masonry arch.
Building new masonry arch bridges today is a solely
Chinese business. There are 18 stone arch bridges with spans exceeding 100 m (330 ft).[1] There are probably several dozens of stone arches exceeding 40m in the
Fujian province only.[2] Almost all bridges were built after 1950.
This list contains the longest masonry arch spans ever built being at least 50 metres (164 ft).
^Hu, C-W; Hu; Liu; Zhou (2001). "The longest span stone arch bridge in the world".
ARCH'01(
PDF). Paris: Presses des Ponts. p. 667.
ISBN9782859783471. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
^"Shanxi Danhe Bridge". Arch-bridges.cn. College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, China. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2017.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link)
The
masonryarch bridges of stone or brick are the most genuine of arch bridges, some lasting a thousand years. Because they are made of worked stone, there is a slight chance they might even stand without mortar, like the
Pont du Gard aqueduct. Yet arch bridges using rough hewn stones like Changhong Bridge need mortar to stand. Arches with a core of reinforced concrete covered by facade stone for decoration are not to be included in this list, the load-bearing part of the arch should be cut stone or brick, or as follows, unreinforced concrete.
In a closed spandrel stone arch bridge the hollow space can be filled with
rubble and loose material. It can also be filled with concrete, in which case the filling itself become able to bear load in addition to the load carried by the ring of
voussoirs. If the voussoir stones are thin they can not take a lot of weight so instead it is the concrete filling that becomes the structural part of the arch. The next step is to remove the voussoir stones completely, or only use them as facade stones. An unreinforced concrete arch is technically a masonry arch that use only very small stones, that is the aggregate of the
concrete, sand and gravel. Such an arch would not stand without mortar.
Some modern bridges are built masonry style with precast concrete blocks, like
Gladesville Bridge that has a span of 305 metres (1000 ft). These types are not in this list because their blocks are most likely made of reinforced concrete, that may make the assembled arch to have more in common with a modern reinforced concrete arch than a stone masonry arch.
Building new masonry arch bridges today is a solely
Chinese business. There are 18 stone arch bridges with spans exceeding 100 m (330 ft).[1] There are probably several dozens of stone arches exceeding 40m in the
Fujian province only.[2] Almost all bridges were built after 1950.
This list contains the longest masonry arch spans ever built being at least 50 metres (164 ft).
^Hu, C-W; Hu; Liu; Zhou (2001). "The longest span stone arch bridge in the world".
ARCH'01(
PDF). Paris: Presses des Ponts. p. 667.
ISBN9782859783471. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
^"Shanxi Danhe Bridge". Arch-bridges.cn. College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, China. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2017.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link)